Jeet, I don't see any significant problem with AMT in the hills. You can always shift to manual mode to go up steep inclines in first gear, though that might not be called for. Judicious use of the hand-brake before starting on a gradient helps a lot. Do not dis-engage the hand brake till you feel the car rearing to move under some accelerator input. On steep gradients my guess is that the car will stay in first gear and not shift up on auto.
While I have not taken my Celerio to the hills (I use the Mobilio) I know for a fact that Maruti tests its cars quite rigorously in the hills. I presume Tata does the same.
The Celerio manual mode shifts down automatically when needed but never shifts up on its own. That is done manually. Useful feature to use engine braking on descents. If you put the car in first gear during a descent it will stay in first till you decide to shift to second. Now, in second gear, if you were to apply brakes to decelerate, the car will automatically shift down to first at some point and will stay in that till you manually shift up to second.
I wouldn't say the AMT has a mind of its own; rather it has a different logic from a regular auto-box. This logic wouldn't be immediately obvious to a casual driver, only to an enthusiast.
While I have not taken my Celerio to the hills (I use the Mobilio) I know for a fact that Maruti tests its cars quite rigorously in the hills. I presume Tata does the same.
The Celerio manual mode shifts down automatically when needed but never shifts up on its own. That is done manually. Useful feature to use engine braking on descents. If you put the car in first gear during a descent it will stay in first till you decide to shift to second. Now, in second gear, if you were to apply brakes to decelerate, the car will automatically shift down to first at some point and will stay in that till you manually shift up to second.
I wouldn't say the AMT has a mind of its own; rather it has a different logic from a regular auto-box. This logic wouldn't be immediately obvious to a casual driver, only to an enthusiast.