Do you choose automatic or manual gear when buying a car? For most domestic consumers, this problem does not need to be entangled, and the choice of automatic transmission has almost become the most basic option. According to statistics, as of 2021, the sales volume of manual gears in the new car market has accounted for less than 20%, automatic gears account for the mainstream, and niche manual new cars only exist in some low-end models below 100,000 yuan, or a very small number of sports models that pursue driving pleasure.
Not only that, the popularity of automatic transmissions has a trend of further acceleration, the trend of automobile electrification is unstoppable, the penetration rate of new energy models at the end of 2021 once exceeded 20%, and under the guidance of the "double carbon" goal, new energy vehicles will continue to maintain rapid expansion. Whether it is a pure electric model or a hybrid model, the new energy model is a complete automatic transmission model, even the entry-level model is the same. For example, the sales champion Wuling Hongguang MINI EV is only an electric vehicle priced at no more than 50,000 yuan, which means that even in the low-end market, manual transmission is no longer an inevitable option, and in a few years, manual transmission models below 100,000 yuan will become scarce.
The proportion of manual new cars is getting lower and lower, it is reasonable to say that everyone is enough to test a C2 automatic driver's license, but the fact is not so, at present, many prospective car owners still choose to learn C1 manual driver's license, the reason is probably so several, one is the inertia of thinking, the mainland automotive industry is developing too rapidly, consumers on the automatic gear ratio of the rapid increase in the environment perception is not deep enough, always feel that there are many manual block models. Second, it is believed that there is no harm in learning more than one manual transmission technique, and it is not known that with the disappearance of the future manual transmission model, the driving skills cannot be practiced, and the gold content of the C1 driver's license will be greatly reduced. The third and most important reason is because the C1 driver's license tuition is low, of course, you can also understand that learning C2 driver's license is more expensive than C1 driver's license tuition, and the price gap of a few hundred yuan makes the balance of choice finally tilt to C1 driver's license.
Compared with the C1 driver's license, the C2 driver's license has many advantages. First of all, it is simpler to learn, the practice time is shorter, eliminating the frequent shift and oil separation cooperation, the driving difficulty is lower, more labor-saving and relaxed, especially for girls, manual transmission is often a barrier for novices, and it is more difficult to operate than boys. Secondly, according to the new regulations for the driving test released in June 2021, the difficulty of the C2 driver's license test is also lower, eliminating the project of the slope and the probability of hanging up the subject is lower.
From the perspective of the driving school, the C2 driver's license has a short learning time, the training cost is lower, the test is easier, and the tuition fee should be lower than the C1 driver's license. The fact is just the opposite, many driving schools come up with the reason that the price of automatic train cars is higher than that of manual gears, which seems reasonable, but it is also untenable, taking common training models as an example: Bora automatic gear is 10,000-20,000 yuan higher than the price of manual naked cars; The price of Elantra automatics and manual naked cars is basically the same. For a coach car with a low price and a ten-year service life, the cost difference between automatic and manual transmission is very small, and it is far-fetched to use it as a reason.
In summary, the reason why the pricing is unreasonable is because it is difficult for driving schools to give up the dividends brought by the early pricing strategy, even if the times have changed, the future trend is also clear, and there are still many driving schools that are unwilling to easily give up this part of the profits that can be earned.
Fortunately, there is always no shortage of reformers who have broken the inherent pattern of interests, such as the driving training leader, as the only driving training listed company in China, oriental fashion, took the lead in firing the first shot of the reasonable positioning of C2 driver's license tuition. The latest release of the 2022 Beijing School Car Price List by Oriental Fashion conveys an important message: the tuition fee of C2 automatic gear is generally 200 yuan cheaper than that of C1 manual gear of similar classes, and some automatic class types can also enjoy a discount of 100 yuan. Compared with other driving schools C2 tuition is several hundred yuan more expensive than C1, one after another, the difference is very considerable.
The ice-breaking move of the Oriental Fashion Driving School will set off a huge wave in the domestic driving training market, as a forerunner to break the inherent interests, dare to open the knife to the unreasonable pricing system, which is a kind of courage and responsibility that dares to be the first, is to follow the trend, but also to put the interests of students in the first place.
For students who are ready to learn a driver's license, it is even more necessary to clearly examine their actual needs, the opportunity to contact manual transmission in the future is getting less and less, choosing a C1 driver's license is not only difficult to learn, the exam is also difficult, and there is a high probability of buying an automatic gear model after completing the study. This time, Oriental Fashion took the lead in adjusting the tuition fee of the automatic gear, which will also dispel more people's choice concerns, so that the balance of decision-making will tilt to the C2 driver's license, and with the follow-up of more domestic driving schools in the future, it will also accelerate the pace of C2 driver's license entering the mainstream.
Image from Oriental Fashion Driving School