Manual and automatic transmissions

[laepelba]

I heard a native Spanish speaker say that what I would call a car with manual transmission (or "stick shift") is called in Spanish: velocidad

I'm looking in some of my dictionaries (both bilingual AND Spanish-Spanish dictionaries) and don't see any real definition that refers to a car with a manual transmission as una "velocidad". Although I DO see indication that this word refers to a "gear". Right? So I see that they are related....

What are different regions' ways of referring to "automatic transmission" and "manual transmission"?

Thank you!!

[aleCcowaN]

caja de cambios ("transmisión") manual o automática

acá llamamos cambios lo que los doblajes mexicanos llaman "velocidad"

caja de cuarta = ¿transmisión de cuatro velocidades?
caja de quinta = ¿transmisión de cinco velocidades?

[laepelba]

Thanks, Alec. What I find interesting, though is that neither WordReference.com nor the RAE seem to have an indication that velocidad is used colloquially to refer to a stick shift. They typically have stuff like that...

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Thanks, Alec. What I find interesting, though is that neither WordReference.com nor the RAE seem to have an indication that velocidad is used colloquially to refer to a stick shift. They typically have stuff like that...

Velocidad is not used for "caja de cambio"

When somebody says that a car has/is of 5 velocidades it means that it is a "caja de cinco (velocidades). (5 gears)

[aleCcowaN]

Yes, "velocidad" is each possible torque conversion (a gear), not the transmission itself. I think in Spain are called "marchas".

Spain, Argentina = caja de cambios
Mexico = caja de velocidades

manual / automática