The latest recipient of this new technology is Honda?s baby Jazz, which now comes equipped with an F1-style gearshift. Called the CVT-7, the new transmission is operated by two rocker switches on the steering wheel to shift up and down the gears.

As its name suggests, it is a CVT gearbox with seven gears, which can be operated as a conventional auto ?box with ?normal? and ?sports? ratio programmes alongside the steering wheel mounted buttons.

Best of all, the 48.7mpg Jazz CVT-7 is only 2% less fuel-efficient than it?s manual counterpart. Typically, automatic superminis are between 8 and 16% less efficient than manual versions.

The CVT-7 will be available as a £900 option on the 1.4 i-DSE SE and 1.4 i-DSE SE Sport models