rev up your engines, today I'm going to
answer the question, which car manufacturer has the worst automatic
transmissions, now over the years various manufacturers have made some pretty
horrible automatic transmission designs for example up to 1973 GM had their
two-speed Powerglide automatic it was a pretty basic transmission it only had
two speeds, low gear and high gear that was all that it had and they got
known as slipping slides because that's what they do, you step on the gas and it
would slip and slip and slip and then finally grab and then when you tried to
accelerate hard it would slip a lot it weren't the greatest transmissions in
the world, but they stopped making those in 1973 now if we get into more modern
times the Ford Explorers with the 5R55W 5-speed automatic
transmission that they made for over a decade that was a very weak transmission
that broke as they aged, as they went to these more speeds that was a 5-speed
automatic they didn't get it down pat and as they age they would break, I had
more customers get rid of them because the automatic transmissions went out on
those explorers called them exploders because the transmissions would explode and
they wouldn't drive anymore but then we come even more to the present the honda
odyssey second generations that was 1999 to 2004 those were horrendous automatic
transmissions, now Honda of course started out as a motorcycle company, motorcycles
make great standard transmissions they only made one Honda automatic transmission in
a motorcycle on a 750 it was a pile of junk, their cars just always have
somewhat weak transmissions for Honda but the Odyssey from 1999 to 2004 it was
the worst one they ever made, it got so bad that I had a bunch of customers
actually get free transmissions from Honda they had kind of a secret warranty, and
when I told them I said your transmissions out and it cost so much
money I said, but they got this kind of secret warranty to take it to Honda
and they all got free automatic transmissions put in brand new ones,
because they were so poorly, made you couldn't really rebuild the thing if you
try to rebuild them they had the same flaws as the old ones, they just got brand
new ones and even today I'm still suspect to those Honda Odysseys I'd
never advise somebody to buy one and if we go to even more modern cars, take it
2007 Volkswagen new Beedle that was by far the worst
transmission that volkswagen ever put in any of their cars, they had a class-action
suit against them, but politics being what they are in the United States at
that time the government doesn't really do much about a lot of recalls anymore
they try to let them slide and oh they said, well you can sue them under state
laws because they're basically trying to give corporations a break the people
that are in power these days, they shouldn't recall them but Volkswagen hey
they fought it tooth and nail and then strangely enough they get caught with a
finger to pie with a diesel stuff a few years later, so you know not the most
trustworthy people in the world, but those new beetle transmissions whoa I
had customers and with them they find out, oh it's gonna cost me six grand have
another transmission put in some of them went out at 40,000 miles, they were
terrific pieces of junk which is kind of amazing because those new beetles were
reasonably light car wasn't like they were pulling a heavy vehicle they were
just poorly designed and poorly built but then we come to the most modern
times of who I really believe make the worst automatic transmissions in the
world, Fiat Chrysler used to be just Chrysler but then Fiat a not that hot
company merged with Chrysler a not that hot company and now they make really not hot
cars, if anyone's ever owned one of those Chrysler minivans there are automatic
transmissions they were amongst the worst thing anybody ever made,
I had one customer strangely enough he owned five of them and each single one of
them the automatic transmission went out on, who would buy five of them after you
have four of them break down you know and Chrysler they continued to keep
making stuff like that, in 2017 there was a recall from Fiat Chrysler for one
point four eight million ram trucks for automatic transmission problems, and
their nine speed ZF transmission that to use a lot of their vehicles, a lot of the
jeeps and different vehicles, that is one of the worst transmissions that Chrysler
ever made too, it was actually recalled they said their fix was a software
update even though they admit they had wiring problems, figure that one out, you
got a wiring problem not just fix the wiring let's reprogram the software because it
would cost a lot of money to rewire them all but it's nothing to plug in a
computer and just reflash the software and from my experience
with those transmissions those nine speed ZF that software fix doesn't really fix
them I've had customers do that they're still shifting poorly it's just a
stopgap cheap way to try to get them to work okay so they're not under warranty
anymore and then of course they'll say oh you need a new transmission and
charge you a fortune to replace something that they didn't build right
in the first place so the winner or you might say loser in
this case who has the worst automatic transmissions in the world in their
cars today, I would have to say it's Fiat Chrysler which when you think about it
only makes sense, you get a company Chrysler not known for high quality
being bought up by Fiat certainly not known for high quality or great designs that
lasts over time, you're not gonna make a merger of two negatives make a positive
you know, this isn't math this is the real world of cars, where negative times
negative is extremely negative not positive, so if you never want to miss
another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell!
