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> The transmission can't go out. Are transmission failures really that common? In nearly fifty years of driving and owning eight different cars I've never had

> The transmission can't go out. Are transmission failures really that common? In nearly fifty years of driving and owning eight different cars I've never had a transmission failure. One of the cars (Volvo Amazon estate car) did 350k miles including the previous owner rallying it for a couple of years. Apart from fixing a leaking radiator when I bought it I never had any problems with the motor or gearbox. We scrapped it just because my wife wanted a newer more comfortable car.

chipsa 3y ago
The one car that I sold because it died on me was due to transmission failure. I’m also at 8, and do not expect either of my current cars to ever have a transmission failure.
toast0 3y ago
Transmissions tend to have a lot of things that move around. Gears might be ok for a long time by themselves, but when there's gear selection, you get extra wear and tear when things don't meet up quite right. And everything gets hot, so you need lubricant/cooling and that can get gunked up by the wear and tear... And then sometimes things aren't built as designed. The ford HF35 hybrid transmission should be pretty reliable as designed, but many of them were built with bearings (or something) that went bad, leading to an early salvage date for many C-Maxes.
nehal3m 3y ago
I had a 2002 Saab 9-5 Sedan automatic transmission blow out on the day I bought it. ODO said about 300k km (190k miles give or take). The dealer replaced the car with a younger 9-5 Wagon with lower mileage so I'm kinda glad it did. That 2002 model is supposed to be a lemon transmission-wise though (even so, 300k seems decent as far as lifespans go).
glial 3y ago
I had a Chrysler van and had to replace the transmission twice. Glad to hear you've had better luck than I.
- jdofaz 3y ago
  their minivans are notorious for transmission problems
  - bombcar 3y ago
    There was (is?) a time where if you replaced the tranny fluid with anything BUT the exact Chrysler one, it would kill it dead pretty quick. Some people would buy up minivans with dead transmissions at 80k miles or whenever the quick lube place told them to flush the tranny, then clean it out and put the right fluid in and it'd work fine again.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    My mom didn't even get one home from the dealership when it seized up on the highway. Something about the solenoid pack but don't take my word for it, I was all of 8.
SmellTheGlove 3y ago
I’ve owned 3 cars in my life, one of them driven into the ground, one high mileage and given away when we moved to the city, and the third we still own. A transmission is the one thing I’ve never had to fix. Now that’s just me. Obviously transmissions do fail, but I’d bet in aggregate, it’s not nearly the most pressing issue. But it is the second most complicated set of moving parts in the car, so when it goes, it’s not cheap. All that said, electric cars really shine in city driving. No transmission to go, and regenerative braking to save the pads. It’s valid to call it out if that’s your use case like these Amazon trucks.
- LeafItAlone 3y ago
  A lot of the major cars makers have had years of bad transmissions. Just Google “ transmission failure class action” with manufacturer names and you’ll see how many settle. But not all years and not at the same time across manufacturers, so it’s easy to miss bad ones.
Two4 3y ago
I come from a country where most people drive manual transmissions, and the rule of thumb is that you're replacing the clutch at 150-250k kilometers. Automatics have torque converters instead of clutches, so that's probably a non-issue. I do imagine that they're much more integrated, and without a sacrificial clutch plate to take load shocks, the entire system will give out after a certain distance. This is all conjecture though.
- bombcar 3y ago
  From my experience I've never had a tranny fail that wasn't beat to death unmercifully. Clutches wear out, and it is possible to wear out an automatic transmissions' clutches, but I've never had it happen. Every car I've sent to the junkyard has had a working transmission.
- fragmede 3y ago
  Automatics used to have torque converters. These days they've got multiple clutches are are mechanically more efficient and have more gears than a manual transmission. I still like my manual transmission car though.
- thrill 3y ago
  Sounds about right. When my '96 BMW 328 finally met the pothole from hell, I was on my 5th clutch at a little over 500,000 miles.
  - 486sx33 3y ago
    My 1990 Nissan pickup made 380,000 km on its original clutch. 2.4 liters of 4 cylinders totally underpowered will do that. At least a starter every 100k and alternator every 150k though !
jerlam 3y ago
You probably don't make as many deliveries as an Amazon driver, who are constantly stopping and parking and starting and backing out of tight spots.
RankingMember 3y ago
A bad transmission design can really leave a mark, particularly when the company using it tries to sweep it under the rug. Talk to owners of vehicles with Ford's "Powershift" dual-clutch automatic transmission and you'll hear nothing but horror stories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_PowerShift_transmission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_PowerShift_transmission
stetrain 3y ago
In my anecdotal experience I've found it to be not uncommon in work trucks used for commercial duty over 200k miles. Not sure about in the delivery van space. It's a different level of wear and tear than a normal commuter passenger vehicle. I think the bigger savings on a delivery van would be brakes. In constant stop-start driving using the motor for regenerative braking is both an efficiency saver and reduces wear and tear on the mechanical brakes.
- fragmede 3y ago
  "efficiency saver" kinda downplays the fact that the energy is being recovered which was previously just wasted. Not throwing all that energy away is material at Amazon scale.
hughesjj 3y ago
My Chevy cavalier died due to a transmission issue at around 125k miles. The Schuylkill expressway in rush hour didn't help. Very clonky shifts near the end and it would stall out when trying to find the right gear.
0x457 3y ago
My dad had to replace the transmission in his last two mustangs twice in each. It never fully failed, but it was a nightmare to drive.
tw04 3y ago
You never owned a Chrysler product, did you? They were notorious for taking a transmission from a much smaller car or truck and putting it into a bigger one because on average they would last the life of the 3-yr/36k mile warranty, and not much longer. Same with things like shocks and struts and springs. GM on the other hand went the exact opposite direction most of the time and put an overengineered heavy duty transmission with maybe slightly cheaper internals into their smaller vehicles.
- therealcamino 3y ago
  > GM on the other hand went the exact opposite direction most of the time and put an overengineered heavy duty transmission with maybe slightly cheaper internals into their smaller vehicles. Eh, the owners of 80's era Chevy Celebrities/Pontiac 6000s/Oldsmobile Cieras/Buick Centuries might like a word.
SkyPuncher 3y ago
They were, but not really any more. The problems have largely been engineered out. Transmissions are tough because they endure a lot of extreme forces. Shift points have the risk of slamming components together.

chipsa 3y ago

The one car that I sold because it died on me was due to transmission failure. I’m also at 8, and do not expect either of my current cars to ever have a transmission failure.

toast0 3y ago

Transmissions tend to have a lot of things that move around. Gears might be ok for a long time by themselves, but when there's gear selection, you get extra wear and tear when things don't meet up quite right. And everything gets hot, so you need lubricant/cooling and that can get gunked up by the wear and tear... And then sometimes things aren't built as designed. The ford HF35 hybrid transmission should be pretty reliable as designed, but many of them were built with bearings (or something) that went bad, leading to an early salvage date for many C-Maxes.

nehal3m 3y ago

I had a 2002 Saab 9-5 Sedan automatic transmission blow out on the day I bought it. ODO said about 300k km (190k miles give or take). The dealer replaced the car with a younger 9-5 Wagon with lower mileage so I'm kinda glad it did. That 2002 model is supposed to be a lemon transmission-wise though (even so, 300k seems decent as far as lifespans go).

glial 3y ago

I had a Chrysler van and had to replace the transmission twice. Glad to hear you've had better luck than I.

jdofaz 3y ago
their minivans are notorious for transmission problems
- bombcar 3y ago
  There was (is?) a time where if you replaced the tranny fluid with anything BUT the exact Chrysler one, it would kill it dead pretty quick. Some people would buy up minivans with dead transmissions at 80k miles or whenever the quick lube place told them to flush the tranny, then clean it out and put the right fluid in and it'd work fine again.
- Arrath 3y ago
  My mom didn't even get one home from the dealership when it seized up on the highway. Something about the solenoid pack but don't take my word for it, I was all of 8.

SmellTheGlove 3y ago

I’ve owned 3 cars in my life, one of them driven into the ground, one high mileage and given away when we moved to the city, and the third we still own. A transmission is the one thing I’ve never had to fix. Now that’s just me. Obviously transmissions do fail, but I’d bet in aggregate, it’s not nearly the most pressing issue. But it is the second most complicated set of moving parts in the car, so when it goes, it’s not cheap. All that said, electric cars really shine in city driving. No transmission to go, and regenerative braking to save the pads. It’s valid to call it out if that’s your use case like these Amazon trucks.

LeafItAlone 3y ago
A lot of the major cars makers have had years of bad transmissions. Just Google “ transmission failure class action” with manufacturer names and you’ll see how many settle. But not all years and not at the same time across manufacturers, so it’s easy to miss bad ones.

Two4 3y ago

I come from a country where most people drive manual transmissions, and the rule of thumb is that you're replacing the clutch at 150-250k kilometers. Automatics have torque converters instead of clutches, so that's probably a non-issue. I do imagine that they're much more integrated, and without a sacrificial clutch plate to take load shocks, the entire system will give out after a certain distance. This is all conjecture though.

bombcar 3y ago
From my experience I've never had a tranny fail that wasn't beat to death unmercifully. Clutches wear out, and it is possible to wear out an automatic transmissions' clutches, but I've never had it happen. Every car I've sent to the junkyard has had a working transmission.
fragmede 3y ago
Automatics used to have torque converters. These days they've got multiple clutches are are mechanically more efficient and have more gears than a manual transmission. I still like my manual transmission car though.
thrill 3y ago
Sounds about right. When my '96 BMW 328 finally met the pothole from hell, I was on my 5th clutch at a little over 500,000 miles.
- 486sx33 3y ago
  My 1990 Nissan pickup made 380,000 km on its original clutch. 2.4 liters of 4 cylinders totally underpowered will do that. At least a starter every 100k and alternator every 150k though !

jerlam 3y ago

You probably don't make as many deliveries as an Amazon driver, who are constantly stopping and parking and starting and backing out of tight spots.

RankingMember 3y ago

A bad transmission design can really leave a mark, particularly when the company using it tries to sweep it under the rug. Talk to owners of vehicles with Ford's "Powershift" dual-clutch automatic transmission and you'll hear nothing but horror stories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_PowerShift_transmission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_PowerShift_transmission

stetrain 3y ago

In my anecdotal experience I've found it to be not uncommon in work trucks used for commercial duty over 200k miles. Not sure about in the delivery van space. It's a different level of wear and tear than a normal commuter passenger vehicle. I think the bigger savings on a delivery van would be brakes. In constant stop-start driving using the motor for regenerative braking is both an efficiency saver and reduces wear and tear on the mechanical brakes.

fragmede 3y ago
"efficiency saver" kinda downplays the fact that the energy is being recovered which was previously just wasted. Not throwing all that energy away is material at Amazon scale.

hughesjj 3y ago

My Chevy cavalier died due to a transmission issue at around 125k miles. The Schuylkill expressway in rush hour didn't help. Very clonky shifts near the end and it would stall out when trying to find the right gear.

0x457 3y ago

My dad had to replace the transmission in his last two mustangs twice in each. It never fully failed, but it was a nightmare to drive.

tw04 3y ago

You never owned a Chrysler product, did you? They were notorious for taking a transmission from a much smaller car or truck and putting it into a bigger one because on average they would last the life of the 3-yr/36k mile warranty, and not much longer. Same with things like shocks and struts and springs. GM on the other hand went the exact opposite direction most of the time and put an overengineered heavy duty transmission with maybe slightly cheaper internals into their smaller vehicles.

therealcamino 3y ago
> GM on the other hand went the exact opposite direction most of the time and put an overengineered heavy duty transmission with maybe slightly cheaper internals into their smaller vehicles. Eh, the owners of 80's era Chevy Celebrities/Pontiac 6000s/Oldsmobile Cieras/Buick Centuries might like a word.

SkyPuncher 3y ago

They were, but not really any more. The problems have largely been engineered out. Transmissions are tough because they endure a lot of extreme forces. Shift points have the risk of slamming components together.