The automatic car has never been as popular as its manual counterpart but as automatic transmission becomes more sophisticated and economical that could soon change. Manual cars have over 100 years of history but what are the origins of the automatic? The first fully-automatic car that was mass produced was the Oldsmobile in 1940. The automatic gearbox set-up was known as the Hydra-matic and gave you four speeds and reverse. The vehicle was so successful that Cadillac and Pontiac adopted this gearbox and then sold to other manufacturers including Rolls Royce and Bentley in England.

In the 1950s Mercedes designed their version of Oldsmobile’s Hydra-matic which used the four-speed transmission but with a different design. Some of this new gearbox’s features are still being used today. Improvements were then made in 1956 by Cadillac, Pontiac and Oldsmobile. Originally the ‘reverse’ gear was used when the car was stationary but the familiar “park” gear was included in the improvements. Improvements also meant for smoother transitions when the car changed gear. By the time the late 1960s came along the favoured gearbox was the three-speed unit with a torque converter. Prior to that the norm had been fluid-coupling four-speed gearboxes and gearboxes with two-speed transmission but they were largely obsolete by the end of the 1960s.

In fact, the torque converter four-speed gearbox reigned supreme until the 1980s when something known as the over-drive transmission got introduced to the industry with four forward speeds or more. This greatly improved the fuel economy. By now engine computers were becoming more common and powerful. During the late 1980s and early 1990s these onboard computers were controlling more and more of the valve functionality.

This meant the gear shifts in both manuals and automatics became more precise and automatic cars had greater performance. In 2002 the first automatic six-speed transmission arrived with the BMW 7-Series and E65. In 2003 the Mercedes 7G-Tronic was launched as the world’s very first seven-speed car in production. This inspired Toyota to launch the world’s first eight-speed gearbox in 2007, available on the Lexus LS 460. Modern cars allow drivers to choose between a totally automatic experience, the classic manual gearbox and now there is semi-automatic where the driver changes gear manually but with no clutch. There are also cars (usually production sports cars) with tip-tronic gear paddles by the steering wheels, meaning you can change gear with your fingertips.

By the late 1960s most of the fluid-coupling four-speeds and two-speed transmissions had disappeared in favor of three-speed units with torque converters. By this time too you would also be able to take advantage of an automatic car rental with automatics now common place in the fleets of Avis and Hertz.

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The first mass produced vehicles with a fully automatic gearbox was Oldsmobile’s 1940 models. This was called the Hyrda-matic and was exclusive to Oldsmobile and provided four speeds and reverse.

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