Chrysler PowerFlite transmission Chrysler PowerFlite transmission PowerFlite is a two-speed automatic transmission engineered and produced by the Chrysler Corporation and used in their passenger cars from 1954 to 1961. Production began in late 1953; despite the launch of Chrysler's three-speed TorqueFlite automatic in 1956, the simple and durable PowerFlite remained available on Plymouths and Dodges through the 1961 model year, after which it was discontinued. Chrysler was the last of Detroit's Big Three automakers to introduce a fully automatic transmission, some 14 years after General Motors had introduced Oldsmobile's Hydramatic automatic transmission and nearly three years after Ford's Ford-O-Matic. Packard's Ultramatic debuted in
General Motors Firebird immobile, trapped in an insufferable freeway traffic jam. In a flashforward to the future, they are cruising at high speed in air conditioned comfort along an automated freeway (with no other vehicles to be seen) in their turbine-powered Firebird. The movie's concept (now more than fifty years old) was that this future was not unreasonably remote, and General Motors would provide it—and yet it is consistent with current projections (2008) for future automotive travel using electronic vehicle control and improved highway infrastructure. General Motors Firebird The General Motors Firebird comprises a quartet of prototype cars that General Motors engineered for