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
History of Chrysler "controversial." In 1998 Daimler-Benz and Chrysler had formed a 50–50 partnership. Chrysler Corporation then was legally renamed DaimlerChrysler Motors Company LLC, while its total operations began doing business as Chrysler Group. This was initially declared to be a "merger of equals", but it became evident that once Chrysler Chairman and CEO Bob Eaton retired, that Daimler would take majority control. Other executives like President Thomas T. Stallkamp, once considered the heir-apparent of Eaton, and Vice-Chairman Robert Lutz were soon forced out. Eaton, Stallkamp, and Lutz had been described as the "triumvirate" responsible for Chrysler's successes in the late 1990s, with