CTV reports that General Motors is closing its transmission plant in Windsor, Ontario by 2010. The plant currently employs 1400 workers producing ye olde four-speed automatic transmission. GM Canada's Stew Low offered an explanation that made no mention of a warning shot over the Canadian Workers Union (CAW) bow, in advance of contract negotiations. "With the dynamic of our changing portfolio, there just wasn't a new transmission to put into there." Translation: four-speeds are so 1939 and you guys cost too much. The announcement caused some political scuffles. The provincial (left-leaning) NDP party implored Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to step in and stop the rampant job losses in the automotive industry. As The Big 2.8 have shuttered plants and moved production to cheaper jurisdictions, investments from Asian automakers have not risen to produce employment break-even. It's a shame too, since Windsor was on a roll. On the plus side, given Ontario's more diversified economy, it appears it can shelter a contraction of the NAFTA-zone's automotive industry with less pain than Michigan. But, unless a career at GM provides a good stepping stone to working on Bay Street, that won't soothe any of the CAW members' worries.
Find Reviews by Make:
A nitpick: 4-speed automatics were a big novelty in the early 80’s. In the 60’s, many cars still had two-speed Powerglides and the likes of it.
A four-speed is actually quite adequate for small cheap cars. Many a corrola from the 90’s had three-speeds with no converter lockup, and most of them are still moving people back and forth quite fine.
My bad. Our resident historian, Paul Niedermeyer, informs me that GM’s four-speed tranny hit the scene in 1980.
Text amended.
Thats makes 2400 jobs lost in 3 weeks.Ontario has couged up 1/2 a billion.I’m no fan of the NDP but they do have a point here.
Buzz has set a deadline,of May 14 for an early settlement.After all our contract doesn’t expire till Sept.
Keep your eyes and ears on the news Samir,things might change real fast.
AR, RF, Are you sure GM had no four-speeds before 1980?
A college friend, long, long ago, claimed he had a late ’50’s / early ’60’s GM with X-frame and a four-speed auto. I was surprised (Dad had PowerGlides) but he stuck to his story.
Our second car, a ’92 Corolla LSX, has a 3-speed slushbox. I despise it, but the car runs like a champion and begs for another 150K km to be put on it.
I think GM needs to be careful. The more it withdraws from Canadian manufacturing, the less “domestic” it becomes here. A Canadian-built Honda, Hyundai or Toyota (pets his Corolla nicely) is more of a Canadian car, after all, than a US-built GM.
G M had a 4 speed automatic in the early 1940 s
Those were the early fluid coupling transmissions. About as efficient as the two-speed powerglides that replaced them in the 50’s, only to be surpassed by the mighty 3-speed onslaught. For the next 30 years, 3-speeds ruled the world.
Well, according to Wikipedia, the Oldsmobile division began offering the Hydra-matic Drive 4-speed automatic transmission in the fall of 1939 for the 1940 model year. It became an option for 1941 Cadillacs and was installed in some 1942 Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs before auto production stopped for WW II.
During the war the Hydra-Matic found its way into a variety of military vehicles, including the M5 Stuart tank (where 2 of them were mated to twin Cadillac V8 engines) and the M24 Chaffee light tank. The extensive wartime service greatly improved the postwar engineering of the transmission, which was subsequently advertised as “battle-tested.”
Starting in 1948 Hydramatic became optional for Pontiacs (but not Buicks or Chevrolets which chose todevelop their own automatic transmissions). One million Hydramatics had been sold by 1949. In the early 1950s various manufacturers that did not have the resources to develop an automatic transmissions on their own bought Hydra-Matics from GM. Users included:
* 1950-1956 Hudson
* 1950-1956 Nash
* 1951 Frazer
* 1951-1955 Kaiser
* 1954-1955 Willys
* 1949-1954 Lincoln
In 1952 Rolls-Royce acquired a license to produce the Hydra-Matic under license for Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles. It continued production through 1967.
The Hydramatic underwent several revisions through 1955, before being replaced by the substantially redesigned Controlled Coupling Hydramatic (also called Jetaway) in 1956. The new four-speed transmission incorporated a secondary fluid coupling and a pair of sprag clutches in place of the former friction clutch and brake bands, shifting in part by alternately draining and filling the secondary coupling. It allowed the driver to hold the transmission in second gear or third gear until the maximum allowable upshift points, for improved performance in traffic or in mountain driving, and incorporated a separate Park position. The Jetaway was substantially smoother than the original Hydramatic, but also more complex and expensive to produce.
In 1961, a somewhat less complex, but also far less reliable three-speed Roto-Hydramatic also dubbed the “Slim Jim” Hydramatic (in which the “dump and fill” shifting principle was retained) was adopted for all Oldsmobiles as well as Pontiac’s full-sized Catalina, Ventura and Grand Prix models, while all Cadillacs and Pontiac’s Bonneville and Star Chief models retained the older four-speed “Jetaway” unit (not to be confused with the two-speed Jetaway automatic used in various Buick, Olds and Pontiac intermediate cars from 1964 to 1969).
Both of those Hydramatic transmissions were ultimately replaced by a new three-speed torque converter automatic transmission called Turbo-Hydramatic in 1964 and 1965, whose design was more similar in principle to the Chrysler TorqueFlite and Ford’s Cruise-O-Matic than the fluid coupling Hydramatic the “Turbo” replaced.
The original Hydramatic continued to be used in light trucks and other commercial vehicles well into the 1960’s. It was subsequently replaced in that role by the Turbo Hydramatic, whose simplified design was much less costly to manufacture. Despite the name, the Turbo-Hydramatic (THM) has no mechanical relationship to the original Hydramatic.
The Hydramatic was a complex design that was expensive to mass produce. Nevertheless, despite some early teething problems, it was very reliable and was so rugged that it was widely used in drag racing for decades later. It was not as smooth as some competitor’s transmissions (notably Buick’s Dynaflow), but made up for it in much greater efficiency, especially at highway speeds. The Hydramatic paved the way for the widespread acceptance of automatic shifting.
Hydramatic is now a trade name for GM’s automatic transmission division, which produces a variety of later transmissions, the most notable of which is the Turbo-Hydramatic from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Johnster and mfgreen40: My bad, this time. When RF asked me when GM introduced four-speed automatics, I assumed (actually correctly, in the context of the blog posting) that he was referring to the introduction of modern overdrive four-speed automatics.
I know all too-well about the Hydra-matic (drove an Olds F-85), but it lacked overdrive and a modern torque converter. It wasn’t terribly smooth, but it was reasonably efficient, durable, and a groundbreaking design. Thanks for the correction.
A shame to see so many people lose their jobs.
I thought that the 6-speed auto (currently available in several GM vehicles, most notably the 4 and 6cyl Malibu) which is built “offshore” (China?), was slated to be transferred to a “North American” facility. Looks like Mexico, now.
The number of speeds a transmission offers is directly related to the engine’s powerband. A V-8 has a wide torque and powerband so it can use 3 speeds and the simplicity of that system offers benefits as well.
High reving motors and small engines need more gears to utilize their efficient narrow power bands. It’s not a mark of technical inability to make 3 or 4 speeds, it is a reaction to the shrinking market for v-8 engines and the like.
I ran a 2 speed auto in a hot rod for years. Bulletproof and the single shift got me into high gear where the torque could take over. Better mileage around town than the 3 speed I replaced it with too.
The provincial (left-leaning) NDP party implored Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to step in and stop the rampant job losses in the automotive industry.
I wish when left-leaning political types say this that I had a good suggestion on how to do it. Perhaps the Ontario government should get into manufacturing unneeded transmissions?
The provincial (left-leaning) NDP party implored Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to step in and stop the rampant job losses in the automotive industry. – NickR
GM hardly requires 4-speed transmissions with sales falling off a cliff. Nonetheless the NDP expects GM to build them. Even socialist East Germany eventually abandoned the Trabant!
General Motors keeps cutting jobs after getting $235 million in taxpayers’ money to boost Ontario operations. The McGuinty government caved into CAW union boss Buzz Hargrove’s histrionics and intimidation and gave away the farm without broad employment guarantees.
Ford pulled a similar recent stunt. It closed a Windsor plant then announced for a $60-million taxpayer gift it will reopen. So far McGuinty has delivered $30-million.
GM may also be putting a shot across the CAW’s bow. Be reasonable in the current contract negotiations, a strange concept for Hargrove, and the closing may be softened or rescinded.
Was this the same facility where a CAW member stated that he could make more money working at Tim Hortons? Problem solved.
@Gardiner
“Taxpayer gift.” I love it.
Call me Santa Claus.
Although the 4 speed auto has been a good soldier for many years, its time to retire it in most applications.
“I thought that the 6-speed auto (currently available in several GM vehicles, most notably the 4 and 6cyl Malibu) which is built “offshore” (China?), was slated to be transferred to a “North American” facility. Looks like Mexico, now.”
GM has built new transmission production in Ohio and is slated to put more production in St. Catherines. Buzz was busy playing the fiddle when all the jobs left.