<VV>Economy in 1959 NO CORVAIR

[FrankCB at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/26/2006 9:28:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, pp2 at 6007.us  
writes:

Ford had  had the three speed cruise-o-matic since 
the early fifties (small cars got  the 2-speed Ford-o-matic) and Chysler was 
just changing over from the  Power-Flyte 2 speed to the three speed 
Torque-Flyte (1957 into)- 


    One of the main reasons I bought a 1958 Plymouth  with 3 spd Torqueflite 
over an equivalent Chevy was the 3 speed  automatic.  GM always was one speed 
behind in their automatics compared to  the competition!  The Chevy Beretta my 
wife got in 1988 had only 3 speeds  while the competition had 4 speeds.  
That's one reason why my 4 speed  TranSport MINIVAN gets better highway mileage 
than the much smaller engine/body  Beretta--1800 rpm at 60 mph.
    Frank "likes big engines cruising at LOW rpm"  Burkhard