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Comment by emteycz | Hacker News Reader

> From the factory, it came with a rubbish four-speed automatic gearbox. During 18 months of ownership, I destroyed four gearboxes.

[I'm from Europe.] I absolutely don't get this. Just... what? Four gearboxes? I don't know anyone who destroyed a single one - even after an entire lifetime of daily driving, but I don't mean Mercedeses - more like Škodas. What's up with American cars? Is this common?

Edit: my bad, the car is Australian.

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They're really not good gearboxes.

Keep in mind, with the 4 speeds I drove casually. With this 6 speed, I can push it hard and it's still going strong almost a year later.

They're quite an old (American) design bolted to a modern engine. It simply doesn't mix well. 4 speeds (4L60e) are the bread and butter of automatic transmission rebuilders in Australia.

My father killed one in his daily driver, and all it did was go 20km each way to and from work. My Aunt's Commodore was recently in the shop getting a new 4L60e. They're simply not suited to the car.

What do you mean with "push it hard"? Maybe try a manual next time. Half of the fun of driving for me is switching gears.

Flogging it, pretty much.

I have a manual license, but I'm not interested in them. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

> great for racing

that could explain a bit

Holdens are Australian, not American.

They're owned by GM now. Modern ones will be GM parts-bin cars. Going through that many GM transmissions is possible. This is why GM cars have horrible resale value and anything over 150k miles is on borrowed time.

These use GM's 4L60E 4-speed automatic. I don't remember the 4L60E being that much of a lemon that you blow through four of them with normal use.

Holden has been owned by GM since the 1930s and has been building its own vehicles since 1948. Holden ceased building cars in 2017 and was disbanded in 2020 (RIP).

But yeah, the 4L60es are lemons in my eyes.

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