The Nation - News from Jan. 2, 1986

An auto safety group charged that automatic overdrive transmissions in many General Motors cars and trucks have defects that could drive up people’s repair bills. GM’s new generation of automatic transmissions beginning in 1982 and later model large cars and trucks are plagued with problems, said the Center for Auto Safety. An analysis shows a pattern of “repeated breakdowns at low mileage” on a “myriad of defects” of the automatic overdrive transmissions from 1982 through 1985, the center said. But a spokesman said the defects are not safety dangers.