For the vast majority of consumers, a smooth-shifting automatic transmission is the gold standard. Detroit caters to the least common dominator, except in the relatively rare high-perf models. But ...

Few of us understand how automatic transmissions work nor do we know what it means when they suddenly don't. We slip the selector into Drive, feel the tug of torque, press the accelerator, and get on ...

Q:Greetings to everyone at the magazine. I have enjoyed the how-to articles for several years now. I own a 1998 Corvette with a manual transmission and I like to think of myself as a weekend mechanic.