I guess depressing a clutch pedal was too much for some motorists-- at least that’s what automobile manufacturers believed. Back.in the 1940s, Hudson had Drivemaster® which had a vacuum cylinder which operated the clutch. Packard.had an electric clutch. Neither were really successful. However, in 1948, Pontiac offered the GM Hydramatic fully automatic transmission as an option. 85% of the Pontiac 8 cylinder cars and 50% of the Pontiac 6 cylinder cars were sold with Hydramatic. Why CEO Keller.of Chrysler couldn’t see the handwriting on the wall is beyond me.
I remember the “automatic stick shift” but I never knew how it worked. To be honest, I’ve never owned–or driven–a VW. I read that Chevrolet had a “semi-automatic” version of the Powerglide but I don’t have any experience with that either.
The Chevy was a manually shifted version of powerglide. A torque converter in front of a two speed planetary gearset with no provision for automatic shifts. It was about $70 cheaper than a powerglide. It was only available in the Chevy II, and seemed to be intended for confirmed cheapskates. The VW contraption was a fluid coupling in front of a clutch in front of a four speed manual gearbox. There was no clutch pedal. Any pressure on the shift knob would disengage the electrically operated clutch, allowing one to shift gears. The fluid coupling allowed one to keep the car in gear while stopped.
Yeah, that’s what I remember reading about the Chevrolet transmission. Thanks for the VW info.
Back when my wife and I were dating I had the previously mentioned 1977 Corolla and I taught her to drive a stick. Unfortunately she didn’t deal with ambiguity well. At one point she asked me, “Should I shift now?” and I answered, “Well, you can.” What I meant was, she could’ve waited without hurting anything or gone ahead and shifted but she wanted a definitive answer and I didn’t give her one.
By the late 60s I think all full size Plymouth’s were Fury’s. Fury I was the stripped model. Sport Fury had buckets with center console,
There were fury I which was the poverty row special, the Fury II which had a little better trim, and the Fury III, which was the nicest. There was also, in the late 70’s IIRC, the VIP, which was on a par with the Chevy Caprice and Ford LTD.
I couldn’t remember the years for the VIP. Our Highway Patrol ran the base Ford two door sedans (Custom 300?) with 428s, 427 Biscayne two door sedans were popular for drag racing when GM limited their “muscle cars” to 400 ci. I imagine there was a 440 Fury I around.
My first car was a blue 1977 Toyota Corolla. I bought it very well used in 1983 from a friend who’d driven it all over Houston as a missionary. He needed money for Bible College and My mother had promised to buy me a car. She came up with a whole $1,500 toward the purchase (no comment) and I gave it to Jacques in exchange for his Corolla.
It had a four-cylinder engine and a manual transmission. I learned to drive a stick on that car. 
I drove it for about four years during which the only regular maintenance it needed was a periodic adjustment of the spark plug gap. When the gap was set correctly, it ran like a top.
I gave it to a dear friend of mine in 1987 and she drove it all the way to Henderson, NV.
Needless to say, it was a great little car.
I’ve still got mine. Got an offer to buy it for about 2/3rds of that awhile back, and I wouldn’t sell 'cause I couldn’t replace it for that price. Talk about value retention.
I also owned a 1977 Corolla except mine was silver. Did yours have the 1.2 liter engine perhaps? Mine did.
My first (and first new car) was the 1996 Honda Civic, that got Tboned in 2004. Good little car, with terrifyingly bad acceleration for highway ramps. (For Boston locals that remember the old elevated I-93 in the Hub-- I always referred to that as the “I’m gonna die” highway, trying to get onto it. (For non natives- the old elevated highway was built before modern road standards- and it had very short acceleration/merge areas on onramps. )
Car I wish I still had- my 2004 Mazda6. Had its share of issues, the V6 had decent power, and the rear seat was large enough for my two Labradors to come with me out to hiking trips.
That’s the case in the Dallas area where we have family. You have a very brief span to accelerate to 70+mph.
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The Belt Parkway, which runs along the perimeter of the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, opened to traffic in 1940, and despite some improvements over the years, many of the the entry/acceleration lanes are only a few car lengths long. During periods of heavy traffic, this is not extremely problematic, but when traffic is light–and some idiots are driving 60+ mph on this outdated highway–merging into traffic can be really dangerous.
Fun little car . Came from the factory with no muffler so the little 4 cylinder sounded pretty cool . think it was a little more $7000 brand new .1982 Dodge Charger 2.2 , 4 speed manual . Got great mileage .
Leads me to the question why are leaf blowers so loud, I live near a church that clears light snows at 3 am in the morning with leaf blowers, I am a light sleeper and that is downright annoying. A car is quiet I think leaf blowers lawnmowers and chain saws could be also.
As opposed to 3 AM in the afternoon?
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Busted! 
'Cause 2 stroke engines… The short exhaust cycle makes some of that BANG go right out the exhaust pipes. A 4 stroke leaves more time so its easier to muffle.
The old Mazda rotary engine has a similar problem. Race organizations used to make them run mufflers and they were still really loud. Same for 2-stroke engined cars.
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Dave,
I honestly don’t remember the displacement. I only remember that it was an I-4 with a carburetor.
Having just spent a couple afternoons behind a chain saw and leaf blower, I’m just trying to picture how it would work to have an exhaust pipe on either of them. Here’s a solution though, I wear ear plugs and have an extra pair or two of anyone would like to try them for sleeping past 3 in the morning when it snows.