the ford was, the vw, I blame the mechanic, they fixed it three times, and got it fixed right once, eventually, after weeks. like, fuck man, it's a vw golf, I could probably knock rocks together and forge a replacement clutch in three weeks....

and in all the automatics I've owned, I've never had to replace a transmission. now, like I said, they've all been hondas, I hear that has something to do with it, but yeah... my experience was more issues with clutches in manuals than any transmission issues in automatics. My uncle says that domestically mfg'rd clutches from the 80s sucked compared to the 60s and 70s, but I have no practical experience there.

I do miss being able to pop the clutch to start it :D