1.4 auto trans owners...how many miles? happy with trans?

Other than running out 2nd til a higher RPM than desired often, and a rough/jerky 4-5 or 5-4 shift, I'm pretty happy with mine. The programming is pretty good for what I want from an automatic, and that is my usual complaint. I do wish there was a sport mode for back roads - it likes to be one gear higher than you'd usually want until you give it a good boot.

Never had any issues. Drained and refilled tranny 3 times so far. Car has 80k miles on it. 2013 LTZ/RS. Keep fresh tranny fluid in it, and should not give any troubles.

No problems with the AT in my gen 1. As jblackburn said, it is a little jerky at times. And, it does like to be one gear higher than it should. It annoys me a little when I am going uphill and it keeps slowing down, bogging the engine, and then it suddenly downshifts and launches me forward. This is increased due to turbo lag and feeling the need to push the gas pedal down more to get it going. With all of the computers in this car, you would think they could program it to know when you are climbing a hill and shift appropriately. I often put it in manual mode and downshift before starting up a hill.

dhpnet said:

No problems with the AT in my gen 1. As jblackburn said, it is a little jerky at times. And, it does like to be one gear higher than it should. It annoys me a little when I am going uphill and it keeps slowing down, bogging the engine, and then it suddenly downshifts and launches me forward. This is increased due to turbo lag and feeling the need to push the gas pedal down more to get it going. With all of the computers in this car, you would think they could program it to know when you are climbing a hill and shift appropriately. I often put it in manual mode and downshift before starting up a hill.

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The programming is much improved on the newer ones (I HATED the Gen 1 programming until the 2015-2016 model years), but it is still very fuel-economy oriented and dumb at times. Shift smoothness was massively improved, though.

The best thing you can do is test drive one. The weight, and the diesel engine will make the tranny behave specifically to that vehicle.

65k miles and still going strong. 1-2 can be a little goofy but nothing to be worried about. i normally manual shift the trans due to not driving it all the time (wife's car) she's not complaining about anything with the car. it sure does like to keep the mpgs up and always keeps the rpms low (which if you like that sort of thing is good i suppose? lol). i have caught it searching for a gear a few times (taking longer to shift than i expected). ran it through the mountains of NC/SC in manual/auto mode and did respectable. this is from a 2011 LT.

i guess it depends on who you ask..
the First Gen Cruze (2008-2016) uses the 6T40 transmission. while 2nd gen Cruze (USA 2016-present) uses the 6T35 transmission.
the 6T35 is a higher torque variant mated to 1.4L turbo engine- but its much lighter and smaller- approximately 24 lbs lighter than the 6T40. i think the equinox is getting the 6T30 series. most of the gripes has been about the 1st gen transmissions.

red fuji said:

i guess it depends on who you ask..
the First Gen Cruze (2008-2016) uses the 6T40 transmission. while 2nd gen Cruze (USA 2016-present) uses the 6T35 transmission.
the 6T35 is a higher torque variant mated to 1.4L turbo engine- but its much lighter and smaller- approximately 24 lbs lighter than the 6T40. i think the equinox is getting the 6T30 series. most of the gripes has been about the 1st gen transmissions.

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yeah, actually the diesel equinox gets the 6t45

ooops

boraz said:

yeah, actually the diesel equinox gets the 6t45

ooops

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Essentially the same as the 2.4L Equinox/Terrain then. It's just a beefed up version of the 6T40.

110K miles, and no issues, yet.

6T45... The first number is the speeds, T for Transverse installation and then the number is the torque rating right? Metric torque if I recall. Newton Meters maybe??

I always thought a 6T45 was "stronger" than the 6T40, vs. the 30 ect. Unless I'm not recalling correctly. My 2012 took a long time to learn and adapt to my driving. Like 20,000 miles.. Hopefully they have this addressed. Approaching 70,000 miles and it's never run better since changing the fluid around 45,000.

Early GM automatics had a rust preventative on the parts that didn't play well with the factory fill transmission fluid. They mentioned this in service guides, but I'm not sure what they are currently doing to protect new machined metal from corrosion.