Ford Cruise-O-Matic

Ford-O-Matic was the first automatic transmission widely used by Ford Motor Company. It was designed by the Warner Gear division of Borg-Warner Corporation and introduced in 1951 model year cars, and was called the Merc-O-Matic-named when installed in Mercury-branded cars and Turbo-Drive when installed in Lincoln-branded cars. In contrast to Detroit Gear Division's three-band automatic originally designed for Studebaker, which became superseded by this unit, a variation of Warner Gear's three-speed unit named Ford-O-Matic continued to evolve later into Cruise-O-Matic transmissions in 1958 and finally the FMX-named transmissions in 1968. This line continued in production until 1980, when the AOD was introduced. Like Ford, variations of this same Borg-Warner design were used by other automobile manufacturers, as well, such as AMC, International Harvester, Studebaker, Volvo, and Jaguar, each of them having the necessary unique adaptations required for the individual applications.