ITT: Best and Worst automatic transmissions

While manuals are great an all, most of the vehicles I find for sale are automatics, and with old trucks, the majority are autos. It's not ideal, but I am forced to consider getting an auto.

Reliablity/durablity wise, what are some of the best automatic transmissions that have been produced? Just keep in mind I am talking about trucks and shitboxes from the early 2000's and back, nothing like a 10 speed or whatever in a $1 million dollar Porsche.

Also what are the absolute worst automatic transmissions that should be avoided?

The trans that is in the Panther bodies is good. The Chebby 1500s have a solid auto trans. Honda autos a shit. Chrysler autos a shit.

+1 on the panther bodies, they're fucking bullet proof

My 99 Prelude auto has 147k miles with no problems.

There is literally no auto worth owning except in those on performance supercars with instant response paddles, which in turn is more of a semi-auto.

700R4: Worst possible transmission choice.
Very wide first to second gear spread. First gear is a 3.06 ratio Second is a 1.62 ratio. This nearly equates to skipping from first to third gear with a manual trans. This kills acceleration when these trans go into second gear. Compare this to a TH350. First gear at 2.52 ratio and second gear is 1.52 do the math, faggot. The 3.06 first gear is so low that any final gear of above 3.55 or numerically higher will have you right at the max rpm at around 35 mph, only to then have your car fall on its face when it hits second gear, feeling like it skipped a gear. Wheel spin is uncontrollable upon hard launches, unless you have a very tall final gear, and then you can for sure count on going nowhere quickly when second gear comes in. Overdrive would be totally useless at highway speed regardless of detuning with a tall final gear, unless you were cruising at around 100 mph. Huge cost to build up. Don't even consider a stock rebuild to handle 500 hp or more. Under hard use, the 700R4 will fail quickly. Limited as to what level these can be built up to. High performance transmission builders and parts suppliers don't even recognize this as a serious transmission. More complex to build than a TH350 and far more expensive, especially when built up to handle high hp numbers. Having to run a cumbersome throttle value cable to the carb. linkage. This feature actually serves a good purpose, but if not set properly, it can destroy your transmission quickly. Very critical adjustment, and often overlooked. The overdrive is actually useless with engines running decent size cams. Stall converters are double the cost of the one run in a TH350. You must detune an engine considerably to operate the overdrive and be able to tolerate the first to second gear drop. Could be classified as the worst mismatch of parts known on a true street car.

TH350: Best transmission choice, hands down.
Excellent gear spread between all three gears. Very low cost to build up to various levels of power handling. Can be built up to extreme power handling capabilities. Most all transmission shops are capable of building these to at least level 1 or 2. No TV cable to deal with. Stall converters are low in cost, and the selection is broad. Very reliable and simple to repair if needed.

TH400
Excellent gear spread. Very similar to a TH350. Strong internal parts. Reliable. Simple to build or repair to stock buildup levels. Very expensive to build up to higher power handling levels, as compared to a TH350. The TH350 has far more high performance parts available at reasonable costs. The 400 trans. is not a practical choice. Internal rotating parts (cast iron drum) are very heavy and create a huge drag compared to most any other trans., and this is not a subtle amount of drag. The TH400 is well known to be a heavier duty trans. than a TH350 but this heavy duty factor was designed more for heavy vehicles that may encounter pulling heavy loads. Only the largest of the GM cars weighing around 5000 lbs had these trans. in them, along with heavy duty pickups, usually 3/4 ton or larger trucks. Even the half ton Chevy trucks didn't come with these in them. They will certainly hold up better than a stock built TH350, but they are not a desirable trans. You can build a TH350 to level two that would be superior to any stock TH400 in every way for about the same cost. Building a TH400 to a high hp handling level will cost a great deal of money.

Powerglide.
Excellent transmission to build up to just about any power handling level. Most trans. shops are able to build this trans with ease. Very reliable, and simple to work on. Not much to go wrong. Decent first to second gear spread. Rotational drag is very low with this trans., moreso than any automatic on the market. Very efficient trans. Stall converters are not expensive and many choices available. Two gears, that's the problem. This trans. can only be run in cars that have a very high hp to weight ratio. It would be fair to say a vehicle weighing approx. 3400 lbs would require an engine output of 1000 hp or more to make it a rational choice, and even then, you would still need a decent final gear to get things moving off the line. The first gear in these is somewhat tall. Those running a T-Bucket roadster weighing around 1800 lbs. with a 500 hp or higher engine could make great use of a Powerglide trans. Having only two gears limits having the best of both worlds when it comes to off the line acceleration and cruising at highway speed.

GM200
Has a better gear spread than the 700R4 but not as optimal as the TH350. Not much good to say about this trans. It certainly has a place in some special late model applications, but old school Chevy engines is not one of them. This transmission can cost up to three times more to build up to a decent power handling level compared to a built up TH350. Cannot hold up to high torque engine builds unless an enormous amount of money is spent on this trans. Most all the cons you see for the 700R4 exist within this trans. This trans is not a reliable trans. compared to any of the early GM trans.