Toyota A130 / A131L / A132L

Toyota's three-speed transverse automatic — the gearbox of the front-drive Corolla and Tercel through the 1980s and 1990s, and of the Chevrolet and GEO cars built alongside them.

⚑ It is a transaxle, and the A codes above it are not. Toyota's A40, A43 and A440F are rear-drive four-speeds from the same lettered series, so the letter says nothing about where a gearbox goes. What separates them is the number: the hundreds are the transaxles.

Three speeds, and that is the whole character of it. It was the cheap option beside a five-speed manual, and an owner meeting one today is meeting a car that revs hard on a motorway because there is no fourth gear to find. Nothing is wrong with it.

It is one of the most durable automatics Toyota built, and the rebuild trade documents A130, A131L and A132L as one unit for that reason. What wears is the clutch packs, the bushings and the brake bands, and what leaks is the seals — all of it ordinary, all of it at high mileage.

It takes Dexron, not a modern low-viscosity ATF, and it holds under a gallon and a half. A drain and fill is the service; there is nothing electronic in it to read.