There are many parts to any car, thousands in fact, but some of the systems that control what your car does and how it does it can be more important than others. The transmission is one of the most important, as without it, the power from the engine could never reach the wheels, and your car wouldn’t be much use.
The job of a car’s transmission is to make sure that the right amount of power goes to your wheels to drive at a given speed. It works by shifting gears in a very similar fashion to what you see on a multi-speed bicycle. On a bicycle, if the chain is off, the car won’t go, and if the chain is in too high a gear, you’ll have trouble getting started from a stop. The same principle applies to your transmission, and if you don’t keep it well-maintained, you’ll lose fuel economy or maybe not even be able to drive at all.