QOTD: The Ultimate Ultra?

Night Court was ranked No. 21 on the Nielsen ratings and Nike execs were contemplating what eventually became the “Bo Knows” campaign when Chrysler’s Ultradrive automatic entered production in Indiana.

Boasting four speeds and a protective limp-home feature soon to be the butt of jokes, Ultradrive was Chrysler’s go-to FWD tranny for many a year. As you read yesterday, the original four-speed version will end production in 2020. Yet memories linger… perhaps even yours.

Ultradrive variants soon sprung forth, including a unit destined for all-wheel drive minivans. There was a version intended for early LX-platform rear-drivers and body-on-frame SUVs, too, but that gearbox didn’t make it very far past the recession. In 2007, a six-speed unit debuted in the Chrysler Sebring and is still in use today beneath the Dodge Grand Caravan and Ram Promaster.

Today we’re considering only the original four-speed version that found a home in front-drive Chrysler, Daimler-Chrysler, and Fiat Chrysler products, continuing to the present day in the four-cylinder-only Dodge Journey. There’s decades of vehicles to choose from, and one of those offerings might hold a special place in your heart.

Which Ultradrive-equipped vehicle, in your opinion, was the best? Personal experience might guide your vote, and that’s okay. We like stories here.

While your author’s past contains just one Chrysler product, that vehicle would have contained an Ultradrive had he chose the V6-powered Duster model over the basic five-speed/four-cylinder Sundance. Elsewhere, luckier men enjoyed — at least to some degree — the LeBaron and Laser, Daytona and Spirit, New Yorker and Acclaim, Sebring and Avenger, Neon and PT Cruiser, Dynasty and Shadow, a slew of LH-platform sedans and a triple-shot of cloud cars. Don’t forget the bevy of vans that ferried a generation of Americans to school.

Time to select an Ultradrive winner. Is there one?

[Images: Chrysler, Murilee Martin/TTAC]