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Front-wheel drive may have gotten a -- some say well-deserved -- bad rap over the years, but its been around almost as long as the automobile itself. The transaxle is what makes front-wheel drive possible, and its nature and function are hidden right there in the name.
Automatic Transmission
An automatic transmission is generally understood to be any transmission that can change gear ratios by itself without any input from the driver. These days, the lines between manual and automatic transmissions are increasingly blurring, as many architecturally "manual" transmissions use computer controls and electric servos to operate the clutch and change gears. Functionally, we consider these "manumatics" to be automatics. The same is technically true for continuously variable transmissions, or CVTs, since they also change ratios without driver input. In short, if it doesnt require you to use a stick and a clutch to change gears, its an automatic transmission.
Transaxles
A "transaxle" is a combination of a "transmission" and an "axle." An automatic transaxle starts out as a normal automatic transmission, which bolts to the engines flywheel via a torque converter and a flexplate. Then theres the transmission itself, which houses all the gears and gear-changing mechanisms. At the "back" of the transmission -- where the driveshaft would enter in a rear-drive application -- lay either a gear or chain drive. This drive connects directly to a differential, which would normally be found inside the the rear axle on a rear-wheel-drive vehicle. The differential unit s power out the sides toward the front wheels, through the "inner constant velocity joints," to a pair of short axle "half" shafts, then to the "outer CV joints," and finally to the wheels themselves.
