I have a 2019 Chevrolet Colorado. My wife drives a 2019 Jeep Wrangler. The Colorado has a V6 with an 8 speed automatic transmission. The Jeep has a 4 cylinder with a 7 speed automatic transmission. The Jeep shifts much smoother than the Chevy. The Chevy shifts very erratically and the shift pattern changes drastically with as little as 250 pounds in the bed. The dealer flushed the system and it improved a bit but still doesn’t seem normal to me but the dealer claims that it .is normal. My research has showed me that the 2019 Ford Ranger has 10 speed automatic transmission. Maybe I’m old school here but I don’t understand the need for so many speeds in these transmissions. I live in Pittsburgh and we have lots of hills. It seems like these things are going to shift themselves to death. What is your opinion of these transmissions? Have I set myself up for an early transmission failure? Alan
All those speeds are in the interest of maximum fuel economy. If you’re not happy with your truck ask to drive another one to see for yourself if “They all do that.” Unless you’ve driven it a lot a 2019 should still have some powertrain warranty left even if you bought it used.
Whatever you do, never- ever drive a Honda Ridgeline. It will spoil your Colorado’s shifting experience forever.
The “tuning” of some vehicles’ automatic transmissions is just better than others.
They are all computer controlled. The engineer that “tunes” them drives the trucks and makes adjustments to the tuning parameters to 1) get the best mileage numbers and 2) get the best shift quality under all conditions - hot, cold, full throttle, part throttle, towing, empty, bed loaded and on and on.
Some systems and tuning is just better than others.
“Transmission problems” is the top item for the last 5 years for the Colorado, so lots of owners have that complaint, for multiple years:
Tester
It has an 8 speed. No 7 speed is offered in the Jeep Wrangler.
It allows manfacterers to get away with using less powerful engines, and still get good performance and fuel economy. It also allows for much wider ratio spread, which again helps both performance and fuel economy.
For the most part modern automatics are quite durable. It’s a transmission, it’s whole purpose in life is to shift gears, that’s all it does.
My F-150 has a 10 speed automatic. It doesn’t necessarily shift through every gear all the time. If I’m pulling away from a stop light, it might go from 1st to 2nd to 4th to 6th to 7th to 8th then to 9th. It depends on how fast I’m trying to accelerate. Back when 3 and 4 speed automatics were the standard, every gear was going to be used in the same scenario.
Probably not, but you might want to see if there’s a software update available for the transmission. Also if your truck has it, make sure you’re not in tow/haul mode or “sport” mode as these settings tend to cause more aggressive shifting from the transmission.