Modern automatics are 6 speeds at the minimum and go up to 10 speeds. My F-150 has a 10 speed automatic. There was a big performance improvement in going from the 3 and 4 speed units to the 6 speeds. Going from the 6 speed transmissions to the 8-10 speed units didn’t yield nearly as drastic an improvement. There’s definitely a point of diminishing returns.
1 Like
just out of curiosity, what year is your f-150 and have you had any problems with the 10 speed auto? I have been reading about a lot of complaints with them in the f-150 and the mustang. I am going to need a new vehicle next year and those are 2 on my list I have been thinking about.
Not sure what brand, newer truck, changed gears every 5 to 10 mph, was kind of annoying to me.
It’s a 2019, 4WD, Supercrew with the 3.5L Ecoboost. The 10 speed has been fine for me, under light-moderate acceleration it doesn’t shift through every gear. It’ll go from 1st to 2nd to 4th to 6th, 7th,8th, 9th. You need to be doing about 50 MPH or better before you see 10th gear. I will say that for a full-sized 4WD truck, fuel economy is good. Just driving around town (80% city 20% highway). It gets 18-19 MPG. On the highway, (and I’ve only had two journeys of meaningful length on the highway), 24-25 MPG was easily attainable.
3 Likes
Our Audi has an 8 speed trans with the manual function. The thing rips through gear changes in automatic at part throttle pulling away faster than I can slap the lever. I just leave it alone, it adds nothing to the driving experience. The controls are so smart, if my wife ever let me track the car, I’d leave it in Drive.
When the Cadillac CTS-V was first driven at the Nurburgring, it was done fully automatic. They next run was with the paddle shifters. The fully automatic run was faster, and was fastest for a sedan its size at the time.
Also, the extra gears aren’t so much for enhanced performance as they are for slightly improved fuel economy IMO.
1 Like
The Caddy had good software in it that held the car in a lower gear mid corner to prepare it for a fast exit when it recognized high cornering Gs. It was developed by the man now assigned to head GMs global racing efforts, Mark Stielo, when he was just an intern.
Really the only time I’ve used “manual mode” or paddle shifters (other than just trying the feature out) is to lock out the higher gears when towing or descending a steep grade and when getting ready to overtake another vehicle (drop a gear and disappear, if you will).
I’ve only driven the run of the mill domestics, but my favorite auto with 6 or more gears so far is the ZF 8 speed in my dad’s Challenger. It seems to shift exactly when I think it should, whether you’re just accelerating slowly or driving more aggressively. It doesn’t seem to get confused or clunk between gears like most of them seem to do. I’ll probably shop Ram if/when I buy a new truck just because of that transmission. I’ll be disappointed if it’s a totally different transmission or tuning.
I have driven manual transmission vehicles for fifty years. My Subaru with the CVT is my first experience with paddle shifters. They are handy when you are in a situation where a little drag in the rear helps stability like on a slick surface or when you suddenly encounter a sharp turn while going down a steep grade. Other than that, they are pretty useless.
I am also of the opinion that these new 8-10 speed and CVT’s are not programmed correctly. The old three and four speeds were programmed to shift at about 10% beyond peak horse power so that when the tranny dropped into the next higher gear, it (edit: doesn’t) fall too far down on the power curve.
It appears to me that this rule of thumb that the engineers used years ago is still being used when they should shift earlier, like around 5% past the peak because they don’t lose so many RPMs on the next higher gear. My CVT is always past the power curve. I’m sure my new Nissan truck with the 9 speed would get much better gas mileage if it shifted a little earlier without a loss of performance. In fact I think performance would improve too.
I don’t follow you, Keith. You’re saying that shifting late causes an engine bog because of the rpm drop between gears. But, if the trans were to shift sooner, the next gear would have the engine spinning at an even lower rpm than the later shift…resulting in a larger power loss or bog…no?
At any rate, a lot of the multi speed autos seem to shift too soon for my liking under normal driving. I assume they’re programmed that way in order to save fuel. The 2013 f150 that I owned with the 6 speed and 5 liter v8 always seemed to want to short shift through town. It never felt like I reached the powerband at all unless I got into the throttle to keep it from shifting…but then I’d wind up going faster than conditions allowed pretty quickly so I’d have to let off. It always seemed to be lugging the engine. May be due to the rear end gearing and the fact that it’s a relatively low torque (at low rpm) engine in a relatively heavy truck.
I don’t have that with my ‘13 F150, if you want it to shift at higher RPMs tap the tow/haul button.
My 2015 Cherokee has a manual shift option. You move the shift lever left toward you, then pull it back to upshift and push it forward to downshift. However, the times I’ve tried to play with it it didn’t work for *&% so I just leave it alone. Anyway, it’s one of those wonderful piece of excrement FCA transmissions. I couldn’t find any helpful information in the owner’s manual, either. It’s not something I’m particularly interested in; it just came with the car.
The F150 has manual shift option too.
I don’t know the problem with Scrapyard’s truck, I have to be careful on take-off when unloaded, in normal drive mode, easily spin the tires.
For those of you who think that a calibration change in the shift rpm would actually give better fuel economy… any engineer doing those calibrations would get a big raise if they changed the cals to improve mpgs.
It is of huge importance to the manufacturer and they will compromise a lot to get better mpgs.
What you are driving is the absolute best they could give you…
1 Like
Good definition I had one in a rental one time and would never buy a vehicle with that feature.
No problem with the truck. It just shifted a little early at light throttle for my tastes. I traded it years ago (not because I had a huge issue with the truck, traded it for my wife’s current vehicle). Crew cab, 4wd, 3.55 gears, 5.0.
I am of the same opinion (if I understood your post correctly). I believe they compromise the tuning a little for fuel economy.
I am afraid to even play with it, old fart.
Manual shift control of an automatic transmission and HVAC automatic temperature control seem to be quite challenging for some people.
2 Likes
My bad, I left a word out. My brain outran my fingers. It was supposed to say “so when the tranny dropped into the next higher gear, it doesn’t fall too far down on the power curve.”