rev up your engines, today I'm going to talk about modern
ten-speed automatic transmissions, now this 2018 Mustang 5 liter GT, has a 10
speed automatic transmission, and I know many people are thinking 10 speed
what is it an old Racing bicycle, well of course not, it's modern technology to get
as much power as you can out of an engine, and also get good gas mileage, the
automatic transmission in this Mustang has 10 forward speeds and the last three
are overdrive gears to get really good gas mileage on the highway, now as we
crawl under the car, here we see the big 10 speed transmission unit, it's a rear
wheel drive only transmission for rear-wheel drive, and I do have to say
the history behind it is rather odd, it's a combination GM and Ford design, kind of
like cats and dogs getting together, kind of surprised me when I read that, now
Ford did most of the design on this ten-speed rear-wheel drive transmission
while GM did most of the work on a nine speed front-wheel drive automatic
transmission, but just like cats and dogs Ford decided they didn't like the nine
speed front-wheel drive transmission, so they're using their own 8-speed
front-wheel drive transmission, now that makes more sense to me, the universe is
back to its original alignment, and isn't out of whack like cats and dogs working
together, now I know people are going to say, Scotty well they have those CVT
continuously variable transmissions to get good gas mileage you know what's the
advantage of an a 10 speed automatic instead of that, well here's the
difference if you really want to know, there's no power lag in this baby, watch
this,
it just goes like stink when you step on the gas, it doesn't have that horrible
lag that the CVT transmissions have, where it feels like it's just slipping
and sliding, this thing is very direct and it doesn't feel like it shifts much when
it's shifting it's pretty seamless, so with the 10 speed automatic you're going to
have a bunch of really high gear ratios in the beginning to take off really fast
and then as it goes further they can get lower and lower, and the final overdrive
can be real low, so the engine spins less to get better gas mileage at
cruising speed, so literally it's the best of both worlds, as you can see here
first gear is really high four point six nine to one it keeps going down and down
and down, and in the final overdrive it's point six three to one, so you get the
best gas mileage possible, and they really put a lot of thought into this
stuff, it's all computer-controlled, so it has what's called an adaptive learning
cycle, it perpetually is making transmission shifts schedule adjustments
to maximize acceleration fuel economy and performance, so while you're driving
and just stepping on the gas, the computer is learning how you drive, and
makes it work the best for your driving style, this is a Mustang after all so
check out the controls that they added on top of that, if you leave it normal
mode it'll do that, but look at this, you can go Sport Plus, you can go track,
but you're only supposed to do that on the racetrack
you can go drag strip, or you can even go rain, snow, wet, all by just flipping this
mode switch, so of course I had to take it to a race track and really it worked
quite well for an automatic transmission it was really speedy around those
corners, and if you want to do the shift in yourself, heck they got these paddle
shifters here, down and up puts them into different gears, it's kind of like the
Beauty and the Beast rolled into one these ten speed automatics, my wife she loved
it, she just put it into drive in on normal mode and on it's smoothest suspension
setting, she had it on, she loved driving around she said it was great, but the
same ten speed transmission, take it to the track, put it on track mode, hey it's
a completely different animal, it can take it, same transformation just
different settings, and I know people are going to say, Scotty yeah but does it hold
well it's the same transmission that they used in the Big F-150 trucks
they've tested them out in those trucks, and none of my customers with the f-150
trucks had any serious problems with them, they had a little software glitch here
and there which was reprogrammed for free, but the transmissions themselves seem to
be holding up really well, so I for one am glad that Ford did most of the
engineering on this ten-speed rear wheel drive transmission, and not General
Motors, so now you know a bit about 10 speed automatic transmissions, and why it
might be the transmission for you, power when you want it, and fuel economy when you
don't, and there's no pedaling necessary like in this 10 speed, so if you never
want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that
Bell!