Ford kicks it into 6th gear
When it comes to boosting your car's fuel efficiency, you can find all sorts of miracle products that claim to boost your mileage by as much as 50% -- but don't waste your time, they're pipe dreams. When comes down to it, there are no shortcuts -- but there are plenty of small steps automakers can take. One of those is more efficient transmissions, like the one that Ford is introducing into its fleet in 2009.Ford's new 6-speed high-efficiency transmissions increases mileage by 4% to 6%. It may not sound like much, but every little bit helps. Most automatic transmissions these days have only 4 gears. Adding 2 gears not only allows your car to accelerate more efficiently -- which saves gas -- but it also keeps your RPMs lower at highway speeds. Basically, it's like having a second overdrive.
In 2009, the new transmissions will make their debut in the Ford Escape and the Mercury Mariner, both of them SUVs. I'm not sure Ford is sending the most environmentally-conscious message in their choice of vehicles here, but any improvement is welcome -- even if it is just 1mpg. According to Ford, the new 6-speed automatic gear boxes will be installed in 98% of its vehicles by 2012.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-08-2008 @ 10:08AM
The Go Green Blog said...
ok ok...adding 2 gears may help a little bit but why waste time inventing things that just help a little bit. Why can't Ford create cars that do not depend on traditional fuel/oil. It is time to change dramatically, and I'm sorry but 2 gears is not going to save our earth.
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5-08-2008 @ 10:20AM
dann bohn said...
Because adding 2 gears is simple, they can market their new SUV's as "green" and make a quick dollar. They do this because they know consumers will fall for it. Nissan has a 6spd in the Versa for the same reason; however the Versa only gets 31 or 32mpg on the Highway. It's not hard to build a car that gets above 35mpg Nissan did it in 1996 with the Sentra, Get this -- Car's DO NOT need big engines, my 1.6litre does me just fine, I'm always passing SUV's at stop lights, while happliy re-fueling half as much.
5-08-2008 @ 10:44AM
Josh Loposer said...
True, 2 gears won't save the planet, but 6 speed transmissions will help efficiency. I think the reason that Ford's putting it on the Escape first is so they can say they have a hybrid that gets 35mpg. The Escape Hybrid -- Ford's only hybrid -- only gets a puny 34mpg currently.
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