To me it's all about drivability. You'll most likely always be in the right gear at the right time. My current truck is seldom in the right gear when merging into interstate traffic. I'm anxiously awaiting my upcoming purchase. I trust Ford and am ready to take the plunge. When I test drove one I thought it was excellent. Skipping gears under light acceleration is flawless. Drive one and you may have a different perspective.

 

Mine has been great so far. It took around 50 miles or so to adapt to my driving style. I have no complaints and I've been getting better MPGs than I expected.

 

I've lived with mine for about 1500 miles and it seems OK. That's OK, but not great. On fairly flat level interstate with the cruise set at 70 I'm getting 21 mpg. As soon as a hill comes in it first shifts to 9th and then brings on some boost. For highway cruising it's pretty good.


My biggest complaint is for around town driving. If left in standard mode (not Tow/Haul or Sport mode) it NEVER uses 2nd gear. On cold mornings or starting from a stop up a grade, the engine bogs on the 1 to 3 shift. It will also skip 5th. If accelerating gradually on city streets, the first 30 to 40 percent of accelerator pedal travel feels like stepping into a bucket of mashed potatoes since there is no turbo boost. If you mash it then acceleration is brisk. Sometimes that 1-3 shift can be accompanied by a pronounced clunk. You're in 10th gear by 40 mph so any attempt to accelerate will cause a downshift to 7th or 6th gear.


You could ride around in Sport mode in which case ALL gears are used and each is held longer but you won't get above 6th gear unless you're over 60 mph and it pounds your fuel mileage. But, put it in Sport mode and enable Advanced Sport Trac Mode and it does haul A** and will melt the rear tires in 2WD.


I will learn to live with it but having had an '14 Explorer Sport with the six speed and immediate turbo boost it takes a bit getting used to it.

 

They designed the transmission to only use all the gears in certain situations like WOT acceleration. In most driving it will always be skipping gears. I wanted one but the deals on the 16's better. I also wanted the 2.7 which doesn't have the 10 speed anyway.

 

I have been waiting patiently for the 10 speed to be available in the Expedition before ordering a new one. This October I will A-Plan order another Expedition to replace my current one as the 2018 model is slated for the 10 speed.

 

The 10 speed auto would be the deciding factor for a truck if I was in the market. The more speeds paired with the turbos would make for a great towing rig that is always at the right power band of the engine.

My wife's 2017 CR-V has a 1.5T with a CVT and I'm a convert when it comes to more speeds paired to a turbo. Its the best of all worlds when you always have power on tap regardless of the operating conditions.

 

I have the 10 speed in my 2017 Lariat with the Gen2 3.5 EB and there's a couple of things you need to realize. Since Ford developed the 10 speed (in a joint venture with GM) their primary consideration was gas mileage.
The 10 speed has three modes. Normal, Tow / Haul and Sport.
In Normal mode, it NEVER uses 2nd gear and rarely uses 4th. On cold mornings or when accelerating from a stop on a hill that first to third jump tends to bog the engine unless you're ready for it with a heavy right foot.
The top 3 gears are overdrives and you're in 10th by 40 mph. There's a lot of shifting in the 6, 7, 8, 9,10 ranges in light city traffic. In addition, the first one third or so of throttle travel does not bring on any boost so it sort of feels like stepping into a bucket of mashed potatoes. Lean on it, make it downshift and make boost and it will impress.
Both Tow / Haul and Sport mode delay up-shifts considerably, use all 10 gears and bring on the boost early. You'll rarely see greater than 6th gear in city driving and won't see 10th until about 65. The main difference between Tow / Haul and Sport that I can see is that Tow / Haul provides considerably more engine braking. Either one will produce excitement from a standing start. You'll get to test out Traction Control (or you could just disable it and have some fun). Both take a big toll on fuel mileage.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the 10 speed and most of my driving is done in Normal mode. I just takes a bit of getting used to.

Oh yea, I'm also getting 22 mpg on the highway in an F150 with 3.55's. My Explorer Sport with the Gen1 engine and 6 speed never got that.

 

The 6 speed has had three modes for years so this is not new.
Here is a good article on the new 10 speed slushbox

Car and Driver

 

great post , good job explaining it .. it skip gears many times so you dont get complete benefit of 10 speeds at light throttle anyways. we have both the 17 std f150 and the 17 raptor.. raptor is a little better with the 4.10 gears.

 

I have a 2015 platinum waiting for 2018 to get ten speed with 5.0

 

I suspect the thing the 10 speed was actually designed for was bigger numbers in the EPA mileage wars. In real life my guess is it won't make much difference over the 6 speed.

 

In the grand scheme of things, it's supposed to be an extra 1mpg combined with port injection. In the long run it can save money, just not as fast as say an extra 2mpg or better.

 

I'm really looking forward to the new 10spd tranny...
The closer the gear spacing, the less heat that is generated during shifts and the closer the engine can be kept to it's effective (and efficient) torque curve..
It will be a BOON to those that are towing!

 

There's a fella on my route who works in be liner shop. He went to a Ford dealer and picked up a Raptor and was able to drive it to and from his shop. This guy prefers GM but never talks smack about any truck as they all make money for his shop. The cool things he said about the 10 speed and the new 3.5L ecoboost were very nice to hear. Of course he knows that GM is getting a version of the same 10 speed so he's pretty stoked but very bummed that he can't have the twin turbo to match.

 

With the numbers of EcoBoosts being sold and GMs experience with Turbo gas engines (Grand National, Syclone, Typhoon), you'd think that they would have a competitive offering. I wonder if they ever will.