Ford phasing out four- & five-speed automatic transmissions, impact on local supplier minimal

By Tim Beissmann | January 20th, 2010

Ford Australia is running out the four-speed and five-speed automatic transmissions fitted to its locally made Falcon and Territory and replacing them with an internally sourced six-speed unit.

The new six-speed – different to the German-manufactured ZF currently used by Ford – is expected to appear in the diesel Territory and four-cylinder EcoBoost Falcon from next year.

The outgoing four-speed automatic is manufactured locally at the Drive Systems International (DSI) plant in Albury, which has been supplying gearboxes to Ford Australia for almost 40 years.

DSI Albury plant manager, Howard Morey, said the revelation has come as no surprise.

“[Ford] were already running out that four-speed auto which – in significant volume – was going to pan out in about July this year.

“It was always going to happen, we’ve known that was going to happen for the last three years,” he said.

The four-speed automatic is currently used in the rear-wheel drive Territory, LPG Falcon and the Falcon wagon.

Ford’s decision to drop the four-speed from its passenger cars seemingly puts the future of the Falcon wagon in further doubt, although the possibility remains that it too could adopt the new six-speed automatic.

Unlike the sedan, the wagon did not receive the complete FG update in 2008 and has since been available in BF III guise.

Ford claims it is selling steadily at around 400 per month, but Ford Australia President and CEO, Marin Burela, told CarAdvice in November the success of the Mondeo wagon would heavily influence a decision on the Falcon wagon.

“With the two of them sitting side by side, we’re just letting the market tell us what they want and once we’ve received that … we will know then the direction we need to move in.”

But contrary to recent reports Mr Morey believes the four-speed will live on into next year, admitting that as far as he is aware DSI still plans to supply Ford with transmissions for its ute into 2011.

“We were still going to build the four-speed for them in low volume for the commercial range right out until next year.”

DSI produces around 100 four-speed units per day for Ford and Mr Morey said the low volume production would reduce its supply by about three-quarters to between 500 and 600 per month.

Despite this, he said the impact of reduced volume would have minimal impact on DSI and its workers.

“We’ve already got other contracts and they just so happen to start at the same time as Ford are finishing off.

“We’ve been in quite a bit of trouble last year but our other markets are starting to ramp at the moment. It’s really hard to tell exactly what’s going to happen but what we see right now is that it’s probably not going to have a huge impact,” he said.

He said DSI is starting work on a new Ssangyong platform mid-year and beginning on other platforms with owner Geely later in 2010, and hoped for a smooth transition of volume.

“We don’t even know exactly what the run-out for Ford is. They’ve told us July, we know a number, but you never know exactly until you get about three months out and then you start to hone it down,” he said.

July was to be the date that Ford’s new Euro V-compliant, liquid injection LPG six-cylinder engine arrived which was to be mated to the new six-speed automatic. Mr Morey said recent reports that it would not arrive until around October surprised him.

“We were figuring mid-year but they [Ford] may not have told us yet that the gas platform has been delayed or something like that.

“Sometimes these things happen, but there has been no correspondence apart from what we’re aware of and that’s mid-year. But notwithstanding, anything can change.”

The five-speed automatic, sourced from France, is currently used in lower specification models of the Falcon and Falcon ute. Its life is dependent on supply, but is expected to be short-lived, and could end with the arrival of the four-cylinder engine or earlier.

When sales of the four-speed and five-speed do end, it will mean that Ford’s locally produced vehicles will be available only with six-speed transmissions. That will lead to improved fuel economy and also a likely price rise.

Valet Dabess

i drove a 3 speed auto once. man they suck…

ba g220

very insightful comment
fourl6

with the right engine im sure a 3 speed would be great… actually having the power and torque curve to use a whole rev range

Minnow

They are good if its got a big motor with plenty of power and torque. I had a ’87 dark teal metallic XF Fairmont ghia with the 4.1L EFI with the old borgwarner 3spd, gear changes were smooth as, was so comfortable to drive and had so much torque 3rd gear was achievable at 35km/h and it wasnt exactly a slouch, no doubt helped by its relatively light weight. Only problem when above 110 it felt like it needed a 4th gear.

Camry lover

Out of curiosity, how reliable did you find your Ford Falcon? I have heard many bad stories about Fords, and would like to here what Ford owners have to say. I personally drive a Toyota, and find them flawless.

Jack

Our Fords have been reliable, comfortable, and especially torquey.
Superior to Holden competitors in almost any time I have driven them. Toyotas are a different proposition – they are reliable and tend to drive higher in the rev range, so driving a Falcon may take a little getting used to being so light on the throttle to coast along.

With the Ford, the torque comes on low down in the 6cyl and V8 Falcons, and they quietly eat the km’s with very little fuss. Usually they are more softly sprung, which is fantastic on the highway run (you end up far more refreshed); but they cannot be hooned around a round about as easily as a harder sprung car.

1970 302 V8 XW Fairmont easily more refined than HG Holdens, and HQ, HJ and HZ Holdens I drove. So a decade ahead in comfort and refinement.

EBII-ED 6cyl Falcon easily more refined, comfortable and reliable than VR Commodore of same era. Top end the motor was rough, however the GM V6 was whiny, harsh throughout its range, and construction was more tinny.

AUII Falcon had more comfortable seats, was more solidly built (forged front suspension vs Macpherson struts, for eg) and far better on the highway run than similar VXII-VY, had fewer faults per 1000 units throughout the AU run than the VT-X-Y series; however, the around town ride of the VY was very pleasant and capable. Looks of the AU polarised, I’d give this one to the Holden.

BA – BF Falcons superior to VY-VZ, especially the excellent mating of the Inline 6 to the ZF 6 speed Auto. Some feel the build quality of late AU was better than BA, something that has been improved on in the time since 2002. Again, great on Australia’s highways for long hauls. Excellent handling. One BF XR6 4sp I drove for 3000km in Western SA did not fault, was as tight as a nut, and returned 8.6L/100km. Impressive.

Territory has been fantastic – great build quality, extremely flexible, superb handling for the size, and easily competitive to SUVs, even today. Again, the torque of the inline 6 and the 6 speed ZF gearbox are a great pacakge. Combined with AWD, it’s been a great family car over 100,000km with a flat tyre, chipped windscreen, and squeaky brakes (dust on them, easily sprayed off) on occasions as the only headaches. Economy? 10.5-11.5L/100km for us.

Hope these experiences help. We have also owned Toyotas which have been flawless to electrically challenged in older, second hand models.

Jack

The three speed Cruise-O-Matic behind a 302 Windsor is a beautiful thing.

GULAG

Going to be interesting with a column shift auto in the ute!!

It currently has a 4 speed and the gearing is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wrong.

Needs a lower first, needs to drop into 60kmh in 4th, needs not to *clunck* when you go from fwd/revs and back.

Bring it on, about time
Baddass

It is about time. A six-speed auto should be more popular these days, especially for the fuel economy benefits. Still, not a complete revelation, as the 4-speed and 5-speed still carry on for a while yet. I’m glad that DSI isn’t left off to badly, and that they still have a sustainable future.
Andrew M

Dont know what he means about the ute retaining the 4sp……

The ute doesnt currently have a 4 speed unless its an E-Gas.

They currently put the 5sp auto as standard, even on the column shift models.

In reading the article, and before I got further down the page, I thought to myself, if DSI are going to keep making 4sp, then who into the future will they sell their boxes too…..I was thinking chinese or something, then I scrolled down and had a chuckle.

This was a pretty good 4sp unit in its day. It had great kickdown, and always found the right gear. You can actually lock the gears back and the computer wont override it. They would probably be drooling at our 10yr old box…he he he he

Good unit in its day, but who else to take the 10 year old tech off our hands???? Yep, the Chinese. I wonder if they will fit them on the dock here once they start flooding us with their vehicles…….

On a positive note, at least the chinese imports will a little bit of Aussie bone in them.

Tim

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if most Chinese vehicles will come with 5-6 speed autos. Like most things Chinese, they will be crap…but on paper it will look good.
Drugal

@^Andrew above….

CORRECTION:

The column-auto is 4 speed only, NOT a 5 speed, i should know i just purchased one!

PS The auto is trash, as is the LPG “economy” and very flat/dull “performance”

Cheers

6t6m

I have a falcon ute brochure in front of me now and the only time a 4 speed auto is used in the falcon ute is when its paired with the LPG motor. Even the column auto in the petrol ute is 5 speed.
adam (aka mada)

4 speed auto is paired with LPG ONLY.

No one buys the current LPG setup and expects blistering performance, LPG also burn more per litre than fuel, doh!
Andrew M

Looks like I dont have to do my own correcting of an apparent correction….

Only LPG models get 4sp Auto.

Oh and LPG economy poor???
Well I bet you are still saving dollars……..

Save it for the track

I believe that the Albury company in question already supplies gearboxes to SSangyong that are not 4 speed. I think there is some sort of torque limit on them, maybe read it on here or somewhere, but I don’t think those are 4 speeders either…
Glen

BTR (now DSI) used to be Aussie owned and operated but were bought out by the chinese a few years ago. No wonder Ford didn’t bother with them to build a 6 speed auto box.

My question is though with the introduction of the internally sourced 6 speed does that mean Ford will stop using the ZF?? If so that would be a massive shame. I’ve also read elsewhere that Ford Oz may be thinking about using an 8 speed ZF box in premium models. that bastard will be kicking down every 2 seconds but man would it be fast & economical.

JEKYL & HYDE

murphy’s law says that it will stop the zf,a great shame if it does..

http://wayne.fitzsimons.info Wayne FitzSimons

DSI Albury supplied SSangYong with the 4-Speed auto in the (discontinued) Musso (very similar to the Ford unit) and I believe they supply the 6 speed auto in the SsangYong Actyon. The new DSI project for SsangYong referred to above is probably the auto box for the new SsangYong C200 (smaller crossover vehicle) to be released towrd the end of 2010.
Peter

I drive the 6 speed ZF. Dunno if it is just in the make I have, but it doesnt go back into first when you stop at lights etc – you start in second. It lurches a tiny bit when you stop, sometimes. It is a sweet box though, and in “sport” holds the car in gear until around 5000 rpm depending on how you are accelerating, drops down quicker, brilliant for having a bit of fun, even without using the paddles. Except that your fuel use increases by about 20% even driving kinda normally. It is also pretty tough – same one used in the AM. Kickdown/dropping gears with paddles at high revs no problem, and pretty instantaneous. Hope the ford box is as good.
Num1ber

Why dont they wack one of these 6 speed transmissions in the Focus XR5, I realise that they are a sports car but it would be good for those who dont drive manual

Peter

we’ve got that 2.5 turbo in an s40 with a 5 speed auto. It runs well, loses a bit on the manual but is far more practical for day to day driving, but it is pretty pointless trying to drive it with the “manual shift” or whatever, you know where you tip the stick up and down to change gears. I just get confused doing that, it is not really intuitive at all. It’d be much better if it had paddles IMO, though they take a little getting used to as well.
Trump

XR5 is wrong wheel drive, wouldn’t work

Peter

is that paddles or the 6 speed that wont work? the s40T5 is FWD as well. They had AWD too, but FWD is much more fun to drive, IMO (look at all those TLAs! [that's three letter acronyms])

toxic_horse

‘four-cylinder EcoBoost Falcon’ WTF ??
Have I missed somthing

Safety First

Ummm Welcome to the current…. (lol)
I’d suggest you Google it…. Yes Ford Australia has been charged with turning the FWD specific EB4 engine into a Longitudenal RWD unit for use in Falcon, T6, Mustang and Explorer.

On the gearbox side, I have heard a rumour that the I6 won’t take the current in house 6 speeders, something with not lining up properly. They do have something comming but it is a litle bit away. I know that they can’t use the bordeaux box with the current E-Gas Computer so the new system is needed. Appaently Bordeaux will cease to be in 2012(ish) so that’s gone. THe only thing I don’t get is why the ZF supposedly doesn’t fit the wagon?? After all it fited the Fairlane and the Ute…

toxic_horse

Sounds like a cool conversion potential for a escort or cortina.

Andrew Juma

Seriously, the 4 speed thing is out of the window.
Tomas79

News just in, Looks like the next generations ford Falcon is trully dead…
Reading some of the other motoring publications on the net,

“source says the new Mustang will remain rear-wheel-drive, though it looks set to be built on its own compact platform and sold around the world rather than extended to cater for large-car applications such as the Falcon or Taurus.”

“In a discussion about Ford’s global rear-wheel-drive large-car platform, the Ford insider told *************, “The [next-generation rear-drive] Falcon is dead.”

“In a further twist this week, Ford Australia axed more than 30 contracted employees who Drive believes were working on computer-aided design studies for projects relating to the next-generation Falcon.”

ba g220

I suggest you don’t believe everything you read in the media. Just because a few small sections of the media don’t have any better to report doesn’t mean the world is coming to an end.

The decision on the falcons future will be made clear within the next 18 months, until then take a deep breath and get on with life.

The four speed was always destined to be replaced at some point. Good transmission in its day but a little outdated by todays standed.
Andrew M

Tomas,
Get over it dude, that article was based on 3rd party speculation.
Try this one on for size. It also contains more recent quotes that this time arent taken out of context
………………………………………………………………………
He also effectively dismissed suggestions that the Falcon, a traditional rear-wheel drive design, would be replaced by the front-drive Taurus built for the USA. The Taurus has already failed once in Australia, in the 1990s. “We’re going to have a large sedan. The whole thing about rear-wheel drive? We’re going to have a rear-wheel drive car,” Mulally said.
“And we’ve got the Mustang. So you can imagine, going forward, that there will be a next version of the Falcon that will be even better. In capital letters.” Rumours of a end to the Falcon’s run in Australia, and perhaps even an end to local production by Ford, were categorically denied yesterday in Detroit by the president of Ford Australia, Marin Burela.

“No company that was going to pull out of Australia would be spending $230 million on bringing the world’s best powertrain technology to Australia for the Falcon,” Burela told the Herald Sun.

He said the coming introduction of a four-cylinder engine in the Falcon would allow Ford to compete against new rivals, including the Toyota Camry, as well as setting a new class benchmark for engine efficiency.

“Our strategy is very clear. We took a very bold step forward when we announced a significant investment in Falcon only a few months ago. No other local manufacturer has committed that sort of investment in recent times,” Burela said.

“Why did we do that? We did that to give Falcon an incremental level of growth opportunity over time.”If you look at the things we have done on Falcon, and we are planning for Falcon, there is absolutely no reason for us to deviate because the plan is working.”
……………………………………………………
This is ontop of other links that I have posted previously that ARENT based on speculation. Perhaps you conveiniently missed them as you went quiet as a mouse once I posted them.

The let go of design contractors is said to be those that were working on the Territory and FG updates which are at completion.
This is a normal process once projects are completed

Tomas79

Andrew M,
It’s not like you can believe Burela in a situation such as this!!
Have you ever hear a CEO say he was gonna close down his operation, months ahead?!!

Good luck to ford, but I know what is a little bit more credible here!!

Andrew M

Burela wasnt the only one being quoted.

Mullaly himself is also quoted in the extract I pasted.
Further to that, if you saw the video link I posted it came from a credible auto jurno reporting with direct quotes from Mullaly putting the story straight.
More information and logic suggests the Falcon will live on rather than not.

The media took a quote that went something like “this is the last time the Falcon will be uniquely Australian” and the assumed the worst

Mullaly is quoted many times as saying the Falcon is part of the global plan. They declare not to ignore our market

Bent 8 Brigade

Believe anything that falls out of Burela’s mouth at your peril

Andrew M

Why do you not trust Burela???

He is the best chance Ford Aus has of having its voice heard. He over turned Detroits decision of canning the I6 this year, and gained support to upgrade the motor for further use.
He is fighting for Australia, and he is one of the very few company men you see around that actually have passion.

So far Burela has proven to be an honest and well sorted man.

Bent 8 Brigade

lol ok

noj

I have heard the Falcon is being used as a mule for the global car. Apparently that is why they are introducing the 4 cyl and now the different transmission.

matt

hmm another new piece of equipment being engineered into the falcon? yeah i dont think the falcons going anywhere… plus isnt the the new taurus nearly as big as a statesman? people started whinging about the commodores size by the time VE came round, i personally wouldnt like a statesman sized FWD car, no matter how good the reviews are from America. Oh and more on topic, when was this 4 speeder good? they pack it in around the 150 000 mark religiously.