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People fail to realize is that Ford has put the their aluminum truck through so many test including spraying it with salt water for a year streight and exposeing the paint to the elements for a year also and side impact and front head on crashes and they have stretched it to see its breaking point. In other words Ford did not just start making their money maker out of aluminum without testing it out first. Ford has a huge testing laboratory's in Deaborn Mi. And I'm sure the manufacture of the aluminum for Ford has also done plenty of testing. Ford tested there aluminum trucks for years before going into production they put their test trucks through more pounding than any of us would ever put a vehicle through.
I sure hope Ford tested this new truck more than they tested their CVT transmission in their Focus before they launched it out to the public.
I sure hope Ford tested this new truck more than they tested their CVT transmission in their Focus before they launched it out to the public.
The Focus doesn't have a CVT....it's a dual-clutch automatic. There is nothing "wrong" with the dual clutch transmission, per se, but it has a different feel and behavior than a traditional automatic. This "feel" is what some customers are griping about but once you get used to it they are fine. Many others use dual-clutch automatics, too, as they offer better fuel mileage than traditional automatics.
That being said, there were *some* of the dual clutch transmissions that didn't have the software calibrated correctly and they issued a recall for that. My wife's car was one of them, and quite frankly I cannot tell the difference between how it drives now and how it was prior to the software update. I CAN, however, tell the difference between that transmission and the conventional automatic in my Fusion.
As far as the aluminum is concerned when it comes to salt, aluminum holds up much better than steel in it. There is a reason most big heavy trucks out there (Freightliner, etc) have aluminum cabs, fuel tanks, etc.
The Focus doesn't have a CVT....it's a dual-clutch automatic. There is nothing "wrong" with the dual clutch transmission, per se, but it has a different feel and behavior than a traditional automatic. This "feel" is what some customers are griping about but once you get used to it they are fine. Many others use dual-clutch automatics, too, as they offer better fuel mileage than traditional automatics.
That being said, there were *some* of the dual clutch transmissions that didn't have the software calibrated correctly and they issued a recall for that. My wife's car was one of them, and quite frankly I cannot tell the difference between how it drives now and how it was prior to the software update. I CAN, however, tell the difference between that transmission and the conventional automatic in my Fusion.
As far as the aluminum is concerned when it comes to salt, aluminum holds up much better than steel in it. There is a reason most big heavy trucks out there (Freightliner, etc) have aluminum cabs, fuel tanks, etc.
The dual clutch transmissions are jerky, but there are single-clutch automated manuals out there that will make you wish you had a clutch pedal instead. See for example Car and Driver's experience with a Ram ProMaster.
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