CVT

[19Walt93]

It's already been stated here somewhere that Ford used Toyotas hybrid system, including the eCVT.

That's close, Ford sourced their hybrid system from Haldex, the same company that sold it to Toyota.

 

[Roert42]

I am a big fan of a cvt on the highway, great for optimizing mpg.

In stop and go they are pretty unbearable.

Some companies even program them to “shift”, which completely defeats the purpose of the cvt in the first place.

 

[19Walt93]

Ford used a ZF CVT in Freestyles and 500s because they crutched the lack of power from retaining the 3.0 in the heavier chassis. Jack Knucklehead Nasser bought Volvo and a bunch of other foreign brands and the Europeans were using the ZF transmissions. The foreign companies just exchanged the transmissions if they had internal problems but Ford insisted we fix them. They had no pressure tap to take readings, we had to trust the information from the PCM. The valve body(mechatronic unit) was $3000(in 2005) and was not serviceable. The variator assembly was another $3000, had non serviceable internal seals and there was no way to pressure test them even with the trans disassembled. If we trusted a part and didn't replace it, that was an "ineffective repair" and Ford didn't want to pay to do it over. If we replaced parts that we couldn't pin point a defect with, that was "over repair" and Ford didn't want to pay for it so we'd end up in warranty "counselling" process and get crucified for 6 months. Typical German design, over complicated and over priced.