Originally Posted By: H2GURU
If you do your own work then the Toyota Corolla is easier to work on. These can be rented at Enterprise . The Corolla has a CHAIN to drive the cam, not sure on the Honda? I would say the Honda has better eye appeal.
The Honda 1.8 has a chain.
Originally Posted By: saaber1
but personally I would just as soon have a shotgun blast to the face as drive one of those whiny, nasty, noisy, Honda CVT trannys (o.k. flame suit on).
Add unreliable to that list.
Originally Posted By: ekpolk
You two are dead off the money. Couldn't disagree more. I love the CVT in my Prius. Of course, the trans in the Prius is not the typical cone-and-belt design seen in most CVTs, it's a planetary gear set. It never disengages, and it has no slippage. I find it's behavior to be turbine-like. There's never any shift shock. The engine's rpms slide up or down smoothly to whatever point is optimum. If I could have one of these cars with a good CVT, I'd take it in a heartbeat.
It seems to vary from vehicle to vehicle. Some CVT designs are better than others. Many auto magazines have commended Nissan for the excellent VQ35/Jatco CVT combination in the new Altima, yet they weren't big fans of the CVT in the 4-cyl.