CVT vs geared automatic

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Originally Posted By: jdeare
I had a rental Altima (4-cyl) last year. Initially I thought it had been abused because it had ~60,000 miles on it and it felt like the transmission was slipping badly. Then I realized it was a CVT. But maybe it was still abused?


A rental car with 60K miles has certainly been abused.
 
I have a Dodge Caliber R/T AWD with a CVT. I am not a big fan of the CVT. It's OK, but i would rather have a 5 or 6 speed automatic over the CVT. A big problem with the CVT in the Calibers is that the torque is electronically limited from 0-20(approx), for transmission longevity. The result is a car that is an absolute SLUG off the line. Midrange acceleration is great. I drove a Sebring sedan, which is a heavier car, with the same engine as my Caliber but with a 4 speed automatic. The difference off the line was HUGE.

I actually wanted a manual transmission, butt eh car wasn't available with AWD and a manual.
 
Originally Posted By: barlowc
Originally Posted By: jdeare
I had a rental Altima (4-cyl) last year. Initially I thought it had been abused because it had ~60,000 miles on it and it felt like the transmission was slipping badly. Then I realized it was a CVT. But maybe it was still abused?


A rental car with 60K miles has certainly been abused.


A sad, but safe bet.
 
Sorry for my late arrival. Let me reiterate what I've said here before. I absolutely love the turbine-like behavior of the CVT in my TCH. This transmission is totally different from all the other CVT designs out there (belts and cones and so forth). There's even a debate, which I judge to be pretty silly about whether the Toyota HSD is actually a CVT at all. Some claim it's a one-speed (and that one speed happens to be infinitely variable...). While it's an interesting "how many angels fit on a pinhead" argument, all I know is that this is a supremely well behaved transmission. There is simply never ANY form of shift shock at all. It just puts the rpms where they need to be as if the engine is simply bolted to the wheels. The ONLY small fly in the ointment, IMO is that after a full-throttle accel to high speed (such as a brisk Interstate on-ramp climb to 80-85 mph, the rpms will seem to take longer than I'd like to settle down (but per my ScanGauge, the fuel flow drops as it should, as in the engine is "coasting").

Anyway, the more I drive my TCH, the cruder that stepped gear automatics seem to me. Even our super-smooth Avalon is starting to feel crude to me.
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I keep wondering why it keeps burning gas while at a standstill at a redlight, and then, when the light turns green, there are all those messy shifts on the way to cruising speed...
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Continuously Variable Transmission...sounds like the hybrid drive is that to me.

There's even a decades old mechanical version of it.

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I haven't driven CVTs enough to say if I like them other than to notice that they have creep like an on/off switch, and sometimes feel like they are constanly lugging the engine when cruising at lower speeds.

My brother bought a new '08 Altima 2.5S and at first really liked the car and the idea of CVT. Within a year the car drove him nuts with being so unpredictable. He traded it off on a new '09 Accord and has had it for over a year and likes it. There were things I liked a lot better about the Altima unrelated to the CVT. It rode better and quieter than the Accord. I think the Altima would've been better with a conventional automatic though.

I suspect the CVT is not perfected yet in terms of reliability and being unobtrusive or maybe can't be perfected. A lot of automakers like GM dropped them.I'm not real knowledgeable about them but I've heard Japan uses them a lot and the ones they have are much better than the one used in Altima here.
 
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Originally Posted By: ekpolk
While it's an interesting "how many angels fit on a pinhead" argument, all I know is that this is a supremely well behaved transmission. There is simply never ANY form of shift shock at all. It just puts the rpms where they need to be as if the engine is simply bolted to the wheels.


That's been my experience with the Ford CVT, it does what you want when you want it. Perfect trans behavior, IMO.

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Anyway, the more I drive my TCH, the cruder that stepped gear automatics seem to me.


That's been my view as well, after spending some time in the Freestyle even good 6-speed autos feel needlessly busy and still have certain bad downshift points which are non-existant with the CVT.
 
I was given a 2010 Outback at my Subaru dealer as a loaner, while my car was undergoing repair of a defective clutch. The loaner was brand new with 8 miles on it. It was fully loaded with leather and premium sound. It had a CVT which is a new venture that Subaru is going into. I must say that it's very smooth shifting, I was a but disappointed with the power since my Impreza has the same engine. However, the outback was a bigger car and got better gas mileage. We'll have to see how these CVT's hold up. I have a feeling that Toyota assisted them in developing their CVT's
 
From what I read in reviews, Subaru CVT is one of the best in the market, even better than the Nissans'. They may be new comers with thos technology, but they apparently get it right from the gecko.

From what I understand, when driving with it, the feeling is closer to driving an automatic so people are less prone to be lost in a new environment. This CVT achieves also stellar fuel economy.

I just cannot wait for them to put it in the Impreza (last thing that hold me buying the Impreza in the poor fuel economy).
 
As far as being less expensive, try pricing the mechatronic assembly or the cones for the Ford CFT30. Chain-type CVTs are anything but cheap (over $7000 dealer cost for an assembly), which is one reason Ford phased them out, the other being it couldn't handle the 3.5's torque. [/quote]

Get them "worked on" at the local tranny shop? NO WAY! You are wedded to the Stealership.

Buy a car out of warranty with a CVT? NO WAY!

I'm almost to the point where I would not consider buying ANY new car, even a throw-away 10 year 100K warrantied el-cheapo with 15 airbags and electronic control of everything (no offense to those who think these cars are the greatest thing going).
 
It's odd Nissan totally comitted to the CVT while many others tried it and abandoned it.

I believe Nissan and Infiniti models offer CVT's in all but the Versa and the trucks.
 
Originally Posted By: Norm Olt
As far as being less expensive, try pricing the mechatronic assembly or the cones for the Ford CFT30. Chain-type CVTs are anything but cheap (over $7000 dealer cost for an assembly), which is one reason Ford phased them out, the other being it couldn't handle the 3.5's torque.


Get them "worked on" at the local tranny shop? NO WAY! You are wedded to the Stealership.

Buy a car out of warranty with a CVT? NO WAY!

I'm almost to the point where I would not consider buying ANY new car, even a throw-away 10 year 100K warrantied el-cheapo with 15 airbags and electronic control of everything (no offense to those who think these cars are the greatest thing going). [/quote]

so very true!

CVT's have so much torque management written into the programming to protect them from excessive loads that it ruins the driving experience.

Check your warranty if you have much more than a couple hundred foot pounds of torque.
 
Originally Posted By: Pesca
From what I read in reviews, Subaru CVT is one of the best in the market, even better than the Nissans'. They may be new comers with thos technology, but they apparently get it right from the gecko.



Subaru is not a newcomer with CVTs. The 1989 Subaru Justy was available with a CVT. However, it does not have a stellar reputation for reliability. The have been selling small car with CVTs outside of the USA for a long time.

The 2011 Outback with 2.5l NA engine and CVT has a towing capacity of 2700 lbs. That is the same as with the 5MT and previous generation with 4EAT. So they seem to think that the CVT is as durable as the old 4EAT - at least until the warranty expires.

The Subaru CVT has "lifetime" fluid, but it must be changed at about 25K miles when the vehicle is used for towing.
 
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