So today marks one full week I've been driving a rental Murano with a CVT while my wife's car is in the shop(in case you wondered - No, a TSX does NOT have 8-10 inches of ground clearance. )

This is the first CVT I've ever driven, and it's OK but weird as hell sometimes. Give it the average amount of gas from a stop, and the revs jump immediately to about 4000 and stay there while you get this odd pulled-by-a-slinky acceleration until the car catches up. Once rolling, it feels like a slipping auto when you accelerate, unless you really hop on the gas. Going down hills off the gas, it arranges engine-braking and varies the ratio to maintain a constant speed - intentional software work, I'm sure. It's kind of cool, but a little disconcerting when you're used to driving a regular manual or slush-box. Not sure I could get used to it.

On the plus side, the trip computer says I have been averaging exactly 20 mpg - better than expected for a fairly big SUV - probably because of the tranny. Otherwise, it doesn't suck near as bad as I thought it would, but is not something I'd ever own.

Anyway, the logic behind the CVT is kind of cool, and I see abunch of car makers going to it(Audi's is supposedly very good and more like a normal auto). But, manual FTW.

 

my sisters altima has it...its annoying as hell

 

Buddy of mine was driving a rental car with CVT. It cruised on the interstate at 6000 rpm and held that whenever he was accelerating. Seems like that would be harder on gas, he also hated the noise. He said it might have been broken though because it never went into a low range.

 

i hate them...i feel like they are not prediactable, even though they are, i just hate the way they feel and the motor doesnt feel like its revving but rather just staying constant
ewweeek not for me

 

I raced with CVT cars on Gran Tursimo, it sounded funny, rpms jump up to 6k and just stay there, the entire race.

 

It depends on their tuning but theoretically it always puts you in the right spot. I wouldnt want one. Although the 'new' cvts "shift" instead of moving smoothly to give people the affect they are used to

 

I had a 4.2l a6 cvt loaner car once. I thought it worked well and it hauled *** at any speed. However it was a VW so I know it wouldn't last long.

 

I don't know. If it's anything like my last VW, it'll last a long time, just never work right. VW electronics = FAIL.

 

Me and 2 guys from my team just went on a trip to Poland from here. Round trip 2100km, over 2 days. We used a car from the company fleet, a VW Passat, 2,0L turbo diesel with 4 wheel drive. We pushed the car a bit on the autobahn (but not more then I push my own BMW from -99!!) and the Polish roads in that area are not the best, but still…

We needed to fill up the oil twice, adding 1L both times (dipstick was dry when oil lamp came on). The anti spinn system broke, 3 bulbs broke and then started to work and then broke again, something started to rattle like crazy under the car and the rear suspension sounded like nails on a black board. When we returned the car, it had about 7000km on the odo. VW just is not in the same level as the rest of the German cars.

 

they used to make reliable cars, then they went downhill