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Have one in my 05 Ford Freestyle and love it. Takes a bit to get used to the whole no shifting thing. You keep waiting for the shift change that never comes, the speed keeps going up and the RPM's keep dropping. Odd feeling, but very smooth in operation. Once you get used to it, other vehicles seem downright rude when they change gears and you feel it.
What Egg said. When it works it works great, but it's not an easily-serviced unit from what I hear.
In my mind, nothing like a regular manual transmission, with 5 or better 6 speeds forward.
Starting with GM, the manufacturers have worked diligently to answer a question I didn't ask with all their automatic and "semi-automatic" transmissions. Sure, a computer can shift faster and at a more consistant RPM. News to them: I don't care.
I have one in my Jeep Patriot and its smooth and so far trouble-free. I like it for the most part, and I do like it better than some of the 5 and 6 spd. auto's I've driven, but I wish they could make it handle a bit more revs, the redline is only 6000 or so. Not that I make a habit of taking it that high, but a 4 cyl. could use a few more revs when passing.
CVT's are very difficult to make for vehicles with large engines. It has no wear components, read not rebuildable. The ability to make a good one is highly dependent on quality control. I tend to be a little more sceptical of them, but have talked with lots of people who are happy with them. In Japan CVT's outnumber conventional automatics, but again most are under 2.0L applications.
I have a conventional automatic in my 2002 Subaru Forester and my girlfriend has a CVT in her 2012 Subaru Outback. I much prefer driving the conventional automatic as it has much better pickup and response. In her CVT I have to push the pedal about an inch before the tranny even starts to kick in. But, I do like the smoothness of the CVT on the highway. I'll stick with a conventional when I'm ready to buy new unless the reliability of the CVT's have improved. I've read too many negative reviews about the CVT on the internet.
I like the consistent pull from always being in peak torque when going WOT. It does take some pedal and time to kick down, but I think that has more to do with TCU/ECU tuning then the nature of the CVT. Any Nissan (model\yesr(s)) that has CVT issues gets a 120.000 mile warranty. I've never noticed a whine in any CVT I've driven and "manual" mode just uses set ratios. It's slower and pointless.
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