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Subaru does fake shift points when you mash on it. When you're just driving around like an 86-year-old it eschews the fake shift points and operates optimally. You don't really notice the dreaded CVT drone though when you're driving like an 86-year-old as it doesn't peg at 5,500 and sit there until you let off the gas. Optimal there is just to languidly putter from 0-60 in a long time with the RPMs down around 1,800 to 2,000 or whatever. Objectively it's worse but I agree, I prefer the fake shift points as well. Listening to the same pitch wheeze for 10-11 seconds every time you merge on the freeway is not fun.
It may not be as fun to listen to, but the CVT keeps the engine at the optimum power point while the transmission continuously changes the gear ratio to increase speed. A properly designed CVT will always be faster than an automatic or manual(that's the whole point behind a CVT), although I am not saying that current CVTs are all properly designed and optimized.
Drove a Honda HRV with CVT. Felt like it was powered by rubber bands. Did not like it.
I’m hardly an automobile enthusiast, but our family has had 2 HRV’s. They seemed to drive perfectly fine to me. I do think the HRV’s run on the noisy side though…I assumed that had more to do with the 4 cylinder engine than the transmission.
It may not be as fun to listen to, but the CVT keeps the engine at the optimum power point while the transmission continuously changes the gear ratio to increase speed. A properly designed CVT will always be faster than an automatic or manual(that's the whole point behind a CVT), although I am not saying that current CVTs are all properly designed and optimized.
Dunno, nobody makes a CVT to handle enough power to really test that statement. As far as regular A to B vehicles I don't really have an issue with them. They're smooth shifting and stay unobtrusively out of the way 90% of the time which is basically the mission statement for automatic transmissions and not performance in A to B cars. People don't want DCTs in their economy cars. They're jerky, you feel the shifts, not to mention the price tags and high maintenance. They want lazy, slow shifting, torque converted autos that do whatever they do and they don't want to know they're doing anything. CVT excels at that and they don't even need to be slow shifting to do it since they can just do the CVT thing. They can just program in the fake shifting for freeway merges. Yes, it's slightly less efficient for the 2% of the time you spend doing that but it gets rid of the 10-12 seconds of same pitch wheeze. Subjectives are sometimes more important than objectives, better to be slower and less annoying than faster and annoying. The other 98% of the time the CVT can unobtrusively vary the gear ratios.
Maybe someone will do a performance CVT sometime. Closest is probably the LC500h which I'd best describe as complicated. It combines both a regular automatic plus the ubiquitous Toyota planetary-type CVT to handle the power. Given my experience with how quickly the Nissan Maxima overheats and goes into limp mode and how conservative Toyota is I have to believe they did it for a reason. Designing overly complex things for the sake of being overly complex isn't what Toyota ever really does. That's more a Mercedes or BMW thing. The LC is by no means an outright performance car and even there they're doing weird auto/cvt things to handle pretty modest output.
I avoided CVT for the used Honda I bought to tow behind my RV. I wanted to tow with the wheels on the road. Apparently you can’t safely do that with a CVT vehicle.
From these earlier comments though, at what subsequent year were the CVT transmissions able to last a long time like the traditional ones?
I had a CVT in my 2013 Honda Accord that I ran 125,000 miles before I traded it in, and it had no problems and showed no degradation. The only unusual problems I have read about re CVTs were some issues with JATCO CVTs, but that's just one manufacturer, and even those may have been addressed over the years. I think a lot of people rant about CVTs and say they're unreliable, who haven't owned one. Even conventional automatics and DCT have issues, and not rarely, the issues are severe enough that they lead to recalls. No one says anything about that.
I will never buy a car with CVT, tried it once in a while (when I have no choice when renting for business) and hate them with passion.
Why do you dislike CVTs? What about them do you find annoying?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shark01
No, do not trust them…..auto companies use them just to save money, and just want them to make it out of the warranty period.
Car makers are moving to CVTs because they are more efficient with an added benefit of taking up less space than a 10 speed automatic transmission that has a lot more parts. A 10 speed automatic needs 4 planetary gear sets. A CVT has two variable pulleys and a belt.
I and many others will stick with our 50+ mpg on free fuel (home brew)
Anything under 40 mpg is not gonna survive my dozer. *Tho my gas (ick) Forester (with manual) is on borrowed time, since it has a set of fully studded Nokkians for freezing rain days. If it ever dies or needs repair... it's toast, I'll haul it to the crusher.
Snowmobile with CVT works if it gets too deep around here.
When renting (~100 vehicles / yr) I always trade for a vehicle with a REAL transmission (usually a Hyundai Santa Fe)
wow! i am trying to wrap my head around a situation where a person would rent a different vehicle, every 3.5 days in a year. i am not doubting your statement, just can't figure out what happens to cause that situation to arise repeatedly.
CVTs are everywhere - have we finally accepted their reliability?
They're probably reliable enough, but I don't like them.
When I had the transmission rebuilt on my 90 GMC 4X4, I had a shift kit put in. I like feeling the soft "whump" as it shifts gears. Once in a while someone will pass me as he accelerates, and I always listen to his transmission shift. It is almost always the sound of a mushy shift. I just don't like it.
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