I figured there is a lot of knowledge out here on newer car stuff. My sister and her husband are car shopping. He is looking at Nissans 1-3 years old, which have constant variable transmissions. She googled them, see some mixed reviews. They don't go offroading or anything, this would be for a family truckster. Mostly city driving, running the kids places. Are they something to stay far, far away from? Better or worse than an automatic?

They are usually only good for 100,000 miles before they start having trouble.

arent they an all band transmission

centrifugal clutch style trans.

Seems like city driving kills those transmissions a lot quicker. On the highway they will last, but if you do a lot of stop and go, I would look for something that doesn't have the CVT transmission.

I have a customer with a V6 Altima and a CVT, they have 150,000 trouble free miles. The newer Pathfinders are having lots of trouble with theirs.

My wife's CR-V has one and it works much better than any Nissan CVT I've driven, much less engine revving on acceleration. The Nissan's seem rev happy on acceleration, the Honda's, not so much.

We have an Accord with 85K on it it's good so far. It's rev happy unless I turn on the eco mode then it's pretty tame. I've changed the fluid once, it seemed OK.

We repair way more Nissan CVT's than Honda's by probably a 30 to 1 ratio.

Our 09 Altima has over 180,000k with no issues.

So far in the shop only one failure in a Nitro

sure looks the same as a golf cart.not saying good or bad

A few years ago, my wife had a Ford Freestyle(little wagon), that had a CVT trans in it. When we were forced to dump it, it had 170,000 miles on it, without a single issue.
When we looked into getting it replace or repaired, it would have costed more than the little car was worth. We found out then, the was a class action in progress with Ford over those.
Others were crapping out very early( like 20-50,000) and a few lasted like ours.
Id still pass on the units witha CVT.

Girlfriend sold her 2010 Nissan Altima, had 230,000 I changed trans fluid once, mostly highway, got 38mpg, never a problem

quote:

Originally posted by 329L:
They are usually only good for 100,000 miles before they start having trouble.

I work for a warranty company and we buy 10 or more Nissan CVT transmissions a day. They are junk. So bad Nissan offered a 120K mileage extension on some models. Not quite sure why one Nissan Altima will have the extension while one exactly like it will not ?

We have been seeing the same thing. With that being said, we see the Altama the least when it comes to the CVT trans cars. But it is a throw away trans. Only the drive gears and the belt can be serviced. But cost for those parts is about half of a new trans.

My girlfreind has a 15' Altima with the CVT and in the 30K miles she has put on it i have noticed a difference in how it drives at lower speeds over time. Keep in my mind she drives like she is in 4th place with 3 laps to go and has a shot at winning the championship....
-Dalton

quote:

Originally posted by FTI:
My girlfreind has a 15' Altima with the CVT and in the 30K miles she has put on it i have noticed a difference in how it drives at lower speeds over time. Keep in my mind she drives like she is in 4th place with 3 laps to go and has a shot at winning the championship....
-Dalton

I believe that model is like the newer computer controlled trans and the shifts adapt to the way it is driven. When a different driver, drives the car, they will notice some erratic shifting because the car is used to do doing something different. Usually it will adapt to the different driver after some miles. My wife drives a 2014 Town and Country with the 62te. We took it on vaca this past week and I did most of the driving and after the first 100 miles I noticed its shifting patterns changed a little.

I'm interested in how they work. I've been around CVT's in utility vehicles and ATV's for many years, but never in road cars. Same deal, belt driven? Or?

Pretty much the same, they use a steel belt though. And a torque converter of course.

quote:

Originally posted by mavman:
I'm interested in how they work.

ATSG: The Pros and Cons of Rebuilding Continuously Variable Transmissions...………..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5KYAV19RpE

quote:

Originally posted by "The Bender":
And a torque converter of course.

Not so, some have a damper plates instead of a converter.