While I've never worked on one personally, I have heard quite a few horror stories about CVTs in general (Nissan CVTs in particular). Doesn't seem like the tech is quite there yet, at least at the lower, consumer end.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Auto Technician: Automotive Advice
- Thread starter Mister Mumbler
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That's fair. This is a Nissan. Ugh.
I'll try to sweat it out for a couple years and then see if electric is more doable at my pay grade.
From what my research has told me, Toyota does a decent CVT (And it should be considering their track record overall), while Nissan is infamous for its CVT problems due to its spin-off company Jatco. CVTs have a bad rep in general and aren't the most recommended transmission, but Jatco especially is one of the main reasons for that reputation. It's unfortunate too cause their cars seem decent otherwise
Yeah, I don't mind the CVT in general - feels kinda like a low-grade sportscar to drive because you can't feel the gears shift - but the primary reason I bought Nissan is because I'm tall enough that my head bumps the roof of most sedans. Nissans are one of the few makes that are proportioned in a way that accommodates that without going to an SUV or truck. I'm planning to go electic because I test drove a few and I found out that something about the size of the engine or where its positioned within the vehicle just sort of automatically works for me which means I have way more options than normal if I go that way.
If it weren't for their CVTs and otherwise middling track record in some of their cars I'd definitely be considering them. They're unfortunately sinking pretty hard these days which tells me they're gonna have a lengthy struggle to get it together in the future. Out of curiosity, how many kilometers/miles are on your car when the CVT started screwing up?
At around 110k km I took my car to work on a very cold morning and the thing was making a hell of a lot of revving noise but my RPM was coming in quite low. I got it checked out, had the fluid changed, and the results were that apparently the belt was slipping against the gear thing. It happens now and then but exclusively when I drive a cold vehicle so I just get around it by always really walking it up before I pop it into drive. The dealership says that it basically has to be replaced to fix this and I'm just putting it off as long as humanly possible.
Hmm, sounds about right unfortunately. I had expected it to be closer to the 60k-80k mark but getting to 110k without it failing is definitely an upside. But unfortunately, that's about the best most of them last from what I've heard. Definitely not worth it if you don't plan on keeping the car, cause chances are it'll get that much time out of it or even less, it's hard to tell on a Nissan CVT