Inland revver, new
I purchased a new Nissan X-Trail DCi 150 diesel auto in January 2008. It's a great vehicle, but there is one thing that niggles me, and I'd like your opinion. It's the transmission. When you slow at a junction, and pull away, the transmission changes down, and the engine revs, often to about 2,500 – 3,000 rpm in this low gear before sorting itself out and finding the correct gear for the conditions. It is very apparent when there is very little torque demand, say if you are turning at a junction downhill. In a manual vehicle, it's a bit like a slipping clutch. Normal acceleration from a standstill is OK. It's slowing down when the problem occurs. It also seems to be getting worse, although I've only covered 10k miles. I've demonstrated the problem to my dealer who says it's perfectly normal, and all X-Trails like mine are like this. He claims that it's very common in CVT transmissions. When I pointed out that I didn't think it was a CVT, but rather a genuine auto with torque converter, he said it's really a CVT with preset ratios. I would welcome a second opinion and your comments on this.
Asked on 16 May 2009 by

The petrol X-Trial is CVT. Your diesel is a torque converter auto. The ECU has to keep the revs up to prevent the engine falling off its torque curve and bogging down, which it would do if revs were allowed to drop to 1,500.
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