Buying a petrol automatic medium SUV - advice? | Ask Honest John

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Buying a petrol automatic medium SUV - advice?

Please will you give me a view on CVTs for petrol engined cars. I drive a diesel automatic and want to change to petrol. I have seen your 2014 review of the Qashqai where you mentioned that the CVT didn't suffer from the usual noise problems because the diesel was an inherently quiet engine. However, for a petrol version of this or the RAV4 which was a suggestion you made yesterday, will I have noise problems or are the CVTs nowadays improved to get rid of that? I have avoided certain cars because of CVT - though there is a real shortage of petrol automatic SUV/MPVs and wonder if you could tell me whether I am being foolish to rule them out with a modern vehicle. With many thanks.

Asked on 3 November 2015 by SueB

Answered by Honest John

The Toyota RAV4 2.0i Valvematic Multidrive S works well and is very pleasant to drive. So too the Toyota Verso 1.8i Valvematic Multidrive S and the new Honda HR-V 1.5 i-VTEC CVT-7. All Toyota hybrid models have a form of CVT, though not the same. All give a relaxed drive and very little noise at speed, but, of course, if you press the accelerator too hard at the wrong time you will get a lot of whirring noises and not much progress.

Tags: automatic petrol buying a new suv

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