Any - CVT experience

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Sun 12 May 2019 17:17
Any - CVT experience - Senexdriver
There is often discussion on here about the relative performance and merits of Torque Converter, DSG and CVT transmissions. My own car has DSG and I have never driven a TC but I’m driving a CVT for the first time. It’s a hire car, a Nissan Pathfinder, a model we don’t get in the UK, but essentially it’s a big old barge of an SUV with a 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine rated at 285 bhp.

You’d think it would go like the proverbial brown stuff off a hot shovel, but no - this thing will not be hurried and is no competitor in the traffic lights Grand Prix, not that it is a thing here in the US. You can floor it and the revs will soar, but the CVT will take its time to match road speed to engine speed, although it will get there eventually.

On the move it is very smooth as there are, of course, no gears and on US interstate highways all you hear is the occasional rise in revs when you accelerate past another vehicle until the road speed catches up again. There appears to be no equivalent of kick-down, although that may be me being too careful with a car that isn’t mine.

Having experienced CVT, I don’t think I could live with it in my own car. I prefer something with a more instantaneous response. I do acknowledge the lag with my own DSG gearbox but that’s something I’ve learned to allow for and it can be minimised anyway by switching to sport mode. It seems to me that CVT would suit a leisurely driving style rather than a nip here, nip there approach. Roundabouts are almost non-existent in the mid-west so I haven’t been able to try nipping out into a sudden gap, but I wouldn’t fancy my chances in this car.

Apart from the CVT, the engine is a delight, however. Once up to motorway cruising speeds it will happily purr away all day at 2000 rpm on cruise control and the roads have nothing like the motorway traffic we experience in the UK. We have done several 3-4 hour drives in the past fortnight and you can cover greater distances in that time than at home on our overcrowded roads.
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Sun 12 May 2019 18:14
Any - CVT experience - badbusdriver

I'm not sure what type of CVT the Pathfinder has, my own experience being from a current shape Honda Jazz with a 'stepped' CVT with 7 (artificial) ratio's. I have to say, it has comfortably exceeded my expectations and concerns for this type of transmission, based on what i had read in the motoring press. The Jazz does not have a lot of power (102bhp), and is decidedly light on torque (123nm @ 5000rpm), but the transmission does a very effective job of overcoming that lack of torque. It is VERY responsive (though you do have to press the throttle right down) and has absolutely no problem overtaking. Having that many ratio's coupled with that little torque, means that it can get a little busy, especially using cruise control at dual carriageway/motorway speeds, with the revs flaring (sometimes dramatically) going up hills. This can be overcome to an extent by not using cruise control, and adjusting the pressure on the throttle pedal, allowing the speed to drop slightly. But overall, i am very impressed with the car and the transmission. TBH, i'm not sure i'd like tha car as much as a manual, the lack of torque means i'd have be changing gears constantly if trying to maintain a decent rate on country roads!.

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Sun 12 May 2019 18:47
Any - CVT experience - dan86

Our Nissan qashqai has the CVT box and it drives much like a normal automatic. Like bbd's jazz it is a steped CVT and for most of the time acts and behaves like a normal tc auto only time it holds the revs high is when u mash your foot to the floor. This has a bit more power and torque than the jazz (1.6 dci) for the most part during normal driving it keeps the revs between 1500 and 2000

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Sun 12 May 2019 19:20
Any - CVT experience - badbusdriver

This has a bit more power and torque than the jazz

Yes, just a little, especially torque, 320nm @1750rpm (260% more than the Jazz at much lower rpm!).

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Sun 12 May 2019 21:22
Any - CVT experience - dan86

This has a bit more power and torque than the jazz

Yes, just a little, especially torque, 320nm @1750rpm (260% more than the Jazz at much lower rpm!).

This is what makes it such a relaxing car to drive coupled with such a smooth transmission.

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Mon 13 May 2019 03:41
Any - CVT experience - Senexdriver
Interesting to read about the stepped CVT. I think that’s what my son’s car may have. It’s a RAV4, the recently superseded model and whilst the transmission behaves like a CVT, there are noticeable gear changes - or so it seems. He also gets kick-down; is that a feature of stepped CVT?
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Mon 13 May 2019 08:55
Any - CVT experience - RT

Early CVTs with genuinely "Continuously Variable Transmissions" were derided because the engine revs varied so much, depending on throttle opeing and load - later versions used electronics to artificially give virtual gears so that they acted like conventional autoboxes.

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Mon 13 May 2019 12:12
Any - CVT experience - Engineer Andy

Some newer CVTs have, as well as the 'fake' gear 'steps', three actual gears - a reverse gear, a first gear to get you going and a CVT for all other modes of driving forwards. The new Toyota Corolla 2.0 hybrid has such an arrangement.

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Tue 14 May 2019 12:33
Any - CVT experience - pyruse

Our two Jazzes with CVTs have been excellent.

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Tue 14 May 2019 18:53
Any - CVT experience - CHarkin

Some newer CVTs have, as well as the 'fake' gear 'steps', three actual gears - a reverse gear, a first gear to get you going and a CVT for all other modes of driving forwards. The new Toyota Corolla 2.0 hybrid has such an arrangement.

Thats the only CVT I have driven in many years and must say I liked it a lot. No sensation of a disconnect between revs and road speed.I liked it so much I plan to replace my current cat with the estate version very soon.

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Tue 14 May 2019 21:42
Any - CVT experience - dan86

replace my current cat with the estate version very soon.

Poor cat being replaced for a newer model I thought a cat was for life not until a newer model is found ;-)

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Tue 14 May 2019 21:16
Any - CVT experience - mcb100
They must have changed the transmission layout if this is the case. Previous generations of Toyota’s hybrids have never had a reverse gear - rearward motion has always provided by one of the motor/generators.
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Wed 15 May 2019 00:35
Any - CVT experience - Heidfirst

Some newer CVTs have, as well as the 'fake' gear 'steps', three actual gears - a reverse gear, a first gear to get you going and a CVT for all other modes of driving forwards. The new Toyota Corolla 2.0 hybrid has such an arrangement.

bearing in mind that Toyota hybrids don't have a convential (i.e. belt) CVT - they have a planetary gear set.

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Wed 15 May 2019 14:10
Any - CVT experience - Snakey

I briefly had a CVT Nissan Juke 1.6 and I thought the gearbox was awful, the worst gearbox (manual or automatic) I've ever used.

I expected the surge in revs which is par for the course and you can get used to that, but I found it very jerky and hesitant at traffic speeds, around the 1200-1500rpm area. It made for kangeroo style driving in queues!

I've also had a DSG and a TC auto, and the TC auto has been the easiest to live with out of all of them.

Edited by Snakey on 15/05/2019 at 14:11

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