CVT's maybe not a great idea.

[BigGoofyGuy]

I think the Mini Cooper used a CVT in their automatic?
http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-faults-fixes/186817-mini-cooper-cvt-problem-solved.html

http://www.motoringfile.com/2011/12/15/bmwmini-sued-over-cvt-failures-in-early-minis/

[HarleyCamper]

When we bought our Outback, the salesperson tried pushing the CVT so hard, it took telling him I'd walk if he showed me one more. I'm much more confident in our 6 speed.

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[BigGoofyGuy]

I found an interesting article on the Subaru CVT.
http://www.manchestersubaru.com/cvt-transmission.htm

Even though there seems to be problems with a CVT, I always liked the idea of a CVT.

[pchast]

They worked really well in the few mopeds I used in the past. Simple to change the oil in
the final gear box and I changed the belt on another. Don't know what is added to one in
a car. All we used were 250s....

[jonw]

I have a CVT in my Honda PCX150 scooter and it works great for that application. However I'm less enthusiastic about having one in a (heavier) car, especially if towing. Interesting to hear some real-world towing stories from people who have them...

[KennethW]

I have a CVT in my Honda PCX150 scooter and it works great for that application. However I'm less enthusiastic about having one in a (heavier) car, especially if towing. Interesting to hear some real-world towing stories from people who have them...

The scooter is a rubber belt drive. A car has a steel drive belt Not the same at all.
Real-world, ford freestyle towing a 5x10 fomie teardrop. My freestyle has over 100,000 mile on it. I have went on three road trips ,Two from Mn to Yelowstone and around(roadtrip) and one to Key-west Florida by way of the Alamo(5000 miles in two weeks) The freestyle CVT moves the engine rpm up when I push the freestyle over 85 MPH. but I think at that speed I may be close max engine power. On mountain road it works great. When you need a little more power it let the engine have some rpm's but not crazy rpm like when on a 3 speed automatic in 2nd. When going down you can shift to low and the cvt will engine brake to maintain the speed you are at when you shifted to low. shift at 40 you stay at 40. shift at 60 you stay at 60. So you really don't use the brakes much at all.
So around 16,000 mile of towing(a lot at higher freeway speeds) really like the cvt. no problems.

[Wolffarmer]

I been driving CVTs for many decades. But never in a car/pickup. Combine harvesters have long used a rubber belt and variable belt shivs. Combines need something as the engine runs at constant speed as the separator needs to run at one speed. So there is a CVT of some type to vary the ground speed. Seldom have problems with it until the belt ages and comes apart. But only damage is the belt. For 15-20 years many large tractors of high horse power have used a CVT of some type. Mostly hydraulic (Hydrostatic ). Or something. Not really sure of all of them. I have driven 300+ HP diesel tractors with it. Again the engine stays in a narrow RPM band and with a little control you dial in the ground speed.

CVTs are here to stay and in my opinion will fall between manual and automatic transmissions in terms of cost/maintenance/reliability. Just my opinion.

[haha49]

So what cars have this "CVT" in them ¿

Lots. All hybrids. Most new cars and suv are cvt. Trucks not yet see cvt uses belts and pulleys auto uses metal gears . Cvt is nice since it can have no shift point ie no clunk between gears. Most shops don't work on them just bolt on a replacement send old one to a shop to rebuild. Manuals are basic but most people don't want them. Some shops won't even open an automatic

I drive a manual I like being able to roll start if the battery is dead start rolling dump the clutch sputters to life. I also like that anyone can work on it simple works. I drove an auto of the same car I burned twice as much gas just the way I drive picking gears going up hills made a huge difference

[haha49]

15 years ago they were saying the same thing about electronic controlled automatics.... and there's still dinosaur shops around screw them up.

25 years ago it was fuel injection.

I expect they'll catch up.

Ford's CVTs seem to have been pretty robust considering what they put them in. Myself, I'd only deliberately buy one in a lighter vehicle at present, in fact I did, got one in a Nissan Versa Note, 2nd gen of Nissan's small CVT, so I figured they'd figured it out by then. I quite like it, can get almost full power and torque at any speed, and hold it. I say almost because the smarts are probably torque limiting things so as not to overstress the frictional parts.... which is why I see them as not scaling up terribly well, they only basically have a line of frictional contact around the belt. Can't make the belt much fatter and gain anything, because the outer part of the belt will be trying to move faster than the inner part of the belt on the cones it's clamped between. Only real way to scale that to big vehicles is duplicate, have half a dozen of the same thing in parallel, which of course means more complexity, plus adjustment/synchronization issues, one belt starts getting a little more than it's share of the load and it's gonna break. Or the other way is to go much larger, in which case your transmissions get to be twice the size of a normal one.

However, I'm still not sure that half of CVT complaints aren't user error, i.e. it's working as designed and the driver is freaked out by engine going up to 3000 RPM with light pedal pressure. Sure in a regular auto, that means some clutches are slipping. CVT, doing the cvt thing and giving you what you wanted the most economical way possible and it some instances that means higher engine speed, rather than lugging at lower revs... talking of such aberrations, saw someone who bought a 9 speed auto complaining that it shifted too much, I'm thinking, WTF did you expect, buy 9 gears and it only uses 3??? (Hey ford I'm looking at you again... 4 speed in the old Escort only mostly used top 3 gears, other gear was a low range 1st it scarcely used.)

But also it's been the case for years now that dealers will seldom actually get into a transmission or engine, they'll switch in a manufacturer certified rebuild.

Drove 3 ford rental cars all had to go back due to transmission problems I wouldn't buy a ford focus that's for sure. The 4th car was another type apparently they had lots of problems with the focus cvt. Other cars no problems

For adding a cooler.it will void your warrenty heck ford voided warrenty on trucks f150 for not using a ford brand oil filter. Bad engine design they would have metal come off the filter and good bye engine. People even did servicing at the dealer and been burned by them not using the ford brand

[jml79]

I have a Nissan Pathfinder with a CVT. I tow a 17' RV with it, 3500-3600 lbs and a giant front wall to catch wind and waste fuel. It tows it with no issue. The CVT reacts instantly to hills and grades and the tow mode in the Nissan provides good engine braking and keeps the revs up a bit for some extra power. So far I like it a lot. Very smooth. I only have about 2000km of towing on it though. A friend of mine at work tows a 4000lb boat and has a lot more miles of towing with it than I do and he's had no troubles.

Both of our cars are CVT now. My wife's Subaru Forester also has one. So far no issues and fantastic fuel economy from both. It did take some getting used to but it's been worth it in fuel savings alone. I live in Canada where gas ranges between $4-$5 / gallon and the winters can be awful so all wheel drive and good fuel economy are listed as a needs for a vehicle purchase. I also want (needed?) one vehicle with a real tow rating. The Pathfinder fit that list along with a few other design choices that made sense to me like a bench for the second row instead of 2 useless captains chairs giving me a true fold flat cargo floor with all of the seats down and variable leg room for the second row making it usable for real people when you aren't using the third row.

[Socal Tom]

How much does it cost to replace a CVT vs rebuilding an automatic? They seem much simpler, and eventually all transmissions will wear out.
Tom