Nissan Sentra CVT???

[LD1]

Just wondering if anyone of you guys have driven or owned one of these cars.

I just traded the wifes truck (gas hog + $4.oo per gallon gas) in on a new sentra with the cvt tranny. I was wondering what anyone thought of these cars?

Is there any long term reliability with the transmission since it is fairly new technology? Also what kind of mpg are you getting? So far we are averaging 33-35 mostly highway.

So far she loves the car but I am just looking for some first hand experience good or bad.

 

[Redneck_Randy]

We had an older Sentra (Non CVT) for almost 10 years. The wife put over 120K miles on it and it was never is the shop for warranty work. One thing I liked about the car was that it drove like a go-cart, quick and nibble.

 

[jdbower]

I wouldn't say it's that new, the idea's been around since 1490

My wife's Prius has a CVT and it hasn't had any issues in about 140k miles (cracked cat at about 120k, but nothing with the transmission). It's odd not having shift points, but a lot of automatics these days have smooth enough shifting if driven conservatively. At least you don't have to deal with the engine stalling on you at a light, that took even longer to get used to!

 

[dfeck]

I just purchased a Nissan Altima with a CVT for my wife. We also looked at the Sentra but since I'm a "big boned" fella we decided on the Altima. The shifting is very smooth and runs flawlessly. I have a friend that's a CFO at a Nissan dealership and has driven many Nissan's with the CVT and he says they have been a very reliable transmission. Our altima has plenty of power for a 4cyl compared to her 4cyl Subaru that we replaced. She gets on average 29MPG which is a mix of city/highway. She's also a more aggresive driver than I am. I'm convinced we would get closer to 31MPH if I was the daily driver. We're very happy with the performance to date.

Doug

 

[LD1]

Sounds like I don't have anything to worry about. The transmission was my main concern. I knew the Idea for the cvt has been around forever, and have been used in smaller engines like snowmobiels and atv's. What I meant my new technology was that they haven't been mass produced and put in cars by the thousands before.

dfeck- I know what you mean about the women being more agressie of a driver. Mines the same way. When she drives the car she gets 33, when I drive, I get 35. On a long trip I could probabally get closer to 37.

Thanks for the replies

 

[automech]

Nissan is using CVTs in the Muranos too. Just change the oil at the proper interval and you will be fine. They don't like dirty oil. They take a little getting used to but they are holding up good.

 

[DocHeb]

My 2005 Ford Freestyle has a 3.0 engine with a CVT. A little slow off the line, but pretty responsive once you're going. This car is built on a Volvo 4AWD chassis and really rides well, even in the snow.

 

[Newblue]

Watch out if you tow with it though. I found a 6' tiller a little over a hundred miles away and took my wifes Saturn Vue (w/CVT) to go pick it up. Didn't want to take the dually for a little tiller so we took the Saturn. Tiller and trailer was about 1200 pounds. When coming home I had to give it plenty of gas to get the tranny to engage at stoplights then while traveling up a hill the tranny totally stoped pulling. Pulled over in a driveway and after it cooled off it made it home. We then got the wife a four door Jeep wrangler with manual tranny. The Saturn Vue CVT was known to have problems so they extended the warranty to 75,000 miles on the CVT only. I don't know about other brands though.

Mike