Nissan - CVT experience?

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I posted about the VW diesel - but that deal fell through. Have a few more in my sights, and hoping to make a deal soon.

The other car we are looking at - the Nissan Altima. Large and comfy for long road trips. The only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger the dreaded CVT. I've never been a big fan of the CVT and certainly not the one that Nissan makes. I tend to keep cars for a long time - 150K miles and 12 years at least. (Current Toyota at 13 years and 96K miles an exception!)

Does anyone have experience with an Altima that has high miles? Any known issues with the CVT? I'd be considering something that was 2014 or 2015.

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Funny, I was just poking around trying to find more about whether the INSANELY annoying Automatic Shutoff/Startup was damaging to the vehicle and if there was an aftermarket bypass. In its life span a vehicle will now start and stop at least 10-50x more than otherwise. It strains the drive shaft and the battery, and they've had to do all kinds of shit to ameliorate the damage of that, and wears the battery out faster anyway.

Several people discussed the Nissan CVT (Continually Variable Transmission???) and it seemed to get really mixed views. A few loved it, many complained about it. I don't know if that means anything.

I wanted to know if Chevy had that damn thing ASS is on their pickup trucks, which is, for a work truck, a truly idiotic idea. When I'm plowing my driveway, and I stop to think about which way I'm going next, and it's bitter cold, the truck shutting off is a really bad idea. Yet it turns out some of the 2019 models have it. I don't know if they have a bypass--a number of Chevy mini-vans and SUVs don't. All you can do is shift to "Manual" and put the transmission in the top gear. Doesn't work as well as in DRIVE or paddle shifting, but it does work. Unless you can turn it off and leave it off, not every time you drive, I won't buy such a truck. Some cars (the Europeans especially) have that always-off bypass.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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I would never buy one of those auto start/stop equipped vehicles. (Unless I could explicitly turn it off.)

The CVT, not really a transmission? - but a rubber band of sorts - gets mixed reviews. Some love it, but others seem to suffer from the "shudder" that is a common problem. I've seen (and owned) some older Nissans that have made the 200K miles without a hiccup. The CVT seems to be the weak point.

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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I’ve driven several Rogues (same engine as Altima) with a CVT as well as a couple of Toyoya Rav4s...no sir, don’t like ‘em. Sport mode is the only way to having any prayer of passing at highway speeds and woe betide if you have to go through any mountain passes or anywhere with elevation. Anyway you cut it, it’s a very jerky, hesitating experience in anything but city traffic or flat highway with the RPMs at 2k.

Granted I drive 2.0 liter Twin Turbo, so my expectations may be skewed.

The only tolerable CVT I’ve found is made by Subaru and it is just so.
LGC Texas - Vice President

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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JaxTeller wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:25 pm I would never buy one of those auto start/stop equipped vehicles. (Unless I could explicitly turn it off.)

The CVT, not really a transmission? - but a rubber band of sorts - gets mixed reviews. Some love it, but others seem to suffer from the "shudder" that is a common problem. I've seen (and owned) some older Nissans that have made the 200K miles without a hiccup. The CVT seems to be the weak point.
More and more cars have them but many have the bypass. My wife's car, a BMW has one that stays turned off. We have Traverse that's a great car...but it has it and you can't turn it off which is a pain in the ass. You can put it in M, and up the gear to the top (9th) and it will shift OK, but not as nicely as in D. Unless you do a lot of stop&go driving, the fuel efficiency gain is marginal. Ironically, when you would need it to save you gas the most, is in the summer, with the A/C running, in stop&go traffic. But A/C doesn't work when the engine isn't running so...the engine keeps running!

It's a TERRIBLE solution for anything but an electric or hybrid car that runs A/C electrically, not mechanically.

Since the Obama fix, Chevy has made far better vehicles but they STILL have a few bad habits left over, like not letting the driver make the decisions, and, the enormous monstrosity: OnStar. I don't know if any car company has a WORSE system than Onstar, but I hope not.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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atxgunguy wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:50 pm I’ve driven several Rogues (same engine as Altima) with a CVT as well as a couple of Toyoya Rav4s...no sir, don’t like ‘em. Sport mode is the only way to having any prayer of passing at highway speeds and woe betide if you have to go through any mountain passes or anywhere with elevation. Anyway you cut it, it’s a very jerky, hesitating experience in anything but city traffic or flat highway with the RPMs at 2k.

Granted I drive 2.0 liter Twin Turbo, so my expectations may be skewed.

The only tolerable CVT I’ve found is made by Subaru and it is just so.
Subaru, Honda and Toyota manufacture their own CVTs. Nissan's CVT is manufactured by JATCO. Granted Nissan owns 49% stake in JATCO... that might explain the state of things.

Thanks for the input.

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Altima’s in general have not been known to be reliable cars.

I would suggest considering a Prius. Very reliable, kinda roomy (long! -plenty of legroom for all passengers) and great mpg’s. Their engine on/off system doesn’t use any starter motors strangely enough but actually gets bump-started by the electric generator/motor. Everything about how a Prius runs is weird enough to be fun for gearheads like me yet the technology is now proven robust and very reliable.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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I have a Nissan but it has a manual transmission. I've driven rental cars with CVT transmissions, I was impressed with a Toyota Corolla and a Mazda 3. I drove the Corolla on a lot of 2 lane highways and the test for me is passing, it had plenty of passing power and not just down hill. Nissan's parent company is Renault and Nissan has a controlling interest in Mitsubishi.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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CVT should be the perfect transmission: always in the right gear ratio. correct? I've only driven a couple (subaru's mostly) but they were never in the right 'gear', much worse than regular automatic transmissions. I shudder to think what would happen if you tried to tow even a moderate load on a regular basis.

edit: sorry drifting from the question at hand.
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Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Bisbee wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:21 am Altima’s in general have not been known to be reliable cars.

I would suggest considering a Prius. Very reliable, kinda roomy (long! -plenty of legroom for all passengers) and great mpg’s. Their engine on/off system doesn’t use any starter motors strangely enough but actually gets bump-started by the electric generator/motor. Everything about how a Prius runs is weird enough to be fun for gearheads like me yet the technology is now proven robust and very reliable.
I can second that post I had the first generation Highlander Hybrid put over !00,000 miles. Then it went my son I bought a Prius. Still have it . My wife traded her accord for a Prius V then it went to my don when the Highlander died, he is hard on cars. She got another Prius and drove it for a year til it got totaled in December in a multi car wreck, not her fault. She wasn’t hurt. Then she got an Accord hybrid with all the bells and whistles.

I will probably trade in my 2013 Prius for a 2019 RAV4 Limited hybrid AWDbwhen they come out this summer.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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MaxWyatt wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:32 pm CVT should be the perfect transmission: always in the right gear ratio. correct? I've only driven a couple (subaru's mostly) but they were never in the right 'gear', much worse than regular automatic transmissions. I shudder to think what would happen if you tried to tow even a moderate load on a regular basis.

edit: sorry drifting from the question at hand.
No worries.. I think a 5 or 6 speed manual is the way I'll be going.

Well... supposed to be "always in the right gear ratio." Towing is probably going to be hard. I noticed with the new Subaru the tow limits are way less than the competition.

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Seen a nice VW Passat about 70 miles away. 31K on the clock, with the 6 speed (not the DSG) transmission. Also - not a diesel. Their asking price is about 1.5K more than KBB, and that is after they reduced it by 3K over the last 200 days it has been on their lot.

Might low ball them next weekend...

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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MaxWyatt wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:07 pm We picked up on of the last manual Subaru Foresters. :-)
I love driving a stick-shift! The only time I wouldn't want to drive a stick is when pushing a snow plow. It's kinda of a pain in stop and go traffic, but still....
We have an old BMW that's a 6-speed and it's really fun to drive. Being a motorcyclist, automatics rarely ever sell well.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Months ago I was talking to a guy who manages renal car fleets and we were talking about manual transmission vs CVT and he's not convinced that CVT is better or gets better gas mileage. He also said they have problems with foreigners when they come to the US because everything is automatic and they don't understand what N or D or R means because it's in English, it's worse when it has OD.. A manual transmission with the shift pattern on the stick is international.

Not a lot of vehicles out there with manual transmissions anymore.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/g ... nsmission/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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I think you are making a very good call on the Optima. My very particular and thorough PhD Mechanical Engineer (aerospace research) colleague did his research for a year or so and came to the same conclusion. I have ridden in it a fair amount and it is a nice car. His biggest complaint is the nav system. His is four or five years old now I think so it should be resolved.
'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."

-John Cleese

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Well, we've honed in on two VW Passats.

Both the same year and same number of miles. One is a premium trim, the other the mid-level. The main difference outside the nav and the moonroof: one has 17" wheels the other 18".

All things considered, what can one expect to be different in ride quality between the two?

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Generally speaking smaller tires have less round bounce...but that depends greatly on what brand/quality those tires are. There is a big difference between Discount Tires' Bargain Basements and Michelins.

I'd check big box stores like NTB and see what the price difference is on replacement tires. There may significant costs for having oddball-sized tires that aren't widely carried.

As for moonroof...meh, I seldom if ever use mine..YMMV. Navigation is great, but that depends on how often you'd use it as well. I got by on GoogleMaps on my phone for years before getting a car with Android Auto.
LGC Texas - Vice President

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Speaking as an ex-tuner, 18" wheels look better, feel tighter in corners and emergency maneuvers but are a noisier/harsher ride and have greater chance of denting if you hit a pothole. 17"s are not as sporty, do ride softer and quieter because there is more rubber on the sidewall. I'm surprised any car comes original with factory 18's but maybe I'm behind the times. If they are not factory wheels, I would avoid that car because the ride will definitely be harsher going down the road; not as good for your stated purposes.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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Bisbee wrote: Wed Feb 27, 2019 6:01 pm Speaking as an ex-tuner, 18" wheels look better, feel tighter in corners and emergency maneuvers but are a noisier/harsher ride and have greater chance of denting if you hit a pothole. 17"s are not as sporty, do ride softer and quieter because there is more rubber on the sidewall. I'm surprised any car comes original with factory 18's but maybe I'm behind the times. If they are not factory wheels, I would avoid that car because the ride will definitely be harsher going down the road; not as good for your stated purposes.
Thanks! Yes, these are factory wheels and tires. Straight from VW. Tires sure are spendy in that size...

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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The long winter has taken its toll on the car dealers across the state. Folks looking to make deals with the slow sales maybe decreased demand for sedans. The VW Passat SEL we've been watching on CarGurus has been reduced a further thousand bucks over the last 2 days. That's more than three thousand below where they started.

If weather cooperates, we'll be making the trip across the state to pick up the Passat next weekend.

Re: Nissan - CVT experience?

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After looking all over the place - even considered going to FL to pick up a VW Passat - we found a nice Nissan Altima at the Honda dealership. Wife's Honda was purchased here; and my Corolla from their sister store across the street.

2015 with 32K on the clock. SV model so it has most convenience features, except heated seats. Made me a killer deal on the last day of the month, just before closing.

We are going to name him Tim the Altima.
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