If anybody drives it, they will know exactly what I meant. When you're full throttle, the car will reach a certain RPM, and then stay there until you've come off throttle. In reality this is impossible for traditional transmissions... Anybody could figure this out. It's common sense, no?

And sure, if your application is driving a crappy transmission, then yes, they do work well.

 

When we see a 300HP+ CVT car (to compare to the PDK), we'll see. Anybody know of one?

 

Isn't the Altima 3.5 close to the 300 Hp level ?

 

Anybody remember the Subaru Justy? It was the first car sold in the U.S. with the CVT. Subaru quit making the transmission during the last century...

 

Yeah, Nissan put the CVT in its halo high performance vehicle...the Murano.

 

The Maxima is the closest... It has the CVT, I get one when my car is in for an oil change, tires changing out, etc... 290HP. But for some reason, the 370Z doesn't get one.

Every time I get one (for the last 5 years or so), I hate them. My first one was a rental Sentra (business trip in Vegas). I try to get as many different cars as possible when I'm on my trips, so I can 'test' drive them for a week, and learn the car as best as I can so when somebody in my family wants to look at them, I have already formed an opinion, and can share it. But the car would just **** me off, because I'm sitting here flooring the damned thing, and it just stays at ~5500 RPM's, and it doesn't seem to get anywhere. Now if I was in a turbo'd car and that was my max boost setting, things might be different.

 

As far as all of the slamming that I'm doing on the CVT, it is purely from a sport enthusiast point of view. When Nissan brought this technology back from the grave (about 10 years ago), they did make it a whole lot better. It does serve its purpose for those who do not want to switch gears.

The belt system they use does reduce the number of rotating components (which delivers a myriad of benefits). It has a purpose, and as long as somebody spends enough time and money, it will improve. Whether or not the CVT or DCT is the future, depends on who buys these cars and for what purpose.

I've noticed that a lot of my rental cars lately have been getting a version of them (Dodge for example).