Are CVT Transmissions Reliable? The Truth About CVTs (Good And Bad)

are cvt transmissions reliable should you avoid them and if so what type of transmission is best that's what we're going to find out welcome crop corner where we help you the consumer master the process of car buying and crownership if you're thinking of buying a car with a cvt or continuously variable transmission but you're concerned about potential repair costs and long-term reliability then this video is for you i'm going to tell you everything you need to know about cvt continuously variable transmissions the pros and cons the potential reliability concerns and how they compare against other types of transmissions and which one is best to buy so to find out everything there is to know about modern transmissions and their reliability make sure to stick around until the end this video and if you enjoy and get value out of this video make sure to subscribe to my channel i post two videos a week always straight to the point valuable car buying advice designed to help you the consumer so before we get too deep into the reliability concerns let's go over what a cvt transmission is cvts take a very different approach to managing the engine when compared to a conventional automatic transmission instead of having gears like a regular five or six speed automatic transmission most common cvts have a metal belt or chain that runs in between two pulleys these pulleys are designed to spread open or squeeze closed under hydraulic pressure forcing the belt or chain to ride higher or lower in them the benefit of this is that the car's computer can quickly and continuously adjust the pulleys to whatever ratio is required for peak efficiency because it's not limited by having actual physical gears when driving a car with a cvt the transmission adjusts to the engine at its most efficient rpm through the entire acceleration process compared to a conventional automatic transmission where you can feel the gear changes as you're accelerating there are no bumps or rpm increases felt by the driver with a cvt now most car brands have refined and improved cvts to the point where they perform quite seamlessly so the average consumer is most likely not going to be able to tell the difference when compared to a regular automatic transmission but the major benefit and the main reason why so many car brands are switching over to cvts is because they do slightly improve the fuel economy of the car so you get better fuel efficiency in a compact lighter transmission with no obvious downsides for the average driver which is why cvts do make a lot of sense in a lot of normal cars but with all that being said there are some pretty obvious downsides to cvts which have been noted over the past several years since they've been introduced to the market one of the downsides to cvts is that they can be noisier than a conventional automatic transmission because the cvt keeps the engine more or less at the same rpm as you're accelerating the noise is a little bit more obvious when compared to a normal transmission at least when you're accelerating really hard they are also not very good for performance car applications and a lot of owners compare about the slushy feeling that you get with a cvt when compared to a normal transmission that has actual gears but none of these performance complaints can compare to the potential reliability and repair concerns that you could face with a cvt cvts are now very commonly used with many different car brands including honda subaru mitsubishi kia and hyundai some older jeep and dodge models but most famously nissan and infiniti and at some point or another all of these car brands have experienced some issues with their cvts typically when a cvt transmission begins to have problems you usually notice it in the form of a lot of shuttering or vibration while accelerating or hearing a lot more noise than normal and sometimes you can also see some lights illuminate on the dashboard too in addition to experiencing more vibration shuttering and noise some cvts are also known for overheating issues too all of which can lead to potential failure down the road now of course other types of automatic transmissions are known for having their own issues as well but the major difference with the cvt has to do with the parts and repair costs the reality is that unlike conventional automatic transmissions parts are usually not available for cvts and even when parts are available there just isn't a lot of repair knowledge out there even among transmission specialists the prospects of repairing or rebuilding a cvt transmission that's experiencing problems is very unlikely in most areas because there just isn't a lot of parts or repair knowledge out there and because cvt transmissions usually can't be repaired or rebuilt in the same way as a conventional automatic transmission can they usually need to be replaced with a brand new remanufactured unit from the car manufacturer itself and if you do have a failed cvt transmission that needs to be replaced even on a simple economy car you could be looking at spending upwards of six to seven thousand dollars for a brand new remanufactured unit this is the reality of a lot of cvts especially on older cars which have questionable maintenance history which are basically ticking time bombs on the road now of course cvt reliability is not the same across the board some brands are worse than others and the one that usually takes the award for being the worst is nissan nissan was one of the first car brands to introduce cvts to the market way back in 2003 with the murano suv and since that time they've spread the use of cvts across most of their car lineup unfortunately though the failure rate of nissan cvts is shockingly high to the point where the company not only experiences non-stop complaints from owners but they've also faced major class action lawsuits the problems with nissan cvts got so bad to the point where the company had to introduce an extended warranty on the older cars many nissan models with cvts built up to 2010 have an extended warranty up to 10 years or 120 000 miles or 200 000 kilometers and even some of the nissan models with cvts between 2010 all the way up to 2018 were also given a two-year 24 000 mile or 40 000 kilometer extended warranty on the cvt although it is great to see that nissan did something about the problem it still doesn't address the root cause of the issue and it's still unknown whether the newest nissan models have fully addressed the reliability concerns with the cvt nissan is not the only car brand that's experienced problems with cvts either there have been a lot of cvt complaints on a lot of the older dodge and jeep models some of which did use a cvt other car brands including hyundai and kia mitsubishi honda and even subaru have all had their own complaints with cvt transmissions too that's especially true of the earliest versions of these transmissions when they were first introduced on the cars fortunately the issues with these transmissions do seem to have improved over time and you don't hear nearly as many complaints with the newer versions of these transmissions and some companies seem to have figured out the reliability of cvts altogether one good example of this is the toyota corolla which has been using a cvt since 2014 which has been fairly reliable now one very important distinction to make with cvts is the difference between a conventional cvt and an ecvt which is the type of transmission that you find on many hybrids the ecvt or electronically continuously variable transmission used on some hybrids is completely different from the cvt that's used on gas cars the ecvt that's used on many toyota and honda hybrids differs from other cvts because it does not use a belt or chain connected to a pair of variable pulleys instead an ecvt uses electric motors or generators to control the speed of planetary gear set components this allows the system to continuously change the gear ratio keeping the engine's rpm in the sweet spot not only do they not have belts or pulleys like a regular cvt but the type of ecvt system that toyota and honda uses is not really a transmission at all in any case these are known to be extremely reliable systems and reliability issues with ecvts is extremely rare to the point of non-existent it's almost impossible to even find parts for a toyota or a honda ecvt system because issues are almost unheard of there's no question the ecvt hybrid systems that are found on the market are known to be some of the most reliable and longest lasting ones that you can buy but going back to a normal cvt for gas cars how exactly do they compare against other types of automatic transmissions well another type of automatic transmission which has been introduced over the past several years is the dual clutch or double clutch automatic transmission now a dual clutch transmission even though it does perform like an automatic transmission is not actually an automatic at all it's actually a manual transmission that has two computer controlled clutches that take care of the gear changes for you even though this type of transmission is designed to improve the performance and the efficiency of the car they are sometimes known for having major issues a great example of this is the older ford focus and ford fiesta models which used a dry dual clutch transmission which were known to fail at an alarming rate and other brands have experienced issues with dual clutch transmissions too and much like cvts these transmissions are very difficult and expensive to repair and they can be extremely expensive to replace too so because of some of the reliability and cost concerns with a dual clutch transmission they do pose a very similar risk to a regular cvt which brings us to the last type of transmission which is a conventional torque converter automatic transmission with normal gears now even though cvts are becoming more common you can still find conventional automatic transmissions with some car brands mazda for example still uses a conventional six-speed automatic transmission across most of their lineup toyota also still uses an 8-speed automatic transmission on most of their cars too now while these types of transmissions are not always the most reliable too a lot of the domestic car brands for example are known for having a lot of transmission issues especially with the newer 9 and 10 speed automatic transmissions they are generally known to be more reliable than a traditional cvt they're also better when it comes to parts availability and repair costs too now of course following a proper maintenance schedule with fluid changes is always the best way to increase the long-term reliability of your transmission but that being said even if you maintain your transmission properly you still could eventually experience issues and failure with your transmission because they just are inherently not designed properly so if you are shopping for a used car with unknown maintenance history or if you're planning on buying a brand new car and holding on to it for upwards of 10 to 15 years it might be best to stay away from certain cvt transmissions especially brands like nissan which have a history of having major issues and if you do want to be on the safe side the best thing to do is to buy a transmission that has a proven track record for long-term reliability but the safest ones of course are the conventional automatic transmissions used in mazdas and toyotas and finally you just can't go wrong with the ecvt transmissions used on hybrids from honda and toyota which are known to be extremely reliable too and if you do purchase one of these cars and just keep up with proper maintenance you should have a very happy ownership experience over the next 10 to 15 years so after watching this video would you still consider buying a car with a cvt transmission or would you buy a car with a different type of transmission instead let me know in the comments and if you enjoyed this video make sure to like and subscribe you can also watch some of my other car videos by checking out these links over here make sure to follow me on tick tock and instagram and if you need any additional car buying advice recommendations or help with getting a great deal on your next new car purchase make sure to check out carhelpcanada.com thanks so much for watching and see you next time

Channel: Car Help Corner

Views: 676,090

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Id: alzWij_-hpU

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 07 2022