Hey everyone, I found this website while looking for info about Nissan's Xtronic CVT. I need honest, unbiased(try hard) answers.
We have a 2000 Saturn SL2 with 168,000 on the clock, and things feel like it may not be with us for much longer. It'll probably see 200,000 but not much further. I'm the car shopper of the house, so I'm looking at a small car for our next one since I'm gonna be out of the picture and up at college.
We also have a 2009 Subaru Forester, and there's a reason why. We HAD a 2003 Saturn VUE with the CVT transmission, and that's why I'm here asking you guys about the reliability. The CVT in the VUE went on us at about 76,000 miles and the car was in the shop for an entire month. It went, AGAIN, on us at 148,000, and when our lowest quote was $5,300 to replace, we made a down payment on an AWD car instead of ekeing out another 40,000 miles of that car, which had a few other underlying problems anyway. It sucks though because everything else on the car works fine, just the transmission is gone.
We have nightmares about CVT's because of this experience.
Our car cycle works like this: dad gets the new car, then when it's time for the next new car in usually 5 years, mom gets that car and dad gets the next new one. My dad commutes to NYC and back every day, putting 25,000 miles A YEAR on our cars.
Our new car cycle will be different since our new cars will be so close to each other in age; mom will take the Forester since it's worse on gas(26 miles per gallon, very good but not as good as what we're looking at for the next one) for her short commute about 5 miles north and dad will have the new small car, unless it's bad weather like heavy rain or snow in which case he'll take the AWD Forester. Both cars will have to be durable, which we know the Forester is.
Now, I know everything about how a belt and toroidal CVT works, and I know the flaws. However, Nissan uses the same CVT in the Murano(250something horse, AWD, heavy car) as they do in their other cars, and it's their hottest-selling model according to my local dealer. If so many people had them and they all had CVT problems, so many people would be back with their cars and furious.
I'm looking at a Cube for us. Same transmission, with half the horsepower, much less weight, and half the drive wheels. We're just stuck on the CVT nightmares. So tell me, how are all your CVT's holding up? What's the cost of doing regular fluid changes? Are they sealed units so that we can't check the fluid levels ourselves? What's the most miles you've ever put on your CVT, how hard do you drive it, all those questions.
And yeah, have any of you had to replace your CVT? Thanks for the help in advance, and thanks for reading this whole discussion.
- MOD's - I would move this over to General chat, or possibly split it to the subforums, as this deals with many of the nissan vehicles.
Overall, the new CVT's (2007+) have undergone major design changes since the initial 2003 batches (which were plaguing murano owners and such...) and are much much much more reliable, and as of so far, there haven't been many problems (and all the ones that did happen were replaced under warranty by Nissan - not a rebuild, replaced.)
From what I've come to see, the redesign has made significant improvements and have made the CVT more reliable than previously - Nissan targeted having these things stick around for 200k miles (though no one is quite there yet...)
Fluid changes are the biggest pain though - you cannot access the tranny dipstick yourself, as there is a lock on it that has to be opened by a Nissan tech (though you could brake it and void your warranty...lol) - fluid changes are in the hundred's, simply because the NS-2 fluid that Nissan uses is proprietery and costs a hefty sum per quart - I believe for my 3.5 Altima, the chage is around $400....but the NS-2 fluid was designed to withstand 90k miles (my dad's company helped to design the fluid), and Nissan has a diagnostic tool that can determine the life of the fluid in the tranny as well, so you don't necessarily have to do a fluid swap every 30k...
Overall, the CVT has come a long way, and is certianly doing quite well for Nissan at this point - I don't think that they would put a failing transmission into almost all of their cars if they thought it was going to break!
If your not comfortable with CVT experiences don't get it. If you do and have issues again you'll only be kicking yourself. What's the old saying - once bitten twice shy?
Re: The Subaru, I've read CVT on the Dodge Caliber has been a disaster. I have 2 years lease left on my Versa with CVT. I've had no problems the first 3 years and I drive mostly heavy, congested city traffic. I won't keep the Versa outside of the 5 year powertrain warranty. Better for me to lease something new and be covered, than get caught for 5K(?) with my pants down.
My Cvt failed after 32,000 miles today. 2007 maxima purchased brand new. I am sometimes a spirited driver, (nothing too crazy) I drove it for approx. 18,000 then my wife took over and she drives like a granny. We were shocked and very dissapointed. Car has been fabulous thus far was planning to keep for 7-8 years but I don't know now. I would say a majority of the miles are highway. (70 percent).
You may want to get the lower model which has the option to choose 6sp manual. Not many people likes the idea of manual though.
In terms of other options that are missing, you can upgrade it on your own to be better and less expensive. Ex. wheels and stereo.
I also was skepitcal about CVT on top of a new car so I went with manual. This is a nice gear box that works well with the engine. Another great thing is the Cube is based on Versa and the 1.8L has been in used for quite some times.
I conduct a reliability survey nad haven't heard of too many CVT failures, but then most of the cars involved have under 70k miles on them. Remains to be seen how they'll hold up as the miles pile up.
From what I've come to see, the redesign has made significant improvements and have made the CVT more reliable than previously - Nissan targeted having these things stick around for 200k miles (though no one is quite there yet...)
Fluid changes are the biggest pain though - you cannot access the tranny dipstick yourself, as there is a lock on it that has to be opened by a Nissan tech (though you could brake it and void your warranty...lol) - fluid changes are in the hundred's, simply because the NS-2 fluid that Nissan uses is proprietery and costs a hefty sum per quart - I believe for my 3.5 Altima, the chage is around $400....but the NS-2 fluid was designed to withstand 90k miles (my dad's company helped to design the fluid), and Nissan has a diagnostic tool that can determine the life of the fluid in the tranny as well, so you don't necessarily have to do a fluid swap every 30k...
NICO newb - just found this post. If I understand right, Nissan CVT fluid change at 30k mi service (Nissan's recommended Premium Schedule) will run $400?!??? Hopefully that cost will come down before I get in my 1st 30k.
Well, my cube has 4600 miles on it, so as far as reliability is concerned I cannot say. All I know is that so far there are zero problems. However, I am surprised no-one has brought this up yet, but Nissan has just extended the warranty on ALL CVT transmissions from 2003 onwards. The new warranty is 5years/120,000 miles. That means your car is covered for a pretty long time so any problems will cost you $0 if they happen in this time span. And judging by the first post on this topic the person should be pretty satisfied by that. Oh by the way, NIssan is paying back anyone who paid out of pocket for CVT repairs, including 2003 model year cars. So how about that for customer satisfaction?
Well, my cube has 4600 miles on it, so as far as reliability is concerned I cannot say. All I know is that so far there are zero problems. However, I am surprised no-one has brought this up yet, but Nissan has just extended the warranty on ALL CVT transmissions from 2003 onwards. The new warranty is 5years/120,000 miles. That means your car is covered for a pretty long time so any problems will cost you $0 if they happen in this time span. And judging by the first post on this topic the person should be pretty satisfied by that. Oh by the way, NIssan is paying back anyone who paid out of pocket for CVT repairs, including 2003 model year cars. So how about that for customer satisfaction?
Actually the warranty on the CVT transmission has been bumped to 10 years/120,000 miles. They doubled the powertrain warranty both by time and mileage.
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