CVT in snow?

[sentra4eva]

Hello everyone.
This is my first post on the forum.

I recently got my b16 se-r and i absolutly love it however i heard that the cvts are terrible in snow.
I havnt driven the car in snow at all as i got it in april.
Can anyone with a cvt equipped sentra please share their expeiences?

[Kiroshino]

I've never driven a car with CVT so I don't have personal experience with them, but according to my dad, they're just harder to drive in the snow because it's difficult to control the car with CVT's that promote constantly high torque.

What I think he's saying is that on near friction-less surfaces like snow, it is difficult to keep your drive wheel from spinning when you have high torque. Since you've probably driven in snow before, you'd know that the fastest way to accelerate in snow is to take it nice and easy. Can't do that if your driving wheel keeps doing burn outs.

Just a thought.

[wingedmark]

i have driven my 2.0s cvt in snow for the last three years in North Dakota. i do not have a problem controlling it when there is snow or ice on the ground. i have driven it in a blizzard before and it slid around a bit but i was still able to keep control of it. the main advice i have is to take your time and give your self space. what are some of your concerns about the cvt in the snow and i may be able to answer better.

[chrisncgy86]

I live in Canada and LOVED my CVT in the snow!

its great for slowing down when there is lots of black ice ect!

[kerrton]

My 08 Rogue, which sits on a Sentra chassis, is great in the snow and we get terrible winters here in Alberta. And the CVT does not promote high torque, not at all, if anything it's the exact OPPOSITE of this. The reason is the tuning, all Nissan vehicles are tuned for fuel efficiency and they have a "learning" phase where it monitors your driving habits (ie hard on the gas and agressive, or easy on the gas and conservative), and it slowly over time fine tunes the engine and CVT to your driving habits. So, I'm a conservative driver for example, so when I take off from a stand still my CVT kicks into a very high gear ratio and the rpms drop quickly - it's like shifting a manual into 5th gear at 20 mph. But, the CVT is very responsive and doesn't do anything that the driver doesn't want it to - the moment you take your foot off the brake or touch the brake, the CVT gearing changes and you immediately slow down and maintain excellent control - far better than a conventional transmission in my opinion.

[chrisncgy86]

I am from Alberta as well...... worst....winters.....EVER

And i love playing with my SE R in the snow......and ice........ and -40 temps

[iluvmyVersa08]

I have CVT in my Versa and have gone through two winters with it already. I simply bought winter tires for her, and she handles perfectly fine. As long as you drive carefully in bad weather, it shouldn't be a problem

[sentrastace]

its not horrible but its not great either.
when we got the snowpacalypse 27 inches of snow here in Maryland it was a little difficult but as long as you go slow and not slam the accelerator or make sudden turns, it handled fine and got me where I needed to go in the snow---and i had almost bald summer tires. a lot of it is driver related.