Drove my first CVT

[motoguy128]

My wife and I had a couple hours to burn while waiting for service on my motorcycle this Saturday so we stopped by the Nissan dealer where I bought my car. I had a terrible experience with the Finance department. We aren;t really looking ot buy anything since the lease on my wife's car isn;t up until 2009... but we firgured, heck, why not waste some of their time since they wated ours a yar ago.

It turned out they were slow, and the sales guy remembered us. We've had our eyes on the Murano, so we took one for a spin I was pretty impressed with the CVT. It seems perfectly matched to the very smooth and torquey V6. Felt like a normal automatic up ot 30mph, then the RPM's just stayed at whetever RPM you choose depending on throttle position.

Overall I was a little disappointed with the Murano. I liked the elevated postion and it handled very good, but the ride was a little jittery (too sporty) and had a lot of blind spots. The instruments were too small and in a goofy looking silver plastic cluster that was too unconventional. I like clean and easy to read gauges. My '04 Accord still had the best gauges of any car I've driven. Big speedo with clear numbers.

Then we were chatting with the salesguy and mentioned we might also be interested in the Maxima. Even though we had told him we weren't buying anything soon, he jumped started the car and told us to go for a drive.

With 500lb less weight and I think another 10 HP, this car really flew. Effortless acceleration. My wife was a little afraid to really floor it. It did have a little torque steer when you got on it hard. We loved the all the power acessories, the ride, handling and overall feel of the car. If we can swallow the payments on a $33k car, it will be our next vehicle. Maybe a new Altima 2.5 S loaded with the CVT and leather will be a compromise.