I find the whole CVT thing a turn-off. My Dad has a Murano that I've driven on a few trips and I really don't care for the feel of it on the highway. For some reason it doesn't seem to coast well? You always seem to have to be on the gas. Having a CVT may prevent us from buying another Maxima when it's time.
Is Nissan the only company to use these transmissions so widely across their lineup?
There is a definite correlation between Nissan and the CVT transmission. Jatco a spin-off of Nissan is one of the largest automotive CVT transmission manufactures/supplier in the industry. They supply CVT to many other auto makers, but not to Honda or Toyota which manufacture their own, or are transmission supplier themselves…interesting!!
The fact that Nissan has developed a CVT that can handle the power output of the Maxima’s 3.5L V6 shows the many technological advances in the CVT since the Subaru Justy.
I just hope that Nissan isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket, and looks at developing their own Dual-Clutch Transmission “DCT” like Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Chrysler are doing, and what VW/Audi has already done. The manufacturing cost is higher for a DCT than a CVT, but with all the technological advances lately that cost should also come down.
I too am one of those who will be hard to convince that power/torque transfer can done as well by a belt and cones in a CVT, as meshing teeth of gears do in a DCT or conventional manual transmission.