Nissan CVTs?

In reply to John Welsh :

The Prius certainly intrigue me, but we really need a hatchback/wagon type vehicle. I know there was a Prius variant that was generally shaped like one, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one in person, or know how much space they offer vs. a normal hatchback or compact wagon. 

The whole “new” thing is about 50% keeping SWMBO happy, and 50% with the minimal driving we do now a new vehicle should easily last us 10-years. 

Truthfully, if it weren’t for the eventual need to evacuate a Leaf would be great. But due to logistics(and Murphy’s law) we need all our vehicles able to make the 850mi trip back to IL independently of each other & without any unnecessary delays for charging every ~230mi or whatever their actual range is.  

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Oh, I get the "new" thing.  I too keep my wife in new cars.  She's a good sport about my "multiple old car" habits but she really doesn't want to play that game herself.  Funny though, her current car, which was bought new, is now 9 years old with about 75k miles.  She is growing tired of the Mazda5 and it might be replaced soon.  

Speaking of Mazda5, the bigger Prius is the PriusV and it is generally the size of the Mazda5.  In every country but the US the PriusV is sold with a 3rd row of seating.  The are very nice and were just recently discontinued in 2018.  It could be argued that they were replaced with the Rav4 Hybrid (also nice) but they both comand a pretty premium price.  

If I were in your current shopping mode, I would certainly look at these two: 

In reply to John Welsh :

Those both intrigue me, but based on msrp I’m doubtful we could get down to $18k otd. 

Yeah, I would be looking for a Prius V wagon.

It's just a bigger Prius. Car & Driver was bizarrely a champion of them.

Looks like $12k-$18k is typical pricing.

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?mdId=46703&mkId=20088&rd=99999&searchSource=QUICK_FORM

I own a 2015 Nissan Juke AWD that we bought new Dec 2015, and has about 65,000 miles on it. At 53,000, the CVT went out. We had an extended warranty, but Nissan swapped it out themselves for no cost with a "new upgraded CVT" unit. The car accelerates better than before. 

I just last week got a postcard in the mail about a class action suit, supposedly Nissan has agreed to replace CVT's over several years if you haven't already.

If you live in a hilly mountain area like myself, the CVT is nice. 

Personally, I've driven several Nissan and Fords with CVTs as rentals and didn't like how the Fords behaved.

Our Juke gets an average of 33 city and 35 highway.

Vigo said:

Toyota's hybrid cvt (PSD, e-cvt, whatever you wanna call it) is honestly THE modern revolution in transmission design. It's ridiculously simple and reliable.

Most of Ford's Hybrid and PHEV models use a very similar design that's actually based on tech they bought (licensed) from Toyota. They've made some changes through the years, but it's the same idea.

OP, since you're considering a Fit, or Yaris and a Leaf would work for you most of the time, maybe look at a Ford CMax? They're either hybrid or PHEV hatch backs of similar size, and they'll have the far more reliable "Prius/electric" CVT design. $18k buys a clean used model with low miles. Here's a loaded 2017 CMax PHEV with under 30k miles for under $17k not too far from you.

If you guys really don't do a lot of miles, I'd bet most all of your driving could be done entirely in electric mode making running costs super low, but it still has the ICE for the times when you'd need to "get out of Dodge" in a hurry. I've got the same powertrain in my Fusion Energi, and drive about 40-50 miles per day. My lifetime fuel economy average climbed to 86.6mpg this summer before the weather changed and winter gas crept back into the picture. Living in a more temperate climate, if you drive less than that, you could probably get much better fuel economy.

In reply to TIGMOTORSPORTS :

A hill would literally kill a CVT more quickly

Most of Ford's Hybrid and PHEV models use a very similar design that's actually based on tech they bought (licensed) from Toyota. They've made some changes through the years, but it's the same idea.

There are some other companies using stuff i would say is highly derivative. Not that the basic design wouldn't have come into existence anyway, but since Toyota was first I give them pretty much all the credit. 

I've driven a Cmax and it is much punchier than any Prius. However, it's not punchier than a contemporary Camry Hybrid which is a pretty plausible cross-shop that has Toyota reliability and vastly better overall MPG. Of course, there's no PHEV Camry so the Cmax wins that one outright. 

I'd love to own a plug in hybrid, but none of them are cheap and desirable enough to me right now to justify owning one for no real reason. I don't drive a ton of miles with my current job and house location and if i want to take a long trip i have a reasonably comfortable 30mpg sedan that also runs 13s, and i probably wouldn't trade that for 10 or even 20 mpg unless that car was also pretty fun to drive. I've kind of backed myself into a corner of having already owned most of the stuff that is both good and cheap. Now the stuff i still want to try is outside my budget of 'vehicle purchases i don't really need to justify'. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Lets go back to Versa ...

My wife had a 2007 which was bought off the truck and the first shipment to come to the dealership.  Her's was a SL, top of the line model and therefore a CVT.  It served us well but we really only kept it 3 yrs and 60k miles for a time when she was racking up the miles.  We never had any CVT issues but we also offloaded it early.  

For my fleet business I gave a lot of consideration to used Versas because of their huge back seat.  But, rather than to go forward with Versa I went forward with Prius.  

So, with all that said, I've done a lot of looking at them and what I want to point out is that not all Versas are CVT.  

This is an early Versa SL (the upper model)

It is easily distinquished as an SL from the alloys and upgraded cloth fabric (as well as the SL badge on the rear)

This is a Versa S

Easily recognized by its hubcaps and "mousey" cloth, single tone, interior.  

The Versa S offered a 5 speed manual or traditional 4 speed automatic

The Versa SL offered a 6 speed manual or CVT automatic.  

When I was considering buying used Versas I was only focused on the S version so as to get the 4-speed automatic.  All these Versa hatches offered a 1.8L engine

After this body style shown in the pictures there was also a Versa sedan which had a 1.6L engine and then there was also the Versa Note (1.6L hatch) sold at the same time.   I lost exact track of what was offered with which transmission but as I look on fueleconomy.gov, for 2018 there was a Versa offered with a 1.6L and a 4 speed auto trans.  For '19+ every Versa was CVT if automatic.  On fueleconomy.gov the '18 Versa offered with 4-speed auto is just listed as Versa.  It is not distinquished if that is a Versa sedan or a Versa Note (or both) that offered the 4-speed trans.  I ams sure that whichever it is, it is the stripper model.  

So, if you are willing to go with a Versa of 2018 or older, you can get one w/o a CVT.  

Just came in to post that I have a '14 pathfinder CVT, and I'm planning on towing a small camper (4k lb loaded, 6k lb tow rating) fairly regularly this spring/summer.  I bought the car with reservations about the CVT, but was assured that as many of them as would be needed would be covered under a Nissan factory extended warranty for 3 years...

...so I' m taking the gamble.  VERY few cars fit our needs and price ranges, so we'll see if this one fits the bill.  Luckily Nissan resale had already bottomed out when we bought it used, so even if its a total disaster, at least it was cheap and we should be able to get out with no isssue.

Dootz said:

My '15 Sentra puked its CVT out at 27k miles, so take that for what you will.

My moms did the same thing.  Was covered under warranty though.

Are the qx60 I see everywhere cvt? Those have same problems as versa and Sentra cvt ? 

That's the same car as the pathfinder Golfduke has.