Leaderboard

We got a 2017 Pathfinder for the wifey this past year, haven't had any problems out of it yet (knock on wood). The CVT is weird, you don't feel any shift at all. It is definitely not built for off-road use in my opinion, no ground clearance at all.

In theory the CVT is a great idea. You can keep the engine in its torque band all the time. Go-kart guys love them. From what I've heard/read, though, vehicles with computer-controlled CVTs tend to be useless. A friend of the family has a newer CRV that can't get out of her driveway in the winter. I don't know if it's just over-cautious traction control (my mom's '07 had a normal slushbox and just gave up if it thought the wheels were slipping too much) or if the computer can't figure out where to set the ratio with inconsistent wheel speed and gives up because of that. Also, yeah, I haven't heard much good about their reliability.

As per[mention=30891]slartibartfast[/mention] re Pros & Cons of CVT. I also remember reading in some auto forum that as far as CVT goes, Nissan nailed it & Honda’s is terrible. Unfortunately, it could be the other way around-I can’t be sure as my interest level was low, however, I think that’s the right way, as I believe I only remember it because I was surprised Nissan did something better than Honda but thought it fit given Nissan’s old reputation for performance powertrain & handling. As for Crossovers, they certainly have a time & place. We have a 2nd Gen MDX as our family car & it’s fantastic. We’ve put 100K on it & plan another 100K. We are waiting for another “sporty” Japanese (or S Korean if they get sporty down) crossover to replace it. MDXs went soft in 2014 & the Infiniti JX (now QX something) drove like a Toyota minivan. My money would be on the Mazda CX9 if we had to buy now-almost bought one in 2010 as it handled very nice & had a responsive powertrain. Our only hold back was long term reliability & then we stumbled on our MDX for a steal. Unfortunately, the CX9s are now 4 Cylinder so that probably disappoints. Frankly, other than a GTR or a Z, I don’t think I’d buy a modern Nissan. (I recognize the German’s make some very good crossovers but we’ll never buy German as we drive cars for decades & I can’t afford or tolerate the annoyance of keeping a German car on the road). Highlanders & Subaru’s new 3rd row crossover deserve a look. Toyota has nailed usability but I haven’t driven one in 8 years & their handling was very truck like back then. The Subaru has been getting good reviews as fun to drive but I’d always be cautious about buying the 1st version of anything.

Ya, I've heard the same thing about the power band with a CVT transmission. Read somewhere (Car and Driver in the Dentist office?) that Porsche tried to put one in a track car decades ago but the design was banned from competition.

That's what I was thinking. Even if I can't get it mounted or a good spare for it until 6 months down the road, at $30 Its hard to turn it down if I have any interest in going that route. Although it had a weird lock on one of the bolts through the spare tire attached to it that I couldn't figure out. Probably pretty normal (security lock of some sort?), but it wasn't something I'd seen before. Ya I also disassembled the latch mechanism and threw that in the trunk

For $30 you should bank it. You’ll be glad to have it if you decide to use it. If not, someone else will be glad to get it from you. Make sure to get the latching materials below the hatch.

My friends Altima is cvt. You don’t feel much for shifting, kinda takes the fun out of accelrating

I finished up the 4 link brackets today. They are bolted in and then the reinforcements are welded in with a few passes. Ive never done anything like this before so i'm more than willing to take in come ideas from y'all. Thanks!