Continous Variable Transmission in cars.....DO NOT BUY!!

I will not list the name of the vehicle that i have, but lets just say it is a well known foreign model. I have had it for 13 months, and have about 22k miles on it.

It came with this great feature called CVT transmission with a 125,000 mile powertrain warrenty. This CVT was supposedly the best and newest transmissions, increase your MPG and much smoother drive.

Well me and my impulse self did not do research, so bought this $29,000 piece of junk!

Did ok until the winter when started noticing a sewing machine sound coming from the engine when we would start the car up and drive Call the dealer, "nothing to worry about, it is the CVT warming up.....start your car and let it warm up for 10 min or so and should go away. No harm if you dont do it just will be quieter" OK would have been nice to have known this........but oh well lack of research on my part.

About 3 weeks ago, the CVT light and the slip light came on. I noticed right after lack of acceleration from a stop position. It would take me pushing down on the gas pedal all the way down and the RPM going to 4500 just to get it to go 5 mph.

Took it into the dealer for the transmission problem. Told them what is going on, no problem will look at it. Get a call a few hours later.......yes ma'am you have a defective fuel cap and that is probably what is causing the problems. We looked at the transmission and it is fine. I knew better but was having some serious health problems going on in my family and didnt have time to deal with it at that point. Thought I will go through the proper channels and see what happens.

These problems would be very variable as to when it would do it and when it wouldnt. Until last Friday. It did it almost every time i would accelerate and even got to the point where i couldnt go on the highway over 50mph because it would not shift up. It started making this whistling noise and just kept getting worse and worse. In fact i almost got hit 3 times because of this

Saturday took it to the dealer. A different guy was looking at my report and was like "ummm, we never looked at your transmission" Anyway i was HOT! He said he cant take it in, but he will have my tech call me on Monday. This is our only car, so I had to drive it. First thing monday morning after almost getting HIT YET AGAIN, I call the guy. Told him no matter what I am dropping the car off tonight and he WILL give me a rental car as part of the warranty.

So I drop the car off yesterday and of course this guy was not there. So I had another guy helping me. I told him all the problems and he wasnt that receptive at first. Anyway I told him what was going on and he saw the lights that were on and said they will look at it. He did state hmmm, they told you it was the gas cap? So he knew something wasnt right. He moved the car to the service section came back and was shaking his head. Yes ma'am something is definately wrong with the car and the trammy. I heard the noise and I had the pedal all the way down and it didnt budge. I was so happy, maybe they would fix it.

Anyway the tech that messed around the first time called me back today.......yeah we found the problem, very unusual but it isnt the trammy it is.......NOW WAIT FOR IT......WAIT FOR IT............ it is a faulty brake pedal switch! Oh yeah, the switch that controls the brake lights........ I am done at this point and he tells me to come bring back the rental car tonight and pick up the car. I am sticking the big guns on him now....inwall. BUT OMG! Just because I am a woman doesnt mean I am completely stupid!

Anyway long story short, if you are looking at a car with CVT please do your research. This company has had so many complaints on this and most manufactures have stopped installing this in their cars because they have been having to replace so many transmissions. However not this maker.........they doubled the warrenty. a lot of good it will do me when i get killed! And many complaints i have read about states they have had their transmissions replaced 2, 3 and even 4 times in the life of their car. I cant even trade it in because the worth of the car is so bad!

 

Should maybe start looking at lemon laws and maybe find a way out. I am not to knowledgeable about it but isn't it like taking the car in more than 3 times to fix the same problem the basis? If it isn't the brake switch ( which I could understand more than the gas cap lol ). That would be twice already.

 

I have looked at the lemon law.........thanks! It states:

Under the Missouri Lemon Law, it is presumed that the manufacturer has been given a “reasonable” number of attempts to correct the problem if:

The vehicle has been in the repair shop for the same problem four or more times and the problem still exists; or
The vehicle has been out of service because of a problem covered by warranty for 30 or more working days since delivery

so we are only on number 2......grrrrr! The problem is that it is such a hazard to drive IMO. I do not understand how the goverment has not forced a recall on these after the research i have done on them. THEY ARE SUCH A HAZARD.

I am filing a complaint with NHTSA tonight......not that it will do anything but the more of us that reports it maybe the government will issue recall

 

I am so sorry to hear about your troubles.

NOt that it helps you, but that's why I ordered my dodge dakota v8, with a manual tranny in 2001. I'm still driving it, runs great. My clutch did go out after 170,000miles.
It's a 4 door truck, like a family car.

But, this does suck and I hope you get the remedy you deserve, and by that I mean it fixed permanently, or your money back.

Good luck

 

Well then, when you pick it up, drive it around the block and put it through the paces. If it's still not right, take it right back, look the man in the eye and say, "This is 3, boy. Once more and you keep it". The law does not state that all 4 instances can't happen on the same day. If they claim they have fixed it and didn't... you get the point.

 

Lol I would love to see a video of someone actually saying that to a mechanic hahaha.

 

Mr bill is completely right. In my state it is 3x for the lemon law. Get the dealer to take it back and move on.

That said, I know what you have. Cvt tech in cars is relatively new, but cvts are not new for vehicles. They have been proven in snowmobiles for around 50 years. Many atvs use them too, as well as other means of transportation.

 

It happens all the time. Usually the service manager is who you end up dealing with. Most times service managers are really salesmen that know little about what makes cars tick.

Go to a different dealer. Its under warranty, you can go to any dealership of that brand, and you might get better service because that dealership will probably want your business.

 

My car has a Twin Clutch Trannie but the standard model of my car comes with the CVT. After reading the owners manual about the CVT I agree. They are complete crap and need a lot of love are car when in use.

 

Sorry schackmel.

I have absolutely no automotive knowledge other than the obvious fact that if you are a female, you get the very worst service possible. Yes they think we are just that dumb.

I sure would not want to be the service person Curt talks to. Sic emmmmm.