I have a CVT on my Altima coupe. Its really smooth and efficient, but its really boring. i feel like i'm in a toy car. I have been driving my friends 87 300zx 5spd and its 10 times as much fun. I am selling my altima and putting the procedes towards my 6spd manual Z. However what i like about nissan is that they are putting money into developing better/newer automatic transmission technologies AND better manual transmission technologies (Synchro rev match). They try to appeal to both the enthusiastic and the practical.

Seriously though...if shifting 'bumps' are a complaint of the Z, someone is overlooking many more aspects of the car that are bumpy, noisy, or uncouth. Last time I looked, the Z wasn't primarily about comfort or luxury.

My wife's altima has the CVT. I make it more fun by switching over and shifting manually with the shift lever. The 3.5 V6 Altima has some oomph but also torque steers with the FWD.

I hear ya, I just hate that they put it in the new Max. Alot of Max guys are hard core enthusiast like we are for the Max, and alot of them have the Max instead of the Z because of family reasons and have respect for the Z as well etc... They need to drop the 7spd auto into the 11 Max and leave the cvt for the Alti and lower, that would be a baaad mug!

The CVT should have stayed on the Subaru Justy where it belonged.

Although I prefer the good old manual trans, I think it is more fun, I do think the CVT is a pretty neat trans and capable of more then some here give it credit for. Check this out:Banned! Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) | F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog

and:
YouTube - Williams FW15C CVT

The CVT used for the F1 car was extremely complex because it had to handle lots more power and torque than a standard engine.

CVTs would be perfect for luxury cars assuming that the technology for CVTs advance to the point that they can handle double their torque range now. For a high performance sports car to be able to use a CVT, the control on it's shifting range would require a lot of manual control - which could mean that you'd practically need to relearn how to drive a manual. Speed and ratio of shifting would be infinitely variable. I don't see this happening any time soon even if CVTs were made to handle lots more torque.