CVT Transmission
 

My Altima Coupe has the CVT transmission. There are no gear changes as the Altima picks up and decreases speed and rpm's. It is smooth and just glides right along. The 7 speed automatic in my 370z has the conventional automatic transmission. While the gear bumps, both up and down are not rough or harsh, they certainly are noticeable (not complaining as the gear changes sort of connect me to the car's goings on as I drive it, so it's no big deal). But I wonder if the CVT would be feasible for the Z. Would it detract from the performance and 0-60 mph times, etc. For those of us Z owners who are less interested in a few seconds of performance time and more interested in style and nice ride (like me), might the CVT be an attractive alternative. Am I missing something?

The CVT lacks the excitement. It's just so boring. Nissan would never put that in their performance cars. Good thing Infiniti's don't have CVT's.

:iagree: I hate CVT's and would never buy a car with that type of transmission.. No other Nissans for me as long as that's the default trans for many models..

They may be efficient and smooth, but they are Boooorrrrriiinnnggg

One major problem is that the current crop of CVT transmissions can only handle a certain amount of torque. And that number is not very high.

also it seems CVT transmissions cannot handle too much torque and are very delicate. if you want smoothness and comfort you should've bought a lexus. oh wait, their throttle sticks. ok, go with a cadillac

The 370z's beautiful styling and feel more than make up for the "shifting bumps." As I said before, it's actually good in a way as it enables you to feel in touch with the car's performance.
My question is answered. Primary reason CVT transmission is not for the Z is that it can't handle the torque of the Z's power and is not as exciting.

11:23 on the dot, eh? I think I beat you to the punch. :bowrofl:

im not entirely familiar with CVT's, but would they be able to handle the "spirited" nature of the typical driving the most Z's would encounter? I could imagine a CVT breaking pretty quickly...

They have torque limitations but I wouldn't say they would break easily with spirited driving. The Altima is marketed as a sporty sedan and utilizes one. I'm sure Nissan knew the car would be driven that way at certain times.

Maxima is marketed as the 4DSC (4 Door Sports Car) and it has a CVT if I am not mistaken. I have driven the Max and liked it; it is exciting enough, but just not for the Z....

The only experience with the CVT i've had is my previous 2 cars 07 and 08 sentra. Even for an automatic I would say it does take the fun out of driving. About how much power they can handle? I wouldn't know. I would only reccomend getting a car with CVT if your not going to do anything to it, and use it as a daily driver or family car.

Other then that I wouldn't reccomend that tranny for the Z I think the current tranny is built way better then a rinky dink CVT

Just my 2 cents:cool:

only CVT's that nissan makes that i know of right now are for FWD anyway...

they are great for a certain segment of driver, but prob not most of this crowd

i've used them on rental cars and it was fine for driving around in a rental car... i would recommend one to my 90-year old grandma for sure

:iagree:

Totally forgot sentras were FWD for a second lol. Feels like i been driving RWD forever but I havent. lol

yeah but it wont take them much engineering to come up with a rwd version. all it would take is to come up with a new case, and some rearrangement of the internal components, and you have a rwd version.