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.

can u still get the paddle controls with cvts? meaning is it just an auto or cna they do like the Z and allow the driver to shift too?

I don't know of any Nissan with a CVT with paddles so my guess would be no.

The torque limitations are based on the standard CVT style. However, a "chain" version was patented by Larry Anderson that would allow for extremely high amounts of torque based on a chain instead of a belt. The system used "floating sprocket bars" that would allow dynamic sprocket distance selection between the chain and sprocket. Built out of strong metals, this would prove to handle over 1000Lbs/tq.

Anderson was working on fatigue testing last time I'd talked to him. I think his son took over the project and they were scheduled to talk to some large auto manufacturers (I believe GM was one of them). I don't know what happened after that, but I've seen videos of the prototype working and it's pretty interesting. His domain has been taken down since, so he may have sold the patent and it may have been buried.

You can see the prototype of it at 1:17 in this video:


On a side note, CVTs are pretty boring, but if you couple it with an electric motor producing a lot of torque, it'd be far less boring because it'd be a "hold on tight and hit the gas" type situation. Personally I prefer a manual over anything, but there's pros and cons to everything.

Hmm Intresting....

cool vid. cvt's are not there yet, maybe in the future though

yes there are some that have paddle shifters and simulate the feeling of shifting gears but it's still mushy and kinda defeats the purpose of the CVT. although i understand the concept of CVT and it seems like a good idea really (especially for battery power only cars) i think i'll stick to tradition manuals, autotragics and DSG-style dual clutch auto manuals (GTR, porsche PDK, etc)

My CVT Altima coupe has a manual shifting feature on the floor tied into the automatic floorshift. It's weird to shift a CVT transmission as it doesn't have actual forward gears.

Yeah shifting a CVT through virtual gears is pointless and just slows you down. Although CVT's sound weird to us enthusiasts they allow you to harness maximum engine power. Think of the scenario of sitting on the starting line of a drag strip, you launch pretty traditionally and the revs quickly shoot up to near red-line ... and stay there for the entire trip down the strip. You just ran the 1/4 with your engine producing maximum HP for almost the entire length. With a traditional gearbox, be it manual or automatic, you are cycling between 70% and 100% and are only at that 100% peak for a split second before having to go back to 70% power.

As far as chain drive CVT goes, I believe it is already in use by the likes of Audi and Subaru and possibly others. It's the future of automatics.

it feels like your driving a boat tho... at least it sounds that way lol

it looks good on paper... but so do wankel's :)

in the old days, one would focus and adjust the light when taking a photograph. the modern cameras got rid of all that. one day, the modern cars probably would do the same to the manual transmission.

i still MF when the situation allows and i still shoot full manual mode. even tho i have a very technologically advanced DSLR, it still doesn't know what I want it to do sometimes, especially when it comes to exposure. so in that way, perhaps a true manual trans will never be replaced. having said that, see my above post about dual clutch automated manuals.

New Max has same paddle shifters as Z, and a similiar steering wheel and dash. Now as far as torque/power if they wanted to "doubtful although" they could incorporate this tranny into the Z........It could handle the Z's 270ft/lb of torque which is only 9 more ft/lbs than the Max which has 261ft/lb of torque.

Close... Japan's Skyline (our G35) with 8spd CVT.
Nissan Skyline GT-8 | First Drives | Car Reviews | Auto Express

I think it's a pleasure on the right kind of car---smooth and glides.

I'm an old guy too, but I don't find that interesting or enjoyable in the least... Maybe when I'm 80 and driving a Buick, but certainly not now at a mere 60....:tup:

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.