On Sunday, 15 January 2017 17:55:44 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/15/2017 3:36 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 13:29:20 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Does that have the "shiftless" transmission? The Altima has that and
initially it took a little getting used to. Now I like it. Plenty of
acceleration when you need it, even on the highway when you stomp on it.
After driving the truck mostly, I have been amazed at the gas mileage.

Richard under normal acceleration you don't feel the classic 'bump' of the gears, but if you nail it to get around something, it'll drop down and you hear the engine scream. Now that you mention it, that does seem like an interesting, yet odd arrangement.



If I am just driving along and then suddenly "nail it" the transmission
will very briefly feel like it is slipping while the engine raises in
RPM but then it grabs hard and accelerates the car. It happens so fast
that you don't really realize what just happened.

===

I wonder how it works mechanically, perhaps variable pitch blades in
the torque converter?



You got me curious as well ... this website explains it pretty well:


https://practicalmotoring.com.au/car-advice/continuously-variable-transmission-explained/


I've heard the "rubber band" thing before and some of the testers on our car shows up here make a point of saying they don't like the CVT. I'll see how they work out by the time I'm shopping for a new vehicle in about 6-10 years into the future.