Driving a conventional CVT car after 1 year of Prius

I swap back and forth between my 2009 Prius and my wife's automatic 2006 Xterra

The doors do not unlock themselves when I grab them, I feel like Scotty reduced to using a mouse: "How Quaint." I have to insert a key to make it start.

Some low life deliberately reduced the headroom over just the front seats. Huge vehicle, but I can't get through the door. (I fit in back, and have no issues in front or back of the Prius)



90% of the throttle is there right off idle, I burn rubber over half the time, who planned a digital throttle? It has on and off, I wanted a whole range of control.

No matter how I drive it, 18 MPG. (2wd) It is a good thing it is a company car, so they pay for all that gas.

(One headlight aims up, in 50,000 miles Nissan service has failed to find any way to adjust the headlights)

 

Yes, I was actually considering one of these to replace my Ford Explorer, but I don't fit because of the retarded design of the front seat/roofline. Wth?

 

The superiority of the E-CVT is striking. It is 4% more fuel efficient than Honda mechanical CVT. You don't appreciate until you loose it. It is one of the FULL hybrid exclusive premium feature that often overlooked when calculating the "payback".

 

Technically our transmission isn't a true-CVT but a 1-speed "planetary gear."

 

The only other master of the CVT is Nissan. I had a Murano for 4 years and I can honestly say that that CVT rocked. They really got the calibration right for the vehicle. Its "tuning" meant a slower 0-60 time than a conventional transmission would have given but the 30-70 time blew the doors off other cars.

I understood the low end was shaved to spare the transmission from a stop and I can understand given the 230+ HP it was dealing with. Anyway I love the Toyota Tranny but the Nissan one is indeed very good too..and as a bonus the Murano always got 21 mpg overall...this compared to a friends Highlander that got around 19.

 

Yes, it's not really a CVT but a planetary gear. I tried to explain that to a Toyota salesman once. Toyota simply markets it as a CVT so since it "acts" ultimately like a continuously variable transmission, they don't bother to go to the trouble of explaining the difference between what is really a computer controlled planetary gear, as opposed to what is defined as a CVT in most other automobiles.

 

I alternate between a 2010 Prius and a 207 Fit. The Fit has the 5 speed automatic, not the CVT. It is quite peppy off the line, but looses steam rather quickly. It is loud (engine/road noise), but it corners like it's on rails! It really is a blast to drive, and I do manage between 30 - 34 mpg out of it on my daily commute.

The Prius, on the other hand, is much more refined. It's quieter, feels more stable on the road, has far more front leg room, and I'm currently registering 48 mpg on my daily commute.

They are definitely different vehicles intended for different purposes, but they both do what they do very well. In our case, the Prius is our Luxury car, and our Fit is essentially our grocery grabbing, errand running, load and go, micro-SUV!

 

Having driven a manual all my life, and then the prius for four months, i got back in a manual for a work trip and got quite confused, and then angry. though the worst thing i think is other cars idling at the lights, seems so antiquated!

 

Prior to my Prius I had a Ford Five Hundred AWD with the CVT-in many ways I find the behaviour between the two very similar in terms of acceleration.

Where I found the big difference is that the Five Hundred's traction control is nowhere as twitchy as the Prius's was-maybe because of the AWD, possibly.

 

i laugh at people who have to press buttons on their remotes to unlock their cars or turn keys to start their engines. that's like using a choke in you car...lol.

 

Every time I drive my GF's Honda Civic :_>

 

Haha, yes i remember my wifes first car had a manual choke, and i felt SO DAMNED SMUG when i got my first car and it had an automatic choke (well, fuel injection, but you know what i mean) and a five speed box.

In years to come we'll all be crazy old codgers telling the grand kids about "in my day, there were these things called petrol stations!"

 

My 3rd car was an 83 RX7...It had a manual Choke...I would give anything to have that car again...so fun, so nimble. The manual choke was easy to ignore. Let's hear it for manual chokes and manual shifers....In a few years we will all be riding bikes to work anyway.