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My question is about a 2002 Nissan Primera S/W fitted with a Constant Variable Transmission.

What is your assessment of the long term reliability of these cars and in particular the CVT unit?

If failure of the CVT unit can be catastrophic (AA Torque 2007 ) what are the warning signs.

At what distance should the drive belt be replaced for normal road driving?

Should all vehicles using CVT be approached with caution?

George

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 24 September 2009

Nissan have heavily committed themselves to the CVT technology in recent times because of its claimed fuel consumption benefits. To reinforce that commitment, a press statement was released recently stating production had reached the one million mark in the space of just a few years.

No manufacture is going to let this type of investment fail, as you could imagine the consequences to the brand and the financial cost of massive failures under warranty with those numbers.

The CVT units currently fitted to the Maxima, X-Trail and Murano are superb from our experience as the mating of the engine to the CVT itself complement each other perfectly. We have not heard of any premature failures whilst the vehicles are under warranty so going forward things sound pretty good.

As part of the journey towards this technology however, Nissan, like a lot of other manufactures, have fitted CVT into other models, vehicles such as the Primera in Nissan's case. Many of these vehicles have arrived into NZ as used imports and this is where problems have started to surface.

These transmissions were prone to major internal failures and the recommended fix from Nissan, was to replace the entire transmission, in other words they were deemed to be un-repairable. The costs mentioned around the industry was at one stage around the $9,000 mark, which in many cases is equal to, or more than, the cars total worth as these vehicles get older.

I suspect the earlier NZ new models were also prone to problems however, many of these would have been handled by Nissan NZ while the vehicles were under new car warranty.

The last new Primera we drove (2007) did not have the same connection between the power unit and transmission and it was a hugely disappointing car to drive in comparison to the models mentioned above, but I suspect the CVT itself is a big step up in terms of reliability.

So the warning flags have been raised to warn people of the potential risks when purchasing these vehicles. Of course nothing seems to be un-repairable in NZ for very long, and in recent times there have been a number of transmission specialists who claim to be able to repair these units at a more affordable cost. How long these repairs last, who knows, most guarantees for this type of work are for a maximum of 1 year.

Apart from sticking to the manufacturers recommended servicing intervals for oil changes and their specific fluid type, there are no other maintenance regimes to follow.

The other mainstream manufacturer who has invested heavily in CVT technology is Honda with the Civic and Jazz models (called a Fit as a used import). Up until very recently they were still experiences problems and as these vehicles have started to age the problems have surfaced more than Honda would like.

Once again imports fitted with CVT transmissions such as Logo and HRV have all had the potential to fail. While these models were sold new in NZ and suffered as well, it's the influx of imports which has increased the awareness of these problems. The Honda problem is recognised by a shudder on takeoff.

Audi is another manufacturer who use CVT in some models and once again we say be careful when purchasing used imports or NZ new. We know they can fail and the costs can be huge to repair.

In light of all this, we have always warned people of the potential problems when buying used and older vehicles with these transmissions regardless of make and model.

Having said all that, the 'normal' automatic transmission can have its share of failures as well but the big difference is most of these units are repairable at realistic retail prices.

To eliminate the risk completely, the good old fashion manual gearbox is pretty much bullet proof.

Hi, we own a 2003/4 Honda Jazz. It has the dreaded shudder in the CVT transmisison and we have been advised the whole transmission needs replacing at a cost of 2.5k. I am curious, having read some other threads, whether there is some comeback on the manufacturer under merchantable quality clauses etc? I also believe that Honda offered an extended warrenty to cover Jazz deficiencies, should I be contacting Honda directly to see what they can do or am I just going to wear this unncessary cost?

On a 9 year old car it is unlikely the manufacturer will come to the party and I would be highly surprised if the Consumer Guarantees Act clause you quote (ie; merchantable quality) would apply on a car of this age.
However, despite my doubts, there is nothing stopping you from asking the question of Honda.