I'm intimately familiar with the CVT in the Nissan Murano as well as the CVT in the Dodge Caliber/Jeep variants. I used to be a warranty tech for that company, and will earnestly tell anyone to stay as far away as they can from any vehicle that uses those units.

The Murano's transmission, designated CVT3 by JATCO, has a long history of catastrophic failures, ranging from electrical problems to belt breakage all the way to broken pulleys or shafts. They are ticking time bombs.

The lighter duty units in the Dodge/Jeep vehicles, designated CVT2 by JATCO, has somewhat of a better history, but even then, it's still a failure waiting to happen. Most of the problems never actually get solved, they just get swept under the rug.

Then again, what would anyone with any mechanical knowledge at all expect from a transmission that is nothing more than an over complicated snowmobile clutch & belt assembly?

 

i agree witht hat. CVT is nice because of the smoothness but it's not meant for a heavy vehicle. atv's and snowmobiles NP but a car eeeeee.

 

My new Caliber has the CVT2 and a lifetime powertrain warranty so no concerns there.
And most semi trucks have manual transmissions due the the very narrow powerband of the huge diesel engine and most over the road trucks use 10 to 18 gears.

 

I won't disagree that most semi trucks on the road today have manual transmissions, however Schneider National is currently purchasing "100's of automatics."

http://www.schneiderjobs.com/drivers...perienced.html <-- second question from the top.