Nissan CVT Experiences/Opinions

[2016Versa]

I bought a 2016 Nissan Versa with 10546 miles and a rebuilt title in Feb. 2019. I hadn't kept up with the newer cars much in the past several years because I hadn't planned to buy one until this one came along at the great price of $5300. The Versa has a CVT and I didn't do my homework prior to buying it. I was just wondering what everyone's previous/current experiences have been with Nissan CVT's. My plans are to do a fluid drain/fill approximately every 30K miles, what's your view on this? Often enough? Not often enough?

I love the gas mileage I'm getting with mine but, my biggest concern is longevity. My driving habits consist of trying to time traffic lights, coasting as much as possible when coming up to stops, and keeping a few hundred foot buffer between me and the car in front of me so if they brake I can often let off the gas and coast without ever having to touch the brakes. Living in rural KY where lots of the roads aren't the greatest most of my driving consists of speeds in 40-55 MPH ranged. My overall MPG average since purchase of the Versa is 47.231 with just over 11,023.6 miles tracked. My worst tank to date is the first tank I ran through it in cold/wet winter weather in Feb./Mar. 2019 at 42.345 MPG and my best tank to date was 51.167 MPG in May 2019 when it was warm but not hot enough for a/c usage. Actually I don't use a/c as much as most people. Last summer my usage was probably somewhere between 25-50%.

[JockoT]

I am on a Jazz/Fit site and one of the participants saw 256,000 miles on a CVT transmission, Different marque but I don't think there is any reason to fear a CVT.

[2016Versa]

Originally Posted by JockoT

I am on a Jazz/Fit site and one of the participants saw 256,000 miles on a CVT transmission, Different marque but I don't think there is any reason to fear a CVT.

I hope you are right. It's just that reading online Nissan has had many failures at well under 100K miles. Some that I've read about were as low as around 10K miles. I'm hoping my non aggressive driving style and shorter maintenance intervals will help prolong the life of the transmission.

[JimiCollins]

CVT is not so good on a wet road , do you have another experience ?

[2016Versa]

Originally Posted by JimiCollins

CVT is not so good on a wet road , do you have another experience ?

I can't tell any difference in the way the CVT performs on wet roads vs. dry.

[Jcp385]

Nissans were a staple of our fleet when I worked rental cars circa 2011. I thought they were great in the cars, where they could rock out some fantastic fuel economy, but heavier vehicles like the Quest and Murano absolutely sucked. More weight and power left the CVT feeling indecisive and entirely unqualified for its duty. Nissan had trouble with the Jatco CVTs back then, but I think that was mostly licked by 2014ish. I would stick to factory service intervals unless you do a lot of severe driving - short trips, dusty roads, hauling a lot of weight regularly, or if you live in the mountains.

[2016Versa]

Originally Posted by Jcp385

Nissans were a staple of our fleet when I worked rental cars circa 2011. I thought they were great in the cars, where they could rock out some fantastic fuel economy, but heavier vehicles like the Quest and Murano absolutely sucked. More weight and power left the CVT feeling indecisive and entirely unqualified for its duty. Nissan had trouble with the Jatco CVTs back then, but I think that was mostly licked by 2014ish. I would stick to factory service intervals unless you do a lot of severe driving - short trips, dusty roads, hauling a lot of weight regularly, or if you live in the mountains.

Thanks for your reply. The owners manual doesn't give a service interval for the CVT. Nissan says there's a test where they can check the condition of CVT fluid by the amount of time it's been overheated but if I do my own fluid/filter changes I can probably change the fluid/filter cheaper than I can take it to a dealer to have the test ran. I never take a car back to a dealer for anything unless I've bought the car new and it's going in for warranty work. I either do the work myself or take it to an independent garage where labor costs are about 1/2 what they are at a dealer. I bought this car used so as long as I own it it will likely never go to the dealer unless there's a problem that requires special attention from Nissan and an independent can't repair it. One thing that does make me feel better about the purchase of this car is the fact that Nissan just settled a class action suit recently requiring them to warranty the CVT's for 7yr./84K miles.

My son has a 2014 Nissan Sentra with the CVT. I think it now has between 60-70K miles and to my knowledge it is still problem free.

As for the gas mileage, most of my driving is on rural roads here in KY in the 40-55 MPH range. My lifetime average since purchase in Feb. 2019 with 11820.3 miles tracked is 47.551 MPG. My best tank to date is 52.535 MPG.

[Jcp385]

Originally Posted by 2016Versa

Thanks for your reply. The owners manual doesn't give a service interval for the CVT. Nissan says there's a test where they can check the condition of CVT fluid by the amount of time it's been overheated but if I do my own fluid/filter changes I can probably change the fluid/filter cheaper than I can take it to a dealer to have the test ran. I never take a car back to a dealer for anything unless I've bought the car new and it's going in for warranty work. I either do the work myself or take it to an independent garage where labor costs are about 1/2 what they are at a dealer. I bought this car used so as long as I own it it will likely never go to the dealer unless there's a problem that requires special attention from Nissan and an independent can't repair it. One thing that does make me feel better about the purchase of this car is the fact that Nissan just settled a class action suit recently requiring them to warranty the CVT's for 7yr./84K miles.

My son has a 2014 Nissan Sentra with the CVT. I think it now has between 60-70K miles and to my knowledge it is still problem free.

As for the gas mileage, most of my driving is on rural roads here in KY in the 40-55 MPH range. My lifetime average since purchase in Feb. 2019 with 11820.3 miles tracked is 47.551 MPG. My best tank to date is 52.535 MPG.

Good numbers! Basically mirrors my numbers from the rental car days. The CVT delivers. I can’t match that with my Civic, though it comes kinda close. Nissan was ahead of the curve, and paid for it, but those returns are pretty dang good evidence of why they did it.

[mohenry]

Try to visit nissanversaforums and you will see that the 2013 models and up are more prone to CVT problems.

[2016Versa]

Originally Posted by mohenry

Try to visit nissanversaforums and you will see that the 2013 models and up are more prone to CVT problems.

Most of what I'd seen and read said there were more problems with the older models. When Nissan settled a class action suit on the older models they increased the warranty of the transmission from 5/60 to 10/120. They just settled a class action suit on the new models a few months ago raising the warranty from 5/60 to 7/84. Mine is still doing fine at just under 25K miles.

My fuel mileage numbers are still looking great. With 13932.9 miles tracked my overall average is 48.401 and my last tank was my best to date at 55.656 mpg (hand calculated). I've noticed since the cooler fall temperatures have begun that the Ultra Gauge is showing slightly lower numbers. This will probably be the last tank of summer blend until next spring since they can start selling winter blend as early as 9/15. I made it a point to fill the tank early last time on 9/12 to be sure I got at least one more tank of summer blend.