Hey Scotty...I love your vids. I'm looking to unload my 2013 ford escape w/128,000miles on it for a toyota, which I've owned and are reliable. I remember you said in one of your vids to stay clear of CVT transmissions which I would like to do because I'm hearing other tech's say the same thing. The problem is, it seems that ALL the car manufacturers are putting them in as we get into 2025. Are they really that bad and what to do? I know you must have a million texts like these to go thru but I'm just throwing this out there because I think you're fantastic!!!
Some are better than others. Scotty has stated that the worst are the Jatco CVTs used by Nissan, Mitsubishi, and some other manufacturers. He has said that the best are in new Toyotas, particularly the CVTs with the launch gear, followed by Honda. However you should probably not expect any of them to yield the same life as a good conventional automatic transmission.
The Toyota RAV4 TRD doesn't have a CVT
They call it:
Direct Shift-8-speed Electronically Controlled automatic Transmission with intelligence (ECT-i) and sequential shift mode
Not sure it's any better. I wonder if Scotty made a video about it ....
The Mazda CX5 also doesn't have CVT
Being CVT on its own isn't bad, the problematic CVTs are bad. Stay clear of the ones @chucktobias said and preferably go with a Toyota; they've been making it the longest and have perfected it. I have a Honda cvt car and I don't regret it, but Toyota is the best when it comes to cvt.
