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I have a Punto II 6-speed CVT, bought in January this year. In the Car by Car Breakdown section, Honest John says "Doubts remain over the longevity of CVT". Has anyone experienced problems with this system?
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Well, the "modern generation" CVT cars (i.e the steel segmented belt system that first appeared around 1987 in Fiestas, Escorts, Unos, Metros, etc) do seem to cause one or two "headaches" for some.
However, the orginal CVT cars - DAF Variomatics with composite rubber drive-belts - which were made from 1959 up to 1991 (as Volvo 340s) were on the whole, very reliable but much misunderstood by correspondents and others seeking "humour".
In actual fact, most modern CVT cars are direct descendants, because van Doorne (The designer and "DAF" founder/family) designed and patented the Transmatic which is, in fact, the steel-belted version.
The current craze of fitting 6-speed ratio steps (to give "manual" control and effects) rather defeats the idea of the original CVT - i.e. a simple, but very efficient automatic transmission.
I have had DAFs that have done well over 40,000 miles on one set of belts...
Feel free to read all about them at www.dafownersclub.co.uk
Back to reliability - in around 1995, the Williams Grand Prix team fitted a van Doorne CVT into a current F1 car and was tested extensively by David Coulthard (I have the video to prove) who spoke very enthusiatically about its performance. Soon after, the FIA banned any form of automatic transmissions in F1 cars!! - It was decided that the speed/acceleration advantage over manual cars was unfair! This really did happen at Silverstone.
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Dear HF,
I have almose lost count of the number of times I have been asked to tune engines because they "lack power" or "won't drive smoothly" when there has been b****r all wrong with the engine - it has been a CVT fault. To be fair, this has applied mainly to small Ford applications, and I don't know enough about transmissions to tell you if there are any significant differences between manufacturer applications. We tend to see more Fords simply because there are more Fords!
When my wife was looking for a new small automatic a few years ago I more or less vetoed the Rover 200 purely because it was CVT. Personal opinion, I just don't like 'em !
Regards, Adam
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My old man had a red Volvo 66 estate when I was 17. It looked nurdish but went like stink. I will never forget the look on this fellah's face went a spotty youth (moi) blew his Rover 2200 in to the woodwork, my was it fast ! Transmission used to scream like a thousand banshees when cold though.
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