Quote:
Originally Posted by jmg
I haven't driven the new CTV and I dread the idea. I hope it doesn't take me off the Subaru fan club.
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The Subaru CVT is actually pretty decent. My wife drives a 2016 Impreza with a CVT and I rather like that car.
Before we test drove it, the CVT gave me pause, because of my experience with assorted Nissan CVT rental cars that fight with you when you press the gas pedal any amount short of flooring it. You have to floor them to get them to move, otherwise the transmission quickly shifts to a taller ratio to continue cruising along at maximum mpg. I get that they're trying to maximize mpg but it's almost like the car was programmed to assume that small gas pedal movements by the driver are unintentional and therefore need to be canceled out by a taller gear ratio.
While the Impreza certainly isn't fast, the CVT does a good job with choosing gear ratios that help accelerate when you want to. It doesn't fight with you like the Nissans do. Rolling on to the gas on highway on-ramps it keeps the engine right around 4k RPM until you reach highway speed. It's a little weird with the revs not changing but it keeps it in the meat of the powerband and does a good job getting up to speed with only 150 hp. Part-throttle moves trying to hit a gap in traffic, same thing, it doesn't hesitate to give you a shorter gear ratio to help move things along. Overall, it behaves how you'd want it to.