Does anyone have any knowledge of the reliability of the Subaru CVT? Also, I have seen some stuff online that says that when using a car that has a CVT and not using the parking brake or electronic parking brake, it can damage the transmission. Does anyone know if this is true? It seems to me that if a CVT were to fail or need repair that it would be cheaper to fix than a traditional transmission. Any information or tips that anyone has would be appreciated.
From the little research that I've done, the Subaru CVT has actually been holding up quite well. Nissan Altimas on the other hand? Problems galore (again, from my brief research). As far as the parking brake question - I haven't heard that before. As far as driving one...my gf has a 2011 outback with the CVT, its fine around town, but annoying when driving through mountains/hilly roads. Putting the transmission into "manual mode" and selecting a lower gear helped significantly.
I don't know about reliability first hand but the cvt's seem pretty well designed. Although if something does happen I have read it is really expensive to replace, like $8k before labor expensive. That could be because they are relatively new for subaru.
CVTs are Peruvian witchcraft. Ever seen a witch from Peru? Me neither. They're super hard to find, that's why CVTs are expensive.
The wife has a '13 XV Crosstrek with the CVT. While I don't love it, it seems to work as advertised. We bought it new and bought an extended warranty expressly because of the CVT.
We havent seen many issues with the cvts. Ive replaced 2 assemblies and 2 valve bodies in the 3 years ive worked at subaru, that shows pretty good reliability. The down side is that subaru does not offer repair parts except valve bodies and some seals. So for any internal fault you have to replace the assembly
