Has anyone driven one of these? Impressions? We have a 2006 Outback LLBean as our primary car, nice machine, but we are looking for better fuel economy and a more traditional car such as the Legacy 2.5i Limited. We also have a 98 Forester, a 2003 Baja, and a 94 Dodge pickup so we really don't need another utility type.

You may want to search. There's a couple threads talking about the CVT and opinions of I believe people that have driven them.

I actually drove one just yesterday. Its a very different experience, but it seems pretty stout and operates very well. Looking over the mechanical design of the trans, it is a much better design than Subaru's old CVTs (i.e. the Justy) and looks like it may be a good option.

 

Its worth a test drive. The gas mileage increase is pretty staggering too, 28mpg iirc.

 

Dan

I drove one back in July. I really liked it and I'm a manual transmission person!

 

Go drive one, you might just enjoy it.

I've driven one (while Blu was getting inspected). I never espect great performance off the line with a sooby, but once it got going it was fine. It is sneaky. Since you have no gears to mentally count off, your speed can get away from you.

 

Otherwise i liked it.

Ive driven maybe half a dozen of them...extremely smooth in my opinion..we will see how they hold up down the road.... on the subject of the new boxer trannies..I cant wait until the WRX guys get a hold of the new 6 spd in the legacies and outbacks thinking its the same as the STI 6 spd. fore all it is an elongated 5spd with an extra gear..lol

Edited October 6, 200916 yr by EVOthis

Ive driven maybe half a dozen of them...extremely smooth in my opinion..we will see how they hold up down the road.... on the subject of the new boxer trannies..I cant wait until the WRX guys get a hold of the new 6 spd in the legacies and outbacks thinking its the same as the STI 6 spd. fore all it is an elongated 5spd with an extra gear..lol

 

Haha, I've read that as well. Its still weird seeing that reverse lockout ring in a Legacy.

Thanks for the replies! We live in a rural area with a lot of big hills that makes a normal auto transmission hunt for the right gear with the cruise engaged. I'm assuming that with a CVT one will only see an increase in revs to match the needed power to climb the hill. What actually happens, let's say, on a quarter to half mile 4-5% grade hill at 60 mph with the cruise set?

Thanks for the replies! We live in a rural area with a lot of big hills that makes a normal auto transmission hunt for the right gear with the cruise engaged. I'm assuming that with a CVT one will only see an increase in revs to match the needed power to climb the hill. What actually happens, let's say, on a quarter to half mile 4-5% grade hill at 60 mph with the cruise set?

 

 

You tell us

 

I would imagine you will see an rpm increase into the powerband and the transmission lower the effective ratios.

 

Also you can always manually downshift it to one of the fixed ratios.

 

nipper