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Hello,
I purchased on Monday a 2011 Nissan Altima with the 2.5L CVT transmission. I am still getting used to the way it drives. I always owned older GM’s. I am a little concerned about how it accelerates up “some” hills. It almost feels like it is hesitating when getting up to speed. I know it is a 4 cylinder and Im used to V6 engines but, I am not sure if this is a normal feeling of the CVT. It almost feel like I am driving a stick and slightly hitting the clutch a few times when gaining speed. its only on these two hills by my work. Its fine on all other hills. It has 30k on it and I don’t believe the transmission has been flushed yet. Other wise I love the car and it has awesome fuel economy. I am just nerves since this is my first foreign car and not familiar with the CVT. If everyone thinks this is normal them I will ignore it. Any non-car person like my self would probably not even notice it. Thanks for reading.
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It may be normal. The Altima on hills can’t seem to
make a decision trans/shift wise what to do or where
to be. Are the rpms staying around 2k then up a little?
The car is set to give the best mileage trying to keep
rpm low. If its a steep hill. either turn off overdrive or
go down to a lower gear. Then once off the hill return the gearing.CVT’s have a different feel and different acceleration dynamics than we are used to. Instead of the usual rev-shoft-rev-shift-rev-shift cycle, the CVT can keep the engine revs relatively steady as the car speeds up. That takes some getting used to. You even get the feeling that you’re not accelerating, as you don’t get much of the usual engine revving up cues.
So this may be perfectly normal.
But not to worry you, it’s also possible that if the car really isn’t accelerating as quickly as you think it should if the CVT is slipping, which is a common failure mode.
You might try test driving another one at the dealer’s used-car lot and see if it feels any different.
Thank you! Yeah I think what I am feeling is normal but, I am paranoid since I just bought it used. There is a warranty it just would suck to have to have a transmission rebuild already. Someone else mentioned taking another Altima for a test drive as a dealer to see how it feels in comparison. I may try and stop at Nissan this week and have them look at it. I bought it from a GM dealership and the salesman was an idiot and knew nothing about it. Tried telling me it took dexcool and it has a GM certified warranty 12 month and at signing it suddenly had no warranty and had to take it to Nissan for any repairs for the remainder of the manufacturer warranty. So I am going to drive it some more and obtain the service records from Nissan. But like I said I think what I am feeling is normal. Just gets confused on what gear. When I drive it in manual it’s fine. Thanks again!
If you google for “Nissan altima acceleration problems” you do get a fair number of hits. Some folks have had serious problems with the CVT, but we don’t know if you are having the same problems. The only way to tell for sure is to cop are it against a known working car on the same hills.
With something that new I would not flush the transmission. In fact, it’s better just to do drain and refills. The only time you should worry about flushing is when there’s an issue. That said, it could be normal but given that you just purchased it you might consider taking it to where you got it if it was a dealer. You normally have 30 days after your purchase to get things sorted out.
Keep us posted if you find that it’s something besides normal.
Thanks Eric and everyone else that replied. I have been driving my Altima for a month and 10 days now. I have gotten used to the CVT and don’t mind it now. The feelings of hesitation or what most CVT owners refer to the rubber band effect is normal from everything I have read. I figured out how to pull the dipstick (special clip on end) and the fluid looks clean and is at the right level. The warmer it is out and the closer to operating temp, the transmission seems to perform better and not rev has high when accelerating. This is probably normal and like regular transmissions that hold the overdrive out based on fluid temperature. I will say the CVT is very inconsistent on drivability. Sometimes it seems I can really take off and others I feel like it doesn’t have much power. Not as responsive as the kick down of the typical transmission. ON the highway it drives great and gets up to speed with no issues but, passing takes more effort. That could be the result of a 4 cylinder though. The fuel economy is great and make up for the oddness of the CVT handling. If maintained and driven respectfully, does anyone know the typical life expectance of the CVT compared to a traditional transmission? How dependable is the Nissan Altima 2.5L engine from 2011? Do I need to worry about the Catalytic Converter issue that was talked about in the 2006 model when the inside would burn up causing chucks to be sucked into the engine and ruining it? Thanks!
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