Dr Strangeshift

[Mooman]

Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the CVT.

When I first got my CVT equipped Lancer I really didn't know what to expect. I had come from a history of always driving manual cars, only ever drove automatics if they were work cars. The decision was due to having a car that other members of my family could easily use.

I used to never let the rev's go above about 3000 rpm as the car would make, in my opinion, the worst exhaust noise in any car I've heard, and frankly I was a little embarrassed. My car had the clamshell style manifold and having it near the firewall meant you could hear it quite well. While not necessary I changed the manifold for a set of extractors and now without the horrible noise I was more confident in using more of the rev range, but that really was old manual throttle usage thinking of engine rpm x gear ratio = final speed.

The key difference with usage of the accelerator pedal for CVT vs traditional transmissions (manuals and set ratio automatics) is what pressing down actually does. With a traditional system pressing down makes the engine rev up, the further you press the quicker your asking the engine to change from one rev range to another with acceleration and cruising speed being a product of gear ratio and change in rpm.

With a CVT you don't control the engine directly, your telling the car what torque you want and it will determine the ratio and rpm to get you there. This end torque can be made with any combination of rpm and transmission ratio within the CVTs range, so the same end speed can be achieved in an almost infinite combination. But the key here is that the car is setup to favor fuel economy above all else and will therefore try to run at fairly low rpm (1-2K) and hence will be down in engine power which has consequence when attempting to suddenly accelerate or when the road adds extra effort to the car such as inclines and tight bends.

In a traditional car setup you can usually just press the accelerator slightly to get a power increase to compensate for the loss of speed, or downshift to force the engine to increase rpm to a higher power range and gear ratio that helps increase torque. With a CVT you need to use far more pedal travel to achieve the same result, what I found was that the car only really responded when near the end of it's travel, anything else and it's performance is sub par.

And that's the key change. The CVT is fine for flat city driving where your speed and acceleration is usually determined by the car in front. In this situation it is a smooth system that doesn't require much change in driving habit with fairly mild pedal usage. When the road is hilly or twisty or has a lot of speed changes to get the car to maintain a consistent speed actually requires fairly aggressive pedal usage. But there is another catch, the CVT can be used in fixed ratio mode.

The fixed ratio mode or sports shift is something of mixed blessing. For Lancers there are two options to using sports shift, a gated gear lever or paddle shifters. I've found the gated mode somewhat useless as it locks the car into a 1-6 gear setting with no way to go back to D other than pushing the lever back across. The paddle shifters are far more useful and a recommended upgrade for anyone who wants to get a bit more out of their CVT, using them you can easily switch from 1-6 to D on the fly without taking your hands off the steering wheel.

What I write next is based off the older CVT 7 and not the newer CVT 8 which has a different ratio range so many have a different outcome. The reality of 1-6 is that 1 and 6 aren't really used much. I find that 1 is much too short a ratio, the car will barely do 40km/h at around 4000rpm and if you use it just to move off the line then change to 2 the car will seem to hold a constant speed for a few seconds before resuming acceleration as if to say to you what are you doing changing below optimal speed. And 6 is really just a holding gear, only good for highway driving on flat roads as it seems to lose too many revs when the road rises, but the catch being that in those situations you are best just using D anyway as it will maintain the speed at about 500rpm less and therefore better mpg. So 1 and 6 situations are best handled by D.

Where the manual shifting really works best is going up or down hills. What a lot of people don't realize is that CVT can actually provide engine braking on declines. Depending on what you read from google searches whether this is good or bad for CVT is divided. The car will provide engine braking anyway in D mode but I've found it to be inconsistent, it seems to require the car seeing brake application and no throttle to decide to restrict CVT operation instead of adjusting ratios as the car accelerates via gravity causing you to rely solely on brakes. With fixed ratios you can put the car in 5 or 4 and use the engine to control the decline and limit brake usage and fade.

On inclines I find it best to downshift like you would in a manual. The car can respond in D but it requires a lot more input from the driver, the car will react slowly to the added need for torque. It can also act odd if the hill also has a turn, near my house is a small but fairly steep hill that bends sharply. In D the car will suddenly rev out as it hits the top of the hill so the car is in a bad state to then accelerate easily on the flat crest. With downshifting you can suddenly appreciate that the engine is reasonably powerful, something you don't normally get to experience in D mode as the car tries to maintain economy.

But D mode does give faster acceleration in most situations. It makes sense as the car is able to gain speed from both an increase in rpm from the engine and a constantly adjusting transmission ratio, it's not just relying on the engine like a traditional transmission. A combination of manual shifting and D makes for an enjoyable driving experience.

So after all that to summarize how I learned to love the CVT.
With paddle shifters you can have the control of a manual without the need for a clutch or taking your hands off the steering wheel.
D mode is smooth but you have to learn to ignore the engine rpm and focus only on speed.
D mode requires a fairly aggressive approach to throttle use to overcome the inherent economy design.
D is best for take offs and cruising.
When climbing or descending hills, country or city, use the fixed ratios and drive the car like you would a standard manual.
And finally when driving spirited (twisting roads etc.) drive the car like a clutch less manual.