I don't know why but I've always been opposed to the concept of the CVT. I suppose because early generations of it were not well thought of by the automotive community and probably because much of said community is probably old school and not terribly amenable to changing something like the transmission which has been largely the same for many decades now. We're trying to replace our extremely functional but not very economical Mazda 5 which we bought largely for the dogs. We wanted something with better gas mileage given my new commute but we also wanted AWD or 4WD because of where we live and own property. The 5 is useless up there.
We did the research and found that there are very few vehicles where gas mileage and AWD come together without creating a tear in the space time continuum. We narrowed the search down to the new Mazda CX5 and the new Subaru XV Crosstrek which is just an impreza w/ a lift kit.
I read the stats and watched and read the reviews and totally expected the Mazda to just blow the Subi out of the water. It costs more, has nicer stuff and is bigger. So imagine my surprise when we drove them back to back and the Subaru was the clear winner by a significant margin.
Now comes the title of the thread... Traditional tranny in the Mazda and CVT in the Subi. I was expecting to hate the CVT but after driving it, I was blown away. Now the car isn't fast or powerful and lags behind the Mazda by a fair margin in the numbers category but what it does with the availabe power is nothing short of impressive. The power that it does make is... eager power. Like it wants to please you.
Granted, the largest decision making factor for me is the sit. If the car doesn't feel right and my elbows don't drop just so, I'm out. That was the case w/ the Mazda. It was nice but it wasn't nice for me. I'm not a little dude and it was almost too wide. Kim was just lost in the driver's seat with nothing to support her arms that she could even reach if she tried. After driving the Subaru, the Mazda transmission left me feeling like it really wasn't interested in doing what I wanted it to do. It shifted way too slow and too late. In order to get the performance out of it that I would want, I'd have to flog it which would cost me any benefit in gas mileage that it might otherwise provide. The power (ha) is there but if it requires me to have to try to make it do what I need while the Subi does a much better job and bringing it to me with even less power and better mileage then the higher hp numbers don't really matter.
The Subaru had a really nice sit to it. Once the ergos were adjusted properly, it just felt better. It drives quite well if a little agricultural feeling which is apparently a Subaru thing that I'm OK with.
Short story long, we're going back tonight to get an appraisal on the 5 and see if they can get us the same payment. It'll look a little something like this:
