Guys, thanks for the great forum!

I'm in the market for a new small car for my 17 y.o daughter, who'll be getting her licence soon. My wife and I both drive Honda's, so we're having a close look at the Fit (Jazz down here).

We test drove an 08 Jazz on the weekend - 1.3L with CVT, and we were all a bit disspointed at the way the CVT worked. I know there has been a lot of discussion about how you have to get used to the CVT, but this was wierd. Seems that the CVT would sometimes provide engine braking and sometimes not when taking your foot off the accelerator. Problem was intermittant and very annoying - very difficult to judge braking distances. Also made the ride feel harsher. Upshot is that she does not like the car

Was the car we drove behaving correctly? I know it has some form of clutch and I can't help thinking it was some kind of intermittent problem. I would have expected the dealer to have the car in better condition.

We are holding out for the 09 model in the hope that the AT will be better and the ride smoother. Australian dealers advise that the 09 model will have a conventional AT, but specs on the web still say CVT - whats the word?


Thanks for any advice you can provide. If this is the wrong forum to ask these questions, please direct me and accept my apologies.

 

Having never driven the Fit/Jaz with a CVT (they arent available in the US and my rental in the UK was a 1.3L manual) I found this strange "downshift" behavior also when I drove a CVT Nissan and one of the new Jeeps (both rentals). I came to the conclusion that at certian speeds the belt "downshifts" in a stepped manner like gears. At other speeds it stays at the current ratio , in case you want to get back on the throttle, and this is where the engine breaking seems to happen. Still at other speeds, mostly slow, it just seems like it unhooks like when you push in the clutch on a manual.

Some people feel that a CVT has less power versus standard 4 or 5 speed auto with the same engine. This is because the revs of the engine stay within 1000 RPM in normal driving. In reality the engine is being more efficient and delivering better overall performance.

 

The AT software supposedly includes downshifting to help slow the car down when it decides you're trying to stop quickly. I notice this on my Fit AT quite often if I step off the gas and on the brakes quickly. It sometimes requires a firm foot on the brakes to activate. No reason that same feature couldn't be programmed into a CVT but I have no data one way or another since a CVT wasn't an option in the states.

 

So the US model has a regular auto? Hopefully we'll get it down here

 

[quote=Talbot;319160]Guys, thanks for the great forum!

I'm in the market for a new small car for my 17 y.o daughter, who'll be getting her licence soon. My wife and I both drive Honda's, so we're having a close look at the Fit (Jazz down here).

We test drove an 08 Jazz on the weekend - 1.3L with CVT, and we were all a bit disspointed at the way the CVT worked. I know there has been a lot of discussion about how you have to get used to the CVT, but this was wierd. Seems that the CVT would sometimes provide engine braking and sometimes not when taking your foot off the accelerator. Problem was intermittant and very annoying - very difficult to judge braking distances. Also made the ride feel harsher. Upshot is that she does not like the car

Was the car we drove behaving correctly? I know it has some form of clutch and I can't help thinking it was some kind of intermittent problem. I would have expected the dealer to have the car in better condition.

We had a Nissan Versa with the CVT automatic and it did excatly what you describe. I attributed it to the gear ratio at time the throttle lifted. As you may know the CVT transmission is really a variable gear ratio within each gear. Thatmeans the overall ratio varies a lot and the lower the ratio (higher in real numbers) the more engine braking you get, just as you experienced. The 09 is not likely to be different.
Its just like the engine braking you get in first gear versus third gear in any vehicle.
Hope that answers your question.
BTW, I envy your rear disc brakes; (I had to install mine) and that you have a CVT auto transmission. Mine acts like a CVT sometimes (rpm varies at constant speed in a single gear) but it isn't supposed to.
cheers.

 

You guys in OZ will be getting the conventional auto 5 speed no more CVT.

 

[quote=mahout;327639]When test driving the Versa, Yaris, and Fit back in the winter of 2007, I came to the conclusion that it was only a matter of time before Honda implented the CVT in the Fit.