Fester
★★★★★ Legendary Member
The nissan cvt is a disaster..until recently. Shit they even took the cvt out of the recent pathfinder because of all the cvt issues they have had with it. The murano and rogue are lighter and dont grenade them as much..it still happens but less then the pathfinder. They are smoother and get better gas mil...but the failurr rate is higher then a traditional transmision. I personally wont own a cvt unless thats what they all go to and have no other choice. In the 4 wheel drive transfer case on the nissans they have about 1 cup of oil in the front one..yes 1 cup...if you change it after about 40k the oil is black..horrible black... probably should be changed every 10k. If its on the 3.5 v6 the case sits right above the exhaust and just cooks the hell out of it. However the nissan 3.5 v6 is probably one of the best v6 ever made. The 4 cyl are also a very reliable and good option..just wish nissan wouldnt have had the cvt issues as i do believe nissan is a very well built vehicle and for what you pay and what you get is very very hard to beat.SuperDuty lock-outs are not the traditional "Free" and "Locked". They're "Auto" and "Locked". I've driven over 300K Mi between 2 SuperDuty Ford's and only had to actually "lock-in" a few times ice-fishing when things got wet and then iced up while we were fishing. Somewhere between 220K Mi and 230K Mi I replaced both front hub assembly/wheel-bearings. I don't think the front end or transfer case of a SuperDuty wears any faster than any other full-size pickup because of the option to lock-in 4WD, especially since almost nobody ever actually does it.
I did replace all the rubber vacuum lines for the 4WD on my current '11 F250 a couple years back. Actuation was getting slow after 12yrs and 200K+ Mi. The system works just like it's new now. It'll quickly shift from 2WD to 4-Hi without moving/rolling, I do that on the boat ramp if I forget to put it in 4WD when I'm back up.
If Ford still made the Excursion that's very likely what I'd be driving.
Some of them are really good. Subaru's CVT is pretty bullet-proof. I put 150K on a Nissan Murano and the wife has almost 40K on her Murano, there's never been a single issue with either regarding the CVT, they're smooth and you don't really notice them doing what they do. The Murano still has just a plain-old very reliable EFI (DFI actually I think), 3.5L V-6 that Nissan has been making for a very long time. The CVT allows that 3.5L V-6 to get Highway mileage that rivals 4-Cyl turbo/hybrid vehicles in the same class. The Nissan CVT is a whole lot more refined than the Subaru. Kiddo has a Forester and I had a 2011 or 2012 Legacy that I put about 80K on. The Subaru CVT is very much akin to driving a snowmobile. Mash the gas and the tach runs up to 6K and holds that RPM.