Reviews of OEM Subaru CVT transmission

I got a cvt wrx after a bad knee injury, it never felt right driving it. Eventually i brought it back to the dealer because I thought something was wrong with it. They checked it out and said it was fine. As soon as my knee was fully healed I traded it in for an sti. I still have the sti and an outback wilderness. The wilderness is definitely better then the cvt in the wrx but still feels like driving a rubber band. It's weird ive also owned a forester and crosstrek and those were fine. I just think the cvt doesn't play well with the turbo motor

I got a CVT. Fell in love more with cars and Subarus after owing one. Am too deep into mods and $ to sell it as it’ll be at a loss. I 110% agree manual provides a better drive and exp and regret my CVT however that being said.. I absolutely love my fkn car. Got all sorts of mods, safe with a safe dyno tune and dialed suspension etc. As my daily, it’s been the best car I’ve had so far. People shit on the auto which I can understand if you were around from the older gen times but the VA CVT still packs a punch and is super fun to drive especially on the twistys!

Got the VB limited with CVT because my wife didn’t like having a second car she couldn’t drive. After 3 months and her driving it not even once….. I traded it in when the 0% interest hit. Waste of about $1k but was happy being out of the CVT.

My in laws cvt transmission went out at 45,000 miles and they wanted $10k to replace. Thankfully they ended up replacing the cvt under extended warranty.

I have a 2017 Impreza Sport CVT 2.0 and was skeptical of the CVT at first. I had test driven an Outback CVT several years earlier and wasn't impressed with that earlier version, but they've really improved the CVT post 2017. I've driven several 4EATs ranging from 1996-2017, including a WRX (with a VTD 4EAT) and they really weren't as fun - which is surprising considering this car only has 140hp and no SI drive. I would love to try a WRX with the SPT and SI drive, I'm sure I'd like that.

I've got 125,000 miles on this car, and I've probably done 20% of that in manual mode. Normal commuting is mostly in "D". Some times I'll slip into manual to accelerate from a stop, when I don't want to deal with the car upshifting as early; around 20mph it really wants to drop the rpms down to ~1200 unless I'm heavy on the accelerator. Same on a long ascent or decent, or stop-and-go traffic, if the car is hunting gears a little too much for my liking. Taking any corners quickly is better when you preselect your gear. Sometimes merging onto the freeway, as the car has no real power.

I'm in manual the most when I'm having fun. Every Saturday morning, I'll pick a fun road or mountain that I can get to within a day. Usually I'll do 200-400 miles, around 6-12 hours depending on my mood. I'm in the California, Bay Area, so there's plenty to choose from. For this I'm only in "D" for the commute out/back and in "M" most of the time I'm somewhere twisty.

The car is much more controllable in manual on windy roads. Uphill the throttle response is more linear, downhill the speed is much more controlled in 1st and 2nd gear and lets me tap the brakes if I'm coming in a little too fast without upsetting the cars balance. 1st and 2nd gear the car is also very neutral, letting me feather the throttle for a bit of power-on oversteer (like a rear wheel drive car). Not nearly as aggressive (well, 1st gear is), but nice when I just want a little extra slip angle on slower corners (e.g. hairpins).

I've done deep snow and soft dirt only once or twice. The Impreza (and BRZ) are definitely better suited to asphalt. The dirt/gravel road definitely made me wish I had the tires and ground clearance of the Crosstrek. But I prefer pavement so the Impreza suits me better.

Honestly, I'd suggest everyone with the paddle shifters to at least practice using manual mode or semi-auto mode (paddle shift in "D") so you're not scared to use it in the situations where if it might be beneficial. Even if you do so only rarely.

the CVT transmissions are fragile and don’t last much over 100k.

CVT doesn’t give me reliability anxiety, it’s a fleet car sold to police. Get it serviced regularly, it’s fine. Most people blame the cvt, when it’s actually the valves need cleaned, and O2 sensors, Spark plugs, coil packs need replaced. The stock tune needs updated. Even then the Subaru tune isn’t great. My kid loves the smooth as butter cvt ride. I love it puts her to sleep.

I love the wrx but hate the cvt!

ever since about 80k miles I have to reset the car\u2019s computer every few months because the CVT transmission starts making rough \u201cshifts.\u201d

It was good while it lasted, but I would not buy a car with a CVT transmission again. My 2015 3.6R is currently in the shop with 99,700 miles on it and the transmission is toast.