[mgarciah]

I bought my MO here in my country Costa Rica, it is a SL 4wd, no Nav, no Bose radio, Im wondering if my MO has the CVT since it does not perfom as the Nissan Web Page says it would, they have an animation there about the XTRONIC CVT under the Murano´s page that shows a very still RPMs during acceleration, at least in my MO during acceleration I feel a little shifting but it is clear that RPMs changes a lot on each shifting.

Is there anything that I can check to see what kind of transmission do I have?

 

[hfelknor]

The easiest way to tell on a 2004 SL is to look at the shift pattern.
What does it say?
Does it have a "Ds" position?
If it does, you have a CVT.
If it doesn't, you have a standard 4/5 speed automatic which is common in Central and South America.

Homer

 

[mgarciah]

The shift patern has P,R,N,D,3,2,1 this is what you mean?.

 

[seaofdunes]

my guess is that you do not have the CVT. Sounds like an automatic.

 

[mgarciah]

Yeap, navigating on the local nissan page, it says that the Costa Rican MO comes with 4 speed automatic transmission :1pat:

I would like to try the CVT.

 

[Dookie]

If you like acceleration, your transmission is better. If you want better fuel economy, our CVT would be better....

 

[krpster]

If you like acceleration, your transmission is better. If you want better fuel economy, our CVT would be better....

Actually I wonder about the acceleration.... I would think that the acceleration of the CVT would be better since you can just drive up the RPM and keep it in the sweet spot vs. an automatic that would constantly be going above/below. I have seen this when I pull away from cars at the light where they drop off in stages as I am accelerating and they are shifting.

It would be interesting to see a head to head. CVT MO vs. 4sp MO.

 

[Kris]

I can tell you how FX35 stucks up against MO. It is 0.2 sec. quicker. But it is more than 300 lbs heavier, has 285 HP engine and 5 speed auto, my feeling is that MO easily matches FX35 at speed >40 mph. Below that it seems that CPU/TCU is protecting CVT. I do not believe that 4 speed outo on MO would be quicker than CVT....

Just a feeling, no scientific data......

 

[mgarciah]

Well, I feel that the MO is really quick with the AT, I dont know how the CVT performs, so this is just a guess, I tried my MO against several vehicles here and I can tell you that almost all of them just quit and gave me the way.

I feel really disapointed without the CVT, Im a technical guy and I really would enjoy such technical marvelous, but there is no way to have it here, the dealer told me the following reasons:

1. CVT is kind of new on this part of the world.
2. Shipment for spare parts and guarantee issues on CVT will be double price for the manufacturer in Costa Rica than US.
3. If a CVT issue is solved in US in one or two weeks, here will be one or two YEARS...
4. Our roads are not suitable for such high tech transmission
5. They said that the AT gives better torque and better handling for our roads...

Im trying to figure out why the AT would be better for our roads, we dont have highways, only kind of two lane roads, with many craters... well lets called them holes. Check my post here

http://www.nissanmurano.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2129

I think that the real reason are the points 1,2 and 3, the rest I dont know

Next time in US I would like to try the CVT, so I will tell you my feels.

Thnks.

 

[Kris]

I think that the real issue is no. 2. Also there might me "lack of expertise" though I would imagine is equaly true in the states........

CVT is great off-road as well as on unsealed on low quality roards. So your dealer is bs'ing you......

 

[Dookie]

I really dont see how parts can be an issue for the CVT. The service rep at my dealer said that if ANYTHING goes wrong with the CVT, they are replacing the whole thing, and sending the suspected bad one in to Nissan for inspection. This is what they do for quality control of parts and future sub-contracts of who makes what part of the vehicle.

 

[mgarciah]

I think the parts can be an issue here, our customs law is very strict, if something must be shipped back for guarantee, the only way to get it back without paying taxes again is to get exactly the same piece with the same serial number, so if a brand new CVT should be shipped here in replacement of a broken one it must pay taxes again . Thats the way it is here.

And Costa Rica has the higher taxes in Central America, you can imagine how high are they, I paid US$46K for my MO, no Nav, No Bose, AWD, Leather.

Thats why I think that the dealer must consider these issues before, Im not defending these guys, but I think it makes sense.

 

[Dookie]

I cant believe they charge you guys that much for a Murano. You can get a fully loaded Armada for that price. Anyway, if you have a part go bad under warranty, do they charge the customer taxes, or does the dealer foot the bill?

 

[Kris]

Dookie

I was surprise too seeing the price for Murano in Colombia - almost $50k! Yes, it is a nice car but is it worth $50K? I doubt it........

But then again when GM started assembling Buick Century in China in 1999 the price was $40k! I could not believe it. Such a piece of j...... and such a high price. So everything is relative.

Lucky us here. So enjoy the MO

 

[mgarciah]

In normal condition the dealer will cover everything under guarantee, (I wont pay a penny) but thats why they must be very carefull on what they import and support here in Costa Rica. A fully loaded Armada will be around $70K here, and a fully loaled is very hard to get it, Here we have only two versions for the MO, both are SL we have no SE, the dealer called them standard and limited, standard is mine $46K and limited has Xenon, Bose, Sun roof, Memory Seats for $51K

 

[Eric L.]

I think the confusion regarding the sluggish feeling of the CVT is that most people are accustomed to being able to rev to redline without flooring the gas pedal. This is not possible with the CVT, if you want redline (and held there), you will need to floor the gas. This is an unfortunate consequence of CVT programming and the electronic throttle control.