That is also the era when Mitsubishi–which was already in deep financial doo-doo–began denying valid warranty claims on both transmissions and engines, in Japan. They were trying to save money, rather than paying to repair/replace a LOT of defective transmissions.
A Japanese government investigation revealed their nefarious scheme to cheat owners of fully-warrantied vehicles, and their reputation in their home country took a major hit.
If I was in the market for an automatic, I’d feel confident buying a Toyota with a CVT.
Personally, I’d rather have a stick shift hatchback than a Prius.
I didn’t notice any pronounced difference between my 2009 and the 2019 I rented, which incidentally has the same engine. A “race car sound” could be the engine revving more than she’s used to or possibly a louder exhaust. In any event, it doesn’t necessarily sound transmission related to me unless the transmission is slipping excessively, causing high RPMs.
I hadn’t heard about that. Was there any similar skulduggery in the US? Any indication Mitsubishi is still up to their old tricks?
I dig stick shifts too but the Mrs. doesn’t and it’ll be her vehicle. The Toyotas and Hondas I’ve found have had conventional automatics. The CVTs have been in Nissans (obviously), Subarus and the occasional Mitsubishi. Given my previous negative experience with a CVT, I was originally going to avoid them completely until I drove the CVT equipped Corolla.
As far as I know, they never attempted that type of warranty-denial scam in The US.
However, for several years, Mitsubishi was essentially the “ghetto car” in the US, because their precarious financial situation led them to extend credit to anyone, regardless of how bad their credit rating might have been.
That practice did “move some iron”, but most of those non-credit-worthy customers defaulted on their loans, their cars–which in all-too-many cases had never been maintained–were repossessed, and lots of new owners found themselves the unhappy buyers of problematic cars whose warranties had been voided because of lax maintenance on the part of the first owner.
I think that the Mitsu executives must have written the book on How To Destroy Your Company’s Reputation, in the process of trying to stop their financial hemorrhaging.
You might also look at safercar.gov. The NHTSA not only shows recalls, but complaints and investigations. You can enter the VIN for a specific car or year, make, and model to get the information for that year. Then there’s Consumer Reports. I have free access to their website through my public library.
Yep good old YouTube, the authority on everything. Do you believe everything you read too.
Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.
I generally do if it aligns with my lived experience. I drove a car with a CVT that made a noise. I found YouTube videos of cars that made the same noise. Not hard to think there might be something to those videos. Or there might not. As always, Your Mileage May Vary. No need to be a troll about it or imply it’s tinfoil hat time. Have a nice day.
That’s pretty much a textbook example of confirmation bias.
You mean “the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories”? Remember I said “there might be something to those videos.” There also might not. I had an experience–a car with a noisy transmission–and I looked for something to indicate it had happened before to someone else. If there were no videos that would be negative proof. And what reason would anyone have to fabricate a video of a car making a specific noise? Sure, it’s possible but it doesn’t seem likely. If I read about, say, solar eclipses, I’ve seen multiple eclipses so it lines up with what I already know about the positions of the Sun and Moon. If I read that eclipses were caused by the Great Sky Goat eating the Sun and that the solution was to make a sacrifice I’d throw the book away, go to another site, etc. If I were convinced that all cars with CVTs made noise I wouldn’t have changed my mind when I drove one that didn’t. I wouldn’t seek out advice from the good folks here at CarTalk. I’d just keep going, secure in my “knowledge,” convinced that the car that didn’t make noise was a fluke or outlier. Again, no tinfoil hat required.
I bet the ‘noisy’ CVT you heard is actually a small, noisy engine, running at its torque peak, to provide maximum acceleration. Early CVT cars seemed to let the engines go immediately to high rpms, then hold that engine speed while the car accelerated. Folks hated that noise and lack of relationship between road speed and engine speed, so more recent control programs seem to have reduced that effect.
If it actually was the CVT making noise, it must have been close to failure, no reason for it to be noisy.
Good suggestion but this was definitely transmission related. My wife and I both heard the noise. I know what you mean about the engine revving out of sync with the car’s speed and I could hear that too. My ears are pretty good for my age–I’ve detected three bad alternators on my Corolla by ear alone–and we drove the Mitsubishi 7 years ago when my hearing was probably better than it is now.
The Mitsubishi I drove back then had 42K on the odometer so a failing transmission seems unlikely but not impossible. Mind you, I’ve bought cars from dealers that had defects that should have been detected in even a cursory inspection. A 1984 Pontiac Sunbird with 30K had a hole in the muffler and obvious exhaust noise but the salesman blew it off, saying the car had a “sport package.” So yes, it’s possible the dealer put a car with a bad transmission on the lot either by negligence or on purpose, hoping some dumb sap like me would ignore the noise and buy it anyway.
Then I’ll stick with the failing transmission idea. I’ve driven several CVTs over the last 15+ years, and none of them exhibited transmission noise. Thrashy engines, yes.
I have limited experience with CVTs, but I have to say that my one experience with a CVT was positive.
A few months ago, the dealership gave me a Crosstrek loaner, and I was quite impressed with that little car. Admittedly, I only drove around town, but I tend to accelerate… briskly… and it had decent power. And, there were no unusual noises from the transmission.