The Honda CVT is an altogether different device than the Escape eCVT or PSD.

I have the HCH-CVT, and I typically hold about 2500 RPM when pulling away from a stop on a country road, until I get up to cruising speed and back off.
The Escape Hybrid is very difficult to keep under 3000RPM. Any time you think about using some power, it pops up to 4,000RPM. When accelerating, it often goes over 5,000RPM, which the Honda almost never does.

I know that I would need a lot of discipline to keep a manual transmission at the low RPM that the CVT is pulling all the time.

38.8,-122.5 Lake County, CA.

 

This is the way I see CVT vs MT:

MT is way easier to get better FE because you are forced to downshift in order to accelerate fast, whereas the CVT is so easy to make it "shift" that it becomes much more difficult to maintain high MPG. Any change of pressure on the go pedal, and the ratio changes, but once you master the control of a CVT then it's just as capable as the MT in FE.

 

Waxmop,


You have a PM

Steve

 

I have had my 2005 HCH CVT for a little over a week now. I bought it brand new and have put 525 mile on it so far. My I am getting 48 MPG and drive about 50% city 50% highway. My experience so far is that it performs wonderfully and I am glad I got the CVT and not the MT. Pluss like some of the rest of you my wife demanded I got the CVT so she could drive it. Why some people refuse to learn MT is beyond me?

 

You know what solves the "unwilling to learn to drive an MT" problem?

Make Sure your kid's FIRST CAR is a MT car. That works EVERY TIME. If they start out with a MT for their first car, they will always be comfortable driving them in the future.

I'm going to do that with both of my kids. MT for the first car - priority #1. !!!

Also: IMHO, having a kid concentrating/worrying about using TWO HANDS to drive will also keep them safer. Give them a "hands-free" phone or a Bluetooth headset to use in the car and let them keep their hands busy DRIVING the car !!

 

When my daughter was learning to drive, I let her drive the automatic initially to get used to basic aiming, maneuvering etc but then she mostly drove a MT and the vehicle she had most access to was an MT. She's now married and my son recently was learning to drive, unfortunately in the intervening years, through a variety of circumstances, we no longer own a MT vehicle and I'm not about to go buy one just for him. I DO want him to learn how to drive a MT (and he does too... more of a guy thing) just not sure how. Daughter's husband was going to teach him but his vehicle is out of commission too. Eventually, he'll learn how because he's motivated - doubt my daughter would have if I hadn't forced the issue

 

pff when cvt like honda's fit come into the market 5spd will die!!! you haven't seen a true CVT sequental tranmission until you experience honda's. i really wish the hybrid CVT would have PRESET ratios like the honda fit.

 

After owning a couple of them myself, I think that a kid's first car needs to be a pre-1981 (which means no Turbo) Mercedes Benz Diesel. The thing is basically a Massey-Furgesson tractor motor dropped in a Mercedes shell - that's ALL steel (there just ain't no plastic on that car

ONCE you get it up to highway speed, it'll really go... one of mine tended to like to cruise at 80. But driving a non-turbo teaches you not to "jackrabbit" and not to do any crazy stuff in traffic, because the low-end pickup just ain't there

Then when they're old enough to know better (say... 35 or 40) you can buy them a "real" car. Plus, even as old as that body style is, it's as easy (more or less) to get parts for them as it is for a 66 Mustang. And the upside is that old oil burner, as big and heavy as it is, still gets about 35 MPG.


There's the added benefit to the parents, too, of no longer having to sit up all night and wait till the kid gets in past-curfew, because when that egg beater pulls up to the house, you're going to wake up every dog in the neighborhood. You'll have plenty of time to get up, get posted on the living room sofa for the "child blessing" and barely miss any sleep.

Hmmmm.... I should patent this idea