A CVT powertrain allows you to move through your torque curve almost independent of your speed. In layman's term, in a normal AT car, you press on your throttle to make your car downshift 1 gear so you can pull your car with more torque at 3.5k RPM, and as you speed increases, so does your RPM, until your car decides to upshift because it's RPM is too high for D gear.

In a CVT, you just tekan til your RPM reach 3.5k, and the speed will increase while your RPM STAYS at 3.5k. you want more torque, press further to 4k, 4.5k etc, depending on what RPM is your max torque at, and just keep your RPM there as your car accelerates.

To illustrate further, when climbing hill, a 4AT will often jerk as it constantly upshift and downshift and upshift and downshift. Because as you climb on 4th gear, your speed drops and your RPM drops, so your car downshifts to 3rd gear to attain higher RPM for higher torque. But at the 3rd gear, the car accelerates and the car will have to upshift to 4th gear again because 3rd gear can only go so fast. After upshifting, the RPM drops so does the torque, and the car will have to downshift again.

A CVT will not have this problem because it can stay at the optimum RPM with the best amount of torque for the condition, completely independent of speed.

This is why ppl complain the CVT no oomph, because the CVT keeps the engine revving at a constant RPM, they think the car is not accelerating.

This post has been edited by dares: Jun 17 2012, 09:05 PM