How many NZ/Aus owners with cvt problems

[BarryTurner]

thanks for doing that Coref1. I guess it is reassuring that they say there have been no problems. We could be jumping at shadows.

[murcod]

Possibly the longer highway type trips are being kinder to your CVT. It would be stop/ start traffic in Summer that would really get the heat into it (when the coolant temp gets higher and the CVT trans coolers wouldn't work as well.)

[coref1]

You could be right Murcod I'm certainly no expert but at present my Kizashi seems to be running fine and Suzuki Aus are saying they're not aware of any tranny issues so I'll keep driving my Kizashi and enjoying it until something goes wrong. I've still got 100,000 klms/3 years to go on my warranty so I'll see what the situation is when I get to the end of my warranty.
I'll have to say that one of the reasons I bought a Suzuki over a VW was my perception of better reliability so it is bit disappointing.

[murcod]

I wouldn't be too disappointed. You haven't had anything go wrong and have got the warranty up your sleeve.

I was researching Skoda Octavia RS's recently and was shocked to read some of the problems with recent versions of that engine. I can't remember the specifics, but some part of the valve timing was failing on the 2.0l engine it and the VW GTi share. Engines were being destroyed from valves hitting pistons, and there was no recall or way of telling if your engine was affected. That's on top of the DSG issues as well. A friend bought a new DSG Golf (it would have been around a 2012 model) and was telling me how it suddenly lost all drive in the middle of an intersection when he was turning. That's one of the later model DSG's that are supposedly okay. He had to restart the engine to get it to move.

[coref1]

I read the other day VW sales have dropped something like 20% in Aus this year. Companies can't afford to ignore their customers especially in Australia's very competitive market.
I'll be heading off on a 2k return trip from Sydney to South East Victoria at the end of next week so I'll see how it goes.

[coref1]

Arrived back from my weekend trip from Sydney to Inverloch Victoria and return. A bit over 2000 klms. 12 hours each way with stops. Drove down via Hume highway through Melbourne and returned via Bairnsdale and Monaro Hwy. The weather on the way down on Friday was challenging with cold, rain and hail. To make matters worse I had to drive onto a farm after wet weather so my Kizashi is covered in mud. Probably the first time I wished I had awd. Passed one black awd Kizzie on the way down. Waved as I overtook, hope the driver didn't think I was abusing him. Even with the challenging weather, driving down the dual lane Hume highway for most of the trip was boring so I was thankful for the Rf stereo. At my Kizzies recent service I got the mechanic to sync the headlight/wiper settings so the lights come on when the wipers come on which I got a chance to test for the first time and it worked well. The lights come on after about a minute of continuous wiper movement and go off about a minute after the wipers stop. I'm not sure if that is how they were designed but at least it stops the lights coming on & off after a single wipe.
The trip back was more pleasant and interesting with some good opportunities to test the good handling of the Kizzie. The Kizzie went well with no sign of any whining from the tranny.

[TonusMcBronus]

No problem with mine. It's done 45K. Can't say the same for the radiator which was replaced without question at 25K after a small crack appeared near the filler neck.

[coref1]

Anything in particular cause the crack or just a manufacturing fault? The only problem I've had is a blown HID transformer which was also replaced under warranty. No problem with it since so seems to be a one off.

[TonusMcBronus]

It was a manufacturing fault. A friend of mine has the AWD model and 2 weeks after a dealer service she nearly blew it up. Had to be towed to the dealer (no same as mine) who identified a missing radiator cap. They tried to hit her up for a new one saying it was her fault. She said "bullshit - 10 days after you servicing it...c'mon, one of your guys stuffed up" and they eventually agreed to replace it without cost.

[coref1]

End of the Aussie summer and still no cvt problems? i just got back from another return trip from Sydney to Surfers Paradise and so far so good. Almost 40k on the clock.