Are there any good CVTs?

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Squint
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Re: Are there any good CVTs?

Post by Squint »

Boston Fit wrote:Squint - Sounds like you work at a dealership. Can you tell us a little bit about buyers who come in looking for stick shift vehicles - how often does it happen, do they usually fit a certain demographic, why do they want one, what kind of car do they usually look for, etc? Just trying to get a sense of the typical m/t buyer in today's market.
I do for another.. week. I have a much better job lined up that will get me out of this dead end job.

Oddly enough, at least for Toyotas, they seem to fit a wide variety of demographics. There are people who want the sportier (use that term loosely) cars like the Scion tC or FR-S and prefer that in the manual. We had a lady come in though that wanted a FR-S automatic... which is harder to find than cheap used Tacoma. She ended up buying a manual after a month of looking around at every dealership within 150 miles and not finding ANY with autos.

When I was working sales (which was miserable), most people coming in for Toyotas didn't really seem to have any preferences strongly outside of a few people on Tacomas or occasionally like the above example. Toyota is moving away from manuals AND autos it seems. They keep wanting to put the CVT in everything they can - my main evidence is the newer cars they have released/redesigned recently - Scion iQ, 2014 Corolla, Prius C. While I love the reliability of Toyota, it might be hard for me to buy one outside of maybe a Prius (because the wife likes them) because outside of safety and reliability, they are missing out on some things I like - hatchbacks, manuals, diesels, etc... They are slowly redesigning everything (on a 5 year schedule per car - fairly standard) but it seems they aren't quite keeping up with how quickly some of the other brands are updating everything, though that is just my opinion.

I still love Toyotas, don't get me wrong, but there aren't many options for people on this board :roll: :lol:
'15 Mazda 3 iSport Hatch 6MT
'11 Ford Fiesta Hatchback SE 5MT
'14 Giant Escape City 24MT
'97 Honda Civic EX 4AT - Retired @ 184,001 mi

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Boston Fit
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Re: Are there any good CVTs?

Post by Boston Fit »

Thanks Squint, good to know! I'm pleasantly surprised that it's hard to find an automatic FR-S. And congrats on the new gig. Maybe you'll be able to spill all the industry secrets next week, then :-)
2013 Honda Civic Si
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Squint
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Posts: 3390
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:44 pm
Location: KY

Re: Are there any good CVTs?

Post by Squint »

Boston Fit wrote:Thanks Squint, good to know! I'm pleasantly surprised that it's hard to find an automatic FR-S. And congrats on the new gig. Maybe you'll be able to spill all the industry secrets next week, then :-)
Hey, if there are any questions out there, ask away. I can't give specific numbers or anything on cars, but on new vehicles, that stuff is all easy to look up. So really, questions would probably be more about financing/dealerships/etc. I'll answer whatever I can.
'15 Mazda 3 iSport Hatch 6MT
'11 Ford Fiesta Hatchback SE 5MT
'14 Giant Escape City 24MT
'97 Honda Civic EX 4AT - Retired @ 184,001 mi

For Pony!
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