On today's episode of "The s***tiest transmission design", we're doing another CVT. Sharp eyes may notice the GM badging. This is a surprise, it's going in a 2020 Chevy Malibu with a 1.5 turbo. I wasn't aware they were putting these trannies in those cars.
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I'm looking into who builds it, to see if it comes from the same company that builds all the other s***** CVT trannies. This one did beat the average, with about 160,000 mi on it, but a 2020 with that kind of mileage it's probably seen a lot of highway mileage.
In the meantime, I'm simply astounded that someone sat around making decisions about Chevy malibu's and openly chose to pick the one tranny that might make the car even s***tier than it already is.
Right before I started this swap, I did a swap on a mid-2010s Hyundai Elantra. These cars couldn't be more dissimilar. The Elantra is simple, easy to work on, and seems to have been well designed.
By contrast, everything you touch or do on these malibus is a pain in the f****** ass. If the person who designed this is reading this, you should throw a rope over the rafter and end it right now, and spare the world from your f****** foolishness from here on.
I know GM can do better because they have. In the past anyway...Nothing they building right now seems to be worth a s***. Buy a new Chevy truck? Be prepared to replace that 9 speed at 100,000 mi. It's ironic that the company once built probably the most reliable automatic transmissions is now turning out such garbage slush boxes.
Stalantis seems to be dead set on killing off Dodge / Chrysler. Why else would you stop producing the products they make that sell and replace it with an EV with fake exhausts, or an inline 6? The hurricane 6 sounds like it will be a very powerful and sophisticated engine. I'll let you know soon as I have to tear into one and replace the s***** valve train components they seem destined to use in everything. I had high hopes when Fiat took over... That quality would improve a bit. And it seems it did. But now... How many of you think about French and Italian cars when you think about quality? Yeah, exactly.
Ford, to their credit...the f series seem to be doing okay. I've actually done more engine swaps on those than other work, due to the local speedy oil change facility not putting oil back in them. Hardly Ford's fault. Well...the countless number throw away fasteners that have to be replaced and dreaded "special service tools"...That's Ford's fault, but they weren't designed to run without oil.
Perhaps they should stick to pickups ( which seems like they are moving forward ) since they've been involved in a series of recalls about s***** DCT transmissions control units on cars, not to mention the three cylinder "wet belt" fiesta time bomb. Google it, if you like. Oh...The new Chevy Trax apparently uses a "wet belt" timing system...so get ready to start flushing that turd as well.
Don't know if you can tell, but over the past couple of years I've become inecreasingly disillusioned by domestic products. It kind of reminds me of late 70's and the terrible quality control and designs that came out of that era.
I'm becoming a bigger Toyota fan by the day...
RANT OVER