OK. Just to share my own personal experience and my 2 cents... And please, don't get offended by any means. It's just info exchange...
My car is now 2 yrs 9 months old (barely 3 years), and covered a massive 141,000km+ till date, all on local roads. Those who knew me will know about my crazy mileage.
Anyway, I think you should be confident about your car, unless your car is genuinely a lemon, in this case, it is a real serious problem. Cars are build in a robust manner so that it can last the distance with proper maintenance along the way. You treat it well, it wil serve you well. Engines, gearboxes, individual components are put together, tested vigourously before they decide to put the pieces together to form and create a road car. Hours and hours of R&D are in pace to ensure that their creation will not fail them and hence incur loss to the car manufacturer and thus, the car brand and image.
New cars that are newly launch, with no previous history or track records, are more likely to be of concern, whereas those cars that had been around for ages and now onto their 5th, 8th or even 10th generation are more likely to be safe, unless they implemented new technology that is new to the market into their well known car (ie CVT gearboxes a couple of years back).
Our CVT gearboxes are considered better than the other car makes (not to mention names) as the failure rate is considerable less. My engine and gearbox had been with me throughout and they are just fine. There are a few genuine cases of engine or gearbox failure and they are really a minute few. On the other hand, I would think majority of us are having a perfectly fine equipment, except over-sensitive drivers. In which, that is precisely why we have meetups, so that we can exchange information extensively on our car and hence watch out for things if they are genuinely problematic (ie air-con compressor...). Otherwise, it would be unfair to create a "negative" atmosphere in which it will spread the "untruth" about our cars, and everyone panic about it. It would not be fair for the car manufacturers as well, if it is untrue. Anyway, time will tell if the problem is real and serious or just "rumours".
Nissan Murano is also using the same kind of CVT gearbox as our Latio, Extronic CVT, not the older Hyper CVT. If the Extronic CVT gearbox can lug the massive Murano around without much problem, I don't see why our lighter weight Latio will have any significant problem in this. Perhaps, you may be the unlucky one with the problematic gearbox, but my point is that, the majority isn't.
My next point is not on the machine, but the driver. OK, not teaching anyone to drive here, but to probably give insight on how man and machine can work together. Our Latio is a decent family car and is not meant for racing or heavy thrashing. So probably it will not accelerate better off the line at the red lights than, perhaps, your previous car, as you would like, but it may be better in other aspect than your previous car. A bit more on the CVT (Can read up on the sticky thread on CVT in our forum. Can someone paste the link later? Thanks.) CVT, Continuous Variable Transmission, is unlike any auto transmission. Other automatic gearboxes have fixed gear ratios in a planetary gear formation and upon driving, you will accelerate and change up the gears to gain speed. CVT on the other hand, is a continous band of gears. Imagine a cone. The cone has got an infinite diameter across it's entire plane. So to accelerate and decelerate, a belt will move across the inifinite diameter surface to speed up or shed speed. That's the gist of CVT. So, it isn't rubbish at all when the SE mentioned something like "cvt belt haven reach down the end of the belt, den you step so of cos will be confused". This is exactly what happens. Anyway, the more you drive your car, the better you will know it's characteristic. That's about all that I want to say...
OK, just side-track a bit. I had in my personal blog a challenge (machiam like the Top Gear Challege, for those who watch the UK version of Top Gear). To drive up Peninsular Malaysia along the NSHW, Toll-to-Toll (Tanjong Kupang Toll Plaza to Bukit Kayu Hitam Toll Plaza), and back, within a day. Will probably share about the experience, the FC and other problems I might encounter for this trip. Hopefully, my Latio will be back in 1 piece!
I think that's about my 2 cents. Have faith in your car!
And hey, by no means I'm offensive in any manner. Maybe the choice of words may not be pleasing, but hope you understand where I'm getting at.
