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Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 24, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I don't need a ton of horsepower (I'm basically looking at stuff between 200-300)

That sounds like a contradiction.

I could talk myself into a manual, but I'm fine with a conventional auto, CVT I'm iffy on.

I've seen people on 4chan's /o/ board say several times that, though CVTs often have reliability problems when they're attached to too-powerful engines (such as in Nissan cars), this is not a problem with the 76-horsepower Mitsubishi Mirage.

Worth noting for those who don't know that CVT and ECVT are totally different things. A CVT on a non hybrid car is a mechanical variable ratio pulley system, and these have had reliability issues of the type you mentioned. Hybrid vehicles instead use a system of dual electric motor generators, which, by varying the power or load, can operate as a planetary gear with variable ratio.

It's quite a clever technology, actually - having a single planetary gear with the motor generators allows you to delete multiple other planetary gears, the reverse gear, the starter, the alternator, and the torque converter.

Not so much concerned with CVT reliability as driving dynamics. I think it's theoretically possible to have a CVT that produces a strong driving experience, but all the ones I've actually driven have been sludgy, kinda boring, slow to react. I'd probably prefer a well executed dual clutch automatic to a manual.