there are tons and tons of cars here in the USA with CVT boxes, independant rebuilders have started to come around repairing them on some level but still dont warrant them for long time use as the drive logic in the TCU can completely change the life span of it.
e.g. older nissan altima (first time cvt altima) had very aggressive friction properties - the car would launch and accelerate hard - it would also cause a low rpm judder as the torque converter locked, people didnt like it - Nissan then came up with a reflash to "soften" the car - this softening was basically programming slightly more slip in the gearbox (result you lose some economy and acceleration but the car is easier to drive =====> the excess slip is also now overheating the CVTF)
I have 4 cars, 3 have shifty autos and 1 has CVT, the CVT car was bought brand new and I have took it back to the dealer 4 times in 14000 miles to "fix" the stupid transmission behaviour. OTOH my 14 yr old mercedes with the 5 spd automatic has no issues - I can redline the engine, cruise like a naani amma, tow stuff with it and it doesnt display odd behaviour. The chevy and toyota units are both great too, no problems even in hot tx weather
redline the CVT for a day and I would need to probably take it back to the dealer because it starts to do funky stuff. Every 3 out of 10 cars in the service bays are in for transmission stupidities.
the really cool stuff (for me at least - Im a sort of geek) are the new 8 and 9 speed gearboxes that are made by ZF.
