Small CVT car for my mrs

[floody]

The first workable CVT, called Variomatic, was designed and built by the Dutchman Hub van Doorne, co-founder of Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (DAF), in the late 1950s, specifically to produce an automatic transmission for a small, affordable car. The first DAF car using van Doorne's CVT was produced in 1958. Van Doorne's patents were later sold to Volvo along with DAF's car business.

Certainly been long enough to work the bugs out!
Jazz is pretty good, haven't driven the colt yet. I'd go as far as saying the CVT Jazz was better than the manual around town.

[smellytofu]

The "gears" is only for marketing purposes and really not that useful.

[JZK25]

Drove the colt again today and still like it. Much better than a manual, it's a bit like having a high stall converter in how you just ride the torque curve, just without the drawbacks of a big converter. Making a puny engine like the Colts feel torquey is quite a feat.
The colt appears to have electric(electro-hydraulic) steering assist also although I haven't had a look at the tech specs to see exactly how it works.

My Honda Odyssey buggy had a primitive CVT too. It was shit.

[GSRman]

yup.. leccy steer assist..

the jazz is a simularish price..according to the website..

[JZK25]

Any details on leccy steering assist? Theoretically a very good idea for reducing engine load when it isn't necessary.

Haven't driven a Jazz but I would imagine it would be better than the colt in fit and finish.

[smellytofu]

I find the EPS is good as long as you don't turn the steering wheel too fast (like a one handed turn at car park speed) and then the EPS lags a bit in assistance.

[Captiva Fan]

Aren't there two different types of 'electric steering'; one is actually a drive-by-wire setup which has an electric motor operating the steering, and the other is just an electric pump that replaces the old ancillary-belt pump. I would've thought the drive-by-wire thing to be way too expensive to go in cars like this; but if you can actually feel a difference in the other type of steering assistance, doesn't that mean the pump isn't really up to the task of keeping the fluid pressurised? Hence - wouldn't it get all nasty on, say, a slalom?

[smellytofu]

Forg, it's the 2nd type that replaces the traditional pump with an electric motor.