I have been driving my newly purchased 2018 Maxima for about 2 months now and noticed when backing out of driveway and putting in drive the tranny takes a bit to engage. I start to accelerate and the trans doesn't appear to be in drive yet. Is this common with these cars? Car drives fine and no others transmission related concerns. If I wait an extra second or so then no issues. I know the simple answer is to wait a second longer but i've been backing out of my driveway for 15 years on a busy road and its very important to get backed out and going quickly. No other vehicle I have ever owned did this. Thanks in advance.

 

To confirm, are you stating that you put the car in drive while still in reverse motion?

 

NO!!. I back up, come to a stop then put in drive and hit gas. I'm a mechanic by trade and understand how bad it is to put in drive while still rolling. Same issue would happen if I just put car in reverse and then drive without actually backing up. If I hit the gas too quick the rpms start to rise and then it lightly slams into gear. I repeat, lightly .

 

Thanks for clarifying. Glad to hear that you understand and appreciate to not slam it into gear while going in reverse.

Getting back to your question, unfortunately I can't answer you as I don't own an 8th gen Max or in general, a car with a CVT transmission. I'm sure 8th gen owners will chime in shortly.

 

My '17 has had this 1 sec. lag from reverse to drive since new. I think I'm used to it because I totally forgot about it until I read this post. Dang it, now I'm gonna have to check it out tomorrow to see if it really is still there.

 

Thats exactly what it feels like. Just a 1 second delay is needed but this isn't ideal on my busy road.

 

Mine is probably more like a 1/2 a second delay.

 

Mine has done this since new, has a second lag before drive engages. It also has lag when you hit the start/stop button for the engine to stop.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Seems like this is just the nature of these transmissions. I have owned older cars that did similar and it usually wasn't good. Given this car does this every time it seems to be ok. Guess i'll retrain myself how to drive .

 

Like the other guys said I have a very slight lag also. After reversing and then shifting into D I have trained myself to wait about 1 second for the transmission to fully engage to forward motion. You better do the same before you damage this finicky CVT. I bet the belt slips on the pulley if you hit the gas too fast. Great gas mileage but besides that the CVT sucks.

 

You are 100% correct on the CVT sucking. When I was thinking of buying the car I joined this forum and questioned the crappy CVT and was quickly shot down and told the CVT is great and I didn't know what I was talking about. Two months of driving this car and I believe CVT's are a POS (the Maxima is better than other CVT's). My only reasoning for people liking the thing is they haven't experienced a real performance transmission. I do love my Maxima though and am 100% happy with the purchase. It feels a lot like my Infiniti I just stepped out of (except transmission). I'm defiantly a fan and hope future Maxima's drop this transmission.

 

No regrets here I have always wanted a Maxima and really like the car besides the CVT. That 3.0 twin turbo and real tranny in the q50 sure looks attractive next unless 9th gen Max (if there is one) steps up to the plate. The Genesis g80 is looking good too.

 

idk..
imo, i'd blame the torque converter on this.
which, i think, creates the rubber band feeling.
as long as the cvt itself has no issues.
my 2 cents is only worth 2 cents.

 

I have to totally disagree, again, about the CVT being a dawg. The biggest reason is when I require power, it is there in spades. When I am passing a line of cars on a two lane highway I get power throughout the entire pass, not like a traditional transmission that is going to shift up during the pass, thereby decreasing the potential speed. My wife's 5th generation Maxima was notorious for this. There is a reason that Formlua1 banned the CVT transmission, as the big money teams realized the CVT kicked the crap out the traditional transmissions used by the other teams.

 

Is it the CVT? I had a 2011 altima V6 and I never noticed lag on that.

I also noticed my altima would shut off quicker when I hit the start/stop button, the maxima has a second or two lag on that as well.