1. CVT performance in really hot temps: We are familiar with CVTs and how they operate. We used to have 08 Altima V6 with CVT for years we liked. The Ascent 95% of the time drives great (other than zooming for top “gear”) but seems to be a little clunky at times at low speed. A couple weeks before we bought ours we drove a 22 CPO Ascent with about 20k miles and its CVT was really smooth and there was no turbo lag. Not sure if this is something that smooths out more as you drive it? Most of the time it drives great, but one thing I have noticed is that when its really hot outside (we were in the low 100’s last week) there seems to be a huge delay from when you push the gas and just no power for about a second or 2 and then all of a sudden the RPMS zoom up, the turbo kicks and it zooms off like a teenager driving. It’s left us hanging once or twice when trying to pull off a side street into traffic which wasn’t cool. When temps are cooler it doesn’t seem to do it? Any Suggestions?
2. AC Performance when really hot: As I said above its been in the low hundreds this past week and after the car is baking in the sun it seems to take a good 15 minutes of driving around for the AC to really cool down. We usually just have it set on Auto 72 deg and let it do its thing. But the car doesn’t seem to be blowing very cool if its just sitting there idling for a couple of minutes where as with my Ram after bout 2-3 minutes of idling the AC is blowing pretty cold. Is there a better method for cooling the car quicker on a hot day? Do you have better luck setting it for 60 and max AC for a few minutes?
3. Gas Mileage: First few tanks seem attrocious but my wife drives really short trips running the boys around and its been hot here. First few tanks have been about 16 mpg. She averaged 14 over many years in our old Yukon Denali. Reading on here it seems like this starts to improve after a few thousand miles. We did take a trip to Bodega Bay and back and it got about 23. Doesn’t seem like premium gas makes a difference.
Everything else we are loving. Its very comfortable for the family, stereo sounds great, the adaptive cruise is handy and the surround view camera is one of our favorite features. We love that the Ascent is also a little more rare on the road!
