Like Beachboy said, if it's cheap and not knackered then have it, at least you'll be in with a chance of flogging it for a profit if u don't like it
I've got a 1.0 auto, (well, it's my dad's but he's given up driving
) and I've had it for the last 4 years or so and it's got 68K miles on it with no real problems except that the CVT has started whining when you've got your foot all the way down. I've had a gander at the Haynes and glove compartment manuals and they say nowt about rebuilding the gearbox, just changing the CVT fluid and inspecting the carbon brushes in the clutch (it's electromagnetic), but the Nissan manual only goes up to 48K miles *unimpressed smiley*. Watch out for judderiness/jerkiness when it's setting off, that usually indicates that the brushes on the clutch have had it but they're a wearing part anyway so as long as the coils (in the clutch) are ok it can be fixed fairly easily. The only annoyance (apart from its bizarre performance characteristics) that I get from the gearbox it that the microswitch for the ignition interrupter for P is a bit naff so I sometimes have to bray the gearstick to get it to start in P and it can also be difficult to select D or R from N 'cos the teeth on the cogs (CVT still has a few, lol) have lined up funny, I find applying more force and a bit of verbal abuse does the trick
and I haven't broken it yet. It's very normal for the gearbox to whistle at low speed, especially going downhill with your foot off the gas, and it doesn't start shifting ratios until you get to about 10mph so you might feel a change around that point.
If you've never driven CVT before get ready for a shock; it's throttle control, but not as you know it. Basically, in D (Ds behaves a bit differently, I find it's not worth bothering with), your right foot controls the engine speed; ironically this means that you get the best acceleration out of it by not flooring it. You'll have to learn to play the torque/hp game with the CVT computer by getting the engine to the right speed so that you get the optimum compromise between torque and engine speed; basically, if u want to accelerate, put your foot about 3/4 to 4/5 of the way down and don't bother trying to over take anything that's going more that 65mph unless you're already doing 70 on a dual carriageway. It's fine up to 70mph, it accelerates continuously (that's what the C's for in CVT, lol) and quite steadily up to that speed but it's hard work getting more out of it, I have to rev it hard to keep 70 up motorway hills with 2 passangers in. Economy wise I think I've gone as low as 40mpg and as high as 49, if that's any help.
