I'm asking because I just saw a Nissan commercial for the Murano touting it as the "first smooth SUV" with a CVT tranny.

So did the CVT never make it into the VUE? Or is the VUE considered a "rough" SUV?

It did and was only recently discontinued. There were some problems with manufacturing, and customers were disconcerted by the lack of shifting.

It did and was only recently discontinued. There were some problems with manufacturing, and customers were disconcerted by the lack of shifting.

I never heard that latter reasoning. Nissan, Audi, Toyota, and Ford buyers don't seem to be affected by it.

I belive the 4 cylinder AWD models were the only ones that got the CVT. Also the Ion Quad Coupe got it but the sedan did not, it got the 5 speed that nobdoy liked, I think that was also in the Vue, maybe FWD only? I got lost in a lot of this. I would actually like to get a AWD 4 cyl CVT Vue for my wife as she doesn't maintain speed very well and is constantly making her transmission downshift, plus I would guess it would get a little better gas mileage than her 98 Malibu V6 base.

Both the FWD and AWD VUE(4 cylinder only) originaly came with the CVT. Later only the AWD 4 cylinder used it. It is gone completly now, IIRC. There were numerous failures and eventually the warranty on these transmissions was extended to 75000 miles. The very first units suffered from a batch of contaminated transmission fluid.