So far, I'm more impressed with it as time passes. It seems to make intelligent choices such as not changing its gear ratio when I take my foot off the gas to turn a corner. Gas mileage is on the high side of what was claimed, but it's still fairly new and I haven't exactly been driving it gently since I got it. When I stomp on the gas, there is no kick like you get with a typical automatic transmission, but acceleration is still reasonable. It is definitely noisier than my Impreza was when it was new. Lots of random ticking noises, like thermal expansion noises. My only complaint is a slight delay when pulling away from a stop. If I ease onto the gas pedal, it feels like a long delay before the car moves. If I stomp on the pedal more quickly, the delay seems to be less.
I've tried playing with the paddle shifters. They work well, but so far I haven't been able to do much better than automatic mode. I've been trying to downshift coming into a turn so I can accelerate and pull out of it when I'm done the turn, without having the transmission change the gear ratios on me. It kinda works, but there's no space in the city to really try this out.
Those are my initial thoughts. I was looking forward to using this CVT so I might be a little biased to like it. It's not the most sporty drive, but it is what it is. I think it needs a "sport" mode, like I found on the VW Golf's DSG system.
Chicobiker