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Keep in mind it's a small sample, from a forum member who maintains a fleet of ~ 30 CVT Mirages used as delivery cars...
But if memory serves, they wear out a simple thrust washer which contaminates the oil with metal particles and leads to rapid degradation. (CVT'S work via metal-on-metal friction between the pulleys and metal drive belt. so if the oil gets contaminated, things wear out fast.)
The up-side is used replacement trannys are cheap, so if you can do your own work, it's not a death sentence for an older car.
The other up-side is Mitsu's powertrain warranty in Canada/US is 160k km / 100k miles or 10 years for the original owner.
(The down-side is I bet CVT owners of out-of-warranty cars are less likely to do their own work.)
I haven't checked the Versa and Spark forums, but they use the same JATCO CVT7. With higher engine power/torque (more stress on the CVT), they may be a better indicator of long term durability.
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