We have a 2015 legacy and an 07 nissan sentra, both with cvt. They take a little getting used to because they don't really shift, but they allow you to get great mileage especially if you can keep your foot out of it. The legacy also has a 'manual' mode if you slide the stick to the left from drive. It allows you to shift using paddles on the steering wheel and it does approximate an auto-stick. It's also very useful for steep hill descent as I found out this morning heading into work. The technology is pretty well established, cvt (or reeves drive) has been used on industrial equipment, snow mobiles, quads and scooters for decades. The main failure point is the belt, and in the case of the subie I'm pretty sure they use the same cvt for the flat 6 as they do for the 4, so the 4 cyl will have a hell of a time breaking the belt designed to handle the aditional power the 6 makes. They can be a bit more noisy than a stick or auto but the one in the legacy isn't bad at all...the nissan whizzes a lot tho. Hope this helped, if you're local to akron - canton you're welcome to take mine for a spin.