Originally Posted by
Fopeano
The first questions I can only answer indirectly, so I start from the last.
The Triton/L200 is not even on the horizon for being sold here.
Mirage CVTs do not fail often, and nowhere near the rate of Outlanders and Sports. Usually it's over 100k miles, but it's rare. We keep Outlander transmissions in stock, but It would make no sense to stock Mirage transmissions.
As far a Nissan reliability goes, I have no idea. It is indeed a visually identical Jatco unit. We just had to do one in a Altima we sold, and a Nissan service manager told my service manager that it absolutely had to be programmed before moving it, that even putting it in gear without programming it would damage the new unit. We pushed the car out and had it towed to the dealer we bought the new transmission from for that programming.
In contrast, ours don't need anything to be done. It's "supposed to" be done, but empirical evidence from both our facility and people I've talked to at training classes proves that it's not necessary at all. I've personally in the last so many years replaced at least 50 Jatco transmissions without programming that have never came back and drive perfectly. Whether that is a difference in programming, I can't tell you. As much as I don't believe the Nissan needed to be programmed, I also know that Nissan can eff up a wet dream. As I discussed with the tech who did that job, it's believable that Nissan would spec a trans that needed extra work that isn't worth the trouble.