Automotive News reports in this week's issue that General Motors has halted production of its continuously variable transmission (CVT) used in Saturn vehicles. Production was apparently was stopped on January 6th due to two manufacturing issues. GM gave no indication as to when it plans to resume production of the unit, but company spokeswoman Debbie Frakes says the company is working "around the clock" with its suppliers to fix the problems. The issues are due to assembly, and are not a design or engineering flaws. The transmission is built by GM's Opel unit in Szentgotthard, Hungary.

The CVT is marketed by Saturn as the VTi; it was an option available on the Ion quad coupe and Vue sport-utility. GM says that it has built approximately 82,000 CVTs since the summer of 2002. Automotive News estimates that 37% of Ions and Vues built since then were equipped with the transmission.

GM does not plan a recall at this time. Frakes said only "a very small percentage" of the transmissions are affected, but she did not indicate how many of the problematic transmissions have made their way onto retailer lots. While CVT production is halted, insiders say that Saturn will offer conventional automatic transmissions and special edition 5-speed models instead. This is not the first time GM has had trouble with this particular transmission. GM initially delayed the introduction of the transmission in 2001 due to "inconsistent matching of parts, the hydraulic pump, and the software," said Automotive News.

The CVT transmission issues have been a topic of discussion recently on the SaturnFans.com Forums message board. In general, owners praise the transmission's performance, but some have reported problems and question the long-term durability of the unit.

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Source: Automotive News