Last week, I had occasion to ride in a 2011 4-cylinder, CVT-equipped Subaru Outback that is the grad-school wheels for the daughter of a friend of mine. She was home for the weekend, and my friend and I were performing a pre-flight check on the car before she went back to school. We pulled into a gas station, and as my friend left the car to prepay for the gas, I noticed that he pulled in on the wrong side of the pump.

I got behind the wheel, pulled away from the pumps, and was performing a three-point turn in a tight area in order to reposition the car. I shifted from Reverse to Drive, and as the pumps were slightly uphill from my position, I gave it a little gas. This thing jumped forward as if it had a 455 Pontiac under the hood, and I had to mash the brake before I took out a gas pump. I once drove a Nissan with CVT, and noted the same tendency to lurch forward at low speeds without forewarning. I wonder if such behavior is endemic to CVT's, or if I'm just a nascent old fart just biding my time until the day that I launch my 10-year-old Grand Marquis through a convenience store window?