With cars like these, who needs hybrids?

To get to 32 highway miles per gallon, an impressive feat for any SUV, the Juke relies, first and foremost, on small size, light weight and turbocharging. But it also relies on a continuously variable transmission. This is a transmission without the usual "stepped gears." Instead of shifting from first to second to third, the gear ratio changes smoothly from lower to higher, always providing just the right gear ratio at any given time.

The downside of so-called CVT transmissions is that they feel strange to drivers used to feeling and hearing gears change, but Nissan has managed to make its CVT feel perfectly normal and natural.

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