Episode 6, Day 6: CVTs vs Last Dollar Road
High Altitude, Higher Stakes: Utah to Colorado

From Moab’s red-rock sunrise to Telluride’s midnight skyline, three used Nissans and their much-maligned CVTs trade desert heat for thin mountain air: a morning that starts with zip-tied “gremlins” on the driveshaft, gas-station math from El Cheapo’s beloved app, and sneaky route stickers on dusty glass turns into a climb through Paradox Valley, the backroads of Nucla, and the long grind onto the Uncompahgre Plateau above 11,000 feet.

Out here it’s cows blocking BLM roads, gravel chattering off tired undershields, and the faint rattle of gear in the hatch, with that strange mix of Windex, pine needles, and hot exhaust as the forest finally replaces sandstone.

Then the shortcut nobody asked for—Last Dollar Road—tightens into 18 miles of mud, ruts, and no-guardrail drop-offs, golden aspens forming a tunnel overhead while the world falls away just inches from the tires, all in fading light with three crossovers that were never supposed to be here.

By the time we roll into Telluride after dark, the transmissions are hot, the drivers are punch-drunk, and tomorrow’s Ophir Pass is hiding in the shadows. How many more miles of “wrong way to use a CVT” do these things have left?

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