Bad news for me....Yamaha refuses to fix it. I hate bringing this negative vibe to the forum, but it's what I'm experiencing and everyone's input is helping for sure.
The dealership left me a voicemail saying, and I'm paraphrasing slightly, "Our tech took a look at it, then we contacted Yamaha and Yamaha said there isn't anything to be done. Yamaha engineered in some play to protect the machine, you know, for when you're off road and in 4wd and stuff."
To me this is unacceptable because the machine lurches when accelerating from a stop after every. single. gear. change. It is sudden, it is abrupt, and it is not normal. I fear it will cause premature wear on the transmission components. I know Yamaha did not engineer the machine to abruptly lurch into motion upon accelerating (every single time), b/c the other 450 on the showroom floor doesn't do it at all and b/c NO OTHER atv with an automatic CVT from any manufacturer does this unless it is not operating correctly.
Now I begin my journey of continuing to reach out to Yamaha for support. Soooo happy I didn't buy the extended warranty since Yamaha won't honor even their 6-month manufacturer warranty. I've got a youtube channel where I'll post a video of the ATV lurching into motion and explaining that Yamaha refuses to fix it, claiming that's the way they designed it to work.
Again, I hate to be a debbie downer - that ain't my style, but this has been supremely frustrating. Thank you everyone for the continued support. I want to love the machine, but Yamaha isn't helping.