Whenever I'm driving on the interstate cruising around 80mph and if I need to pass someone, I push the accelerator and all of a sudden the car basically does a really hard shift! It feels like the gear shift doesn't know what to do. I would understand if it kicks like that in manual when I'm downshifting, but in auto I thought it would be a lot smoother.

When it happens they car hesitates for a half a second then kicks really hard, but this only happens when I'm going over 70...is this normal for our cars?? To be honest it doesn't feel normal when it happens. And for you smart asses, no this doesn't feel like VTech kicking in The last time it happened, I think I gave my wife whiplash!

 

I think it's normal because the car shifts from 5th to 3rd so it takes a little while to hunt for the right gear.

 

If you are doing 70 it may downshift to 3rd and accelaerate hard.

You can use SS and downshift only to 4th... BTW, I do not use 4th for acceleration