I would be lost without the Autostick on down hill grades, it the only way I can keep the RPMs up so I can punch out in the corners. We have just over 12K miles on ours without an issue so far, knock on wood, so I hope it is not an Autostick related problem. However, 90 % of our mileage is highway or Interstate at 70+ mph with only the occasional grade where we down shift, so our transmission really isn't taxed like a car driven in city traffic.