Hi, I believe what you are experiencing is the normal behaviour of the auto gearchange. I have the auto too, and it is an anoying characterisic of this type. All thats happening is that when you increase power (even QUITE gently) the torque converter shifts you from 5th gear to 4th gear You hear the revs increase and see the rev counter needle climb and watch your mpg drop, when actually all you want it to do is stay in 5th and accelerate a little. Virtually all automatics do this. As an experiment, switch over to winter mode and youll see that the gearbox is a little more docile, pulling away in 2nd and going through the gears at lower speeds. I prefer the winter mode because of this
Steve