no, you are doing the right thing, some people are afraid to upshift or downshift automatics...I personally never downshift my auto stick, but up shifting will never hurt anything, and it will shift for you if you don't, so the owner was just being cautious....drive it like you want...it will take it....as for the key, sounds like you took care of that problem, now, go to the search feature and plug in stereo, and there is hours of reading about stereos on here, I like to listen to my SC whine, so music isn't that important to me....good luck w/ your purchase and enjoy.....