This works for me...I shift out of first as soon as possible, and stay on the throttle, the transmission seems to shift faster and smoother if you maintain acceleration. I then shift as I see fit, depending on traffic and the road. I use fourth gear around town, below 45 mph, and the car is very responsive. The one thing I don't like, when downshifting, is the electronic brain selecting the gear for me. I may only want to drop one, but the transmission ends up dropping two. Other then that, I like the transmission. My last two cars , a Passat GLX and Grand Prix GTP, had the auto shift feature, and this transmission is comparable to both of them. So far, no problems.

John