CX-9 and shifting and passing question

[howler99]

First post here. Last year I brought a 2010 CX-9 GT, and love it. I love the way it handles and the engine seems more than adequate for an SUV.

98% of the time I love the transmission - I almost never have to think about it.

However when I need to accelerate sharply at say 40-50 (6th gear), it can be annoying. I know I can put my foot to the floor, and it will downshift (3rd gear? ), make a lot of noise, wake-up passengers etc., but if I don't do that then I just get very slight acceleration.

Has anyone figured out a solution? I guess I could manually downshift, but I almost never do that...maybe it's just me but the up-down shift seems backwards.

 

[Brucie66]

If you've ever driven a manual tranny....the shift pattern makes sense. It was intuitive to me... The 9 want to hold high gear as long as it can, hence the need to floor it. Just down shift to 4th will get u into the beginning of the power band.

Hope this helps!

 

[eskimo0101]

Welcome to the world of automatics tuned for maximum fuel efficiency. They avoid downshifting because it's more efficient to have a motor under high load with low RPM's. The problem is the CX-9 is a big girl being moved by a V6 so it really needs that kickdown from the higher gears to get moving.

 

[tex2670]

First post here. Last year I brought a 2010 CX-9 GT, and love it. I love the way it handles and the engine seems more than adequate for an SUV.

98% of the time I love the transmission - I almost never have to think about it.

However when I need to accelerate sharply at say 40-50 (6th gear), it can be annoying. I know I can put my foot to the floor, and it will downshift (3rd gear? ), make a lot of noise, wake-up passengers etc., but if I don't do that then I just get very slight acceleration.

Has anyone figured out a solution? I guess I could manually downshift, but I almost never do that...maybe it's just me but the up-down shift seems backwards.

Manually downshifting won't do anything, because it's not a true manual, and if the logic determines you need to be in a lower gear, it will still downshift.

The only way to fix this is to increase your speed more gradually. But--if you need to rapidly overtake or pass, it's working exactly how it's supposed to.

 

[Brucie66]

I use my manumatic in the mountains and it works just like a manual tranny... Only downshifts automatically to first gear when I come to a stop..... Just sayin