Ok here's what I found. I have basically the same car, 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T 5.7 ltr Hemi 5sp bump stick automatic. In the 1,000 or more miles I have on it I found that if I do not touch the gear shift lever and just leave it in drive it does not downshift into lower gears as you slow down and /or come to a stop , but when you stop it drops then in to first gear and as you pull away it upshifts normally thru the other 4 gears. Now when I use the bump stick to down shift as I do on occassion to slow up in a hurry I bump the gearshift lever over to the left for each gear I want to downshift to. If I stop shifting at any gear the trans keeps on downshifting untill I stop. Then upon pulling away again I must upshift thru all the gears to get to final drive gear as it will not upshift it self. So then I tried something else.....after using the bumpshift to downshift to a complete stop I then take the shift lever and move it to neutral for a second and then place it into drive and as I drive away it is back in complete automatic mode upshifting itself up thru the gears. That the best I can explain it so it seems for normal full automatic don't touch the shift lever......if you want to shift yourself then you must upshift and downshift yourself. Thats my real world experience so far, Fat Cat[sm=gears.gif]
ORIGINAL: raj1980
Let me start off...
This is my first Dodge, I've only driven GM untl now, so I don't know the in's-and-out's yet.
My Car:
2009 R/T Automatic
28J PKG
Electronic Convienece PKG
Black/Black
First of all, I love this car, but I am disappointed that this car does not come with Limited Slip... It was the one thing I forgot to research. However, the Limit-Slip that you can get on this car isn't really Limited-Slip. It is an open differential... it's got an electronic system that senses wheel slip and applies that brakes to the slipping wheel which then forces the power to the sticking wheel. Not ideal on the track.
Anyway, I don't know how these transmissions are supposed to work, but my Automatic R/T automatically downshifts during de-accleration... it feels like when you downshift manual tranny. I never saw a automatic trasmission downshift hard like this before... is this normal?