I am almost ready to buy an '04 3s sedan but I'm being **** about making sure everything's as right as it can be. I've searched this and another forum before registering, but I couldn't find the answer I'm looking for. Apparently, it's not even an issue according to the few people I've mentioned it to, but I want to be sure.

When I test drove the car, I noticed that (in auto mode) it went from 1st up to 4th pretty quick, at least IMHO. After the test drive, I still wasn't entirely used to the gauges, but seeing the gear go from 1 to 4 relatively quickly threw me off. I'm coming from a '96 Infiniti G20, and if I had to guess at when the auto shifts on average I would say that it doesn't reach 4th until almost highway speeds. So my main concern is whether that kind of shifting seems normal.

I've done some reading on the manumatic and though I have no experience driving stick I hope that eventually if I go for a Mazda I have the guts to try playing around a bit, as it seems like an okay medium and harder to screw up than a full manual.

Thanks!

 

I think that depends on how hard you're pushing the car..but it is definitely not normal for it to jump gears from 1-4 fast..then again we might have different interpretations of the term "fast". so how fast is fast?

 

Also the speed with which it shifts will depend on the gear ratios. Look up the specs on both and compare.