Car shifts very hard, not like how a 4 cylinder engine should. Has a "popping" sound to accompany the hard shift. Several instances where the vehicle has "grinded" between shifts. Engine had reved to 4000-5000 RPM's for approximately 3 seconds before finally shifting into gear. This is an automatic transmission and should not be doing this with 19000 miles and it is only a year old. Has taken off on me once, where I had to swerve to avoid slamming into the back end of a car with children in the backseat. I took it to the dealer several times but the "problem could not be duplicated." Meanwhile every time I get into the car, the shifting gets worse. Tech line says there is no problem, and told the dealer that dropping out the trannie would accomplish nothing and would be a waste of time.

- Pittsburgh, PA, USA