new to the blog, just got my 08 fit yesterday! I just had a question, is the first gear with a/t supposed to be a little jumpy? what I mean by jumpy is that it does not have a smooth transition into second gear if I do not use the paddle shifter...

 

It sounds a lot like it could be a bad shifting solenoid pressure switch.

 

This is normal, unless you are experiencing some code or the gear indicator's letter flashing. Usually it depends on the speed you are going, if you lift off the throttle when it shifts, throttle position, the gear selected (D or S), or a combination of this.

I drive in S with the paddles all the time and noticed that the 1-2 shift as well as the 2-3 shift is jumpy if you are accelerating vigorously and shifting at around 3.5K. But again, this is in S using the paddles.

During the few times that I do drive in D, I do not feel any jump or jolt what so ever. Possibly because I'm used to it in S and I drive slowly in parking lots in that gear.

 

That reminds me of how yesterday I was coasting to a stop, I believe I felt a 2nd to 1st gear downshift when that happened. I wasn't really worried about it. If I had a Fit with the manual transmission I really wish it had I would have just stuck the tranny in neutral for a stop like that.

 

That was a downshift from 3rd to 1st. The A/T GD can access 3rd gear at 6 MPH. In S "M" mode get to 6 MPH or more and go to 3rd, then slow down while watching the gear indicator. You will notice that the trans will skip 2nd gear and go straight to 1st. It will do this regardless of if you are in D, S, or S "M".

So if you want to reduce the jolt just downshift into 2nd around 10-20MPH when slowing to a stop.

 

That's interesting and a downshift I rarely made in my old Sentra SE-R with 5 speed manual transmission. The last car I had was equipped with continuous variable transmission. I never felt any strong jerks from that tranny. I'm surprised Honda skipped using CVT on my Fit? Maybe costs were a factor in that decision?

 

I guess that it could possibly be that since we have the L15A1, which has the highest power output for the Fit/Jazz, we wouldn't need a great amount of shorter gears as well as traffic along with fuel costs in the US and Canada. In the other countries Fits/Jazzes have L13A which are DSI and non-VTEC engines, so Honda produced them with the CVT to compensate for the lower power output.

Of course, this is just my opinion after using a little logical thinking.

 

True I understand how they still save CVT for the less powerful engines. On the other hand, I don't see Porsche rushing out to link a CVT with their 911 Turbo nor is Chevy thinking about using CVT for their ZR-1. My Altima came with 2.5 four banger, not the 3.5 six cylinder offered in top of the line Altima. The Altima was still capable of hitting 60 in 7.4 seconds with the CVT though. That's pretty good compared to the first CVT cars I remember in the USA, which were weak Subaru Justy's that had weak little 3 cylinder engines in them back in 1989. That's why I feel Honda could have still took a chance with using a CVT in my 2007 Sport. I really wonder how it would have felt in this case and how many MPG it could have got too?