Hello everyone. I just picked up my new (to me) 2012 Cooper S and I have a quick question:

The car is an auto and when downshifting, it seems to hesitate for a split second and then sort of “lunge” when it downshifts. It seems to be more noticeable when the a/c is on (if that means anything). The car has around 37k miles.

Also, when it’s in “manual” mode, it is slow to respond to gear changes (or at least it seems slower than it should.


So, is this normal? If not, any ideas?

Other than that, I love the car and I’m glad to be a part of this little club.

 

Sounds normal to me. In manual mode it does not snap the shifts, it's a torque converter automatic not a DSG.

I would recommend having the trans fluid changed. It may help with the feel & even if it doesn't it will help your auto last longer.

 

Ah, thank you. I have a trip this weekend so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t something I should take care of immediately.

I was planning on changing the trans fluid soon (the whole idea of “lifetime” anything seems odd to me).

 

I have a '12 MCS with an auto. Mine does the same as you describe. When I first got the mini for my wife, I thought the down shifting was odd as it's very different than my Mustang with an auto. So as ashchuckton mentioned, I think it's normal..

 

I have a 2013 S auto and I always drive it in manual mode and here are my thoughts:

1.) The upshifts are fairly quick with the exception of 1st-to-2nd which can be glacial. I've never driven a car with a dual clutch so I can't compare but it is definitely faster than I could stick shift a transmission.

2.) Downshifts can be slow, I find that the lower gears are slower than the higher gears. It seems that the car is thinking "hmmm, is it safe to downshift, I think so, I'll go ahead and do it."

 

It's hard to diagnose over the internet, but for what's it worth, my '08 MCS auto tranny with 56K miles started shifting appreciably smoother after I changed oil and filter (drained 4 quarts out after 2 days of dripping). Improvement is particularly noticeable during hard acceleration kick-down-shifts - those are now silky smooth vs. slamming into gear after random delay previously.

I can not promise to you that and oil+filter change will alleviate all your voes, but it will certainly extend the service life of the transmission. Just do not expect the dealer to encourage this service, or be competitive in pricing. 2 out of 3 local dears refused (it's lifetime, just buy anew tranny after its life is over), and the 3rd quoted $700 as long as I didn't ask them to change the filter. An independent was willing to do it for $550, again, leaving old filter in place. Parts cost me 5 quarts of OEM fluid ($22/per) + replacement filter + pan gasket ~$80 = ~$200.

HTH,
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