I've got just over 7k miles on Paddington and, though it had been a while since I've driven a conventional automatic daily, the shift points are rather harsh. That doesn't really bother me though - not as much as the car violently chugging twice now while attempting to up-shift under very light acceleration...or feeling like the car is about to stall if I have to come to a dead stop from over 30mph because the transmission can't seem to keep up.

Is this normal?

 

Haven't had the up shifting concerns but when coming to stop mine will do the weird rpm shifts like it wants to stall. Rpms will drop then pick back up.

I have had a few hard downshifts though which is a bit of concern. Non sport mode, not shifting by hand. Haven't nailed down the trigger to it yet. Though may be hard on the brakes coming to a stop rather than gradually.

 

I only ever have to slam on the brakes when silly people over-react in traffic and I can't see around them to anticipate. I don't get to test it often either, as I'm usually paying more attention to the road for obvious reasons.

 

Yea, I wouldn't call it a panic stop, but more of an aggressive stop. Typically yellow lights or just having fun braking hard to a stop.