Question for 3rd gen D owners, have you people use the autostick function of your new Durango? how often do you use it? does it really function or does it shift right away as you perform the manual shifting? The reason I ask is I have tried it one time and it seems either I may have doing it the wrong way...is it a tap or you have to hold to the -/+ until the gear changes? The way the gear notches set up for the D is not intuitive as I am used to my Acura TSX, I don't want to look at the tranny when engaging the autostick function it has to be by feel.

 

For NAG1 (W5A580) transmissions, from the Drive position, tap left to downshift and right to up shift. These are the transmissions on the Ds with RWD.

On AWD vehicles with the 2-speed transfer case and 545RFE transmissions, they do not have Autostick, but electronic range selection. You can't control the gear the vehicle is IN, but you can prevent the transmission from shifting to a gear higher than the one you select. Whatever is displayed on the dash is the HIGHEST gear the transmission will use, plus all the ones lower.

 

I have an AWD 5.7 Citadel with the two speed transfer case and it does indeed have an auto stick function. You just have to tap the stick left or right while in drive and it will shift up or down, holding that gear… to a point. To return to full auto (drive) simply tap “+” one more time from fifth gear as displayed in the dic. It’s not as fast as the 200ms ZF trans, but if you time it right and shift just a half sec early based on revs it can still be pretty fun.
The difference between Autostick and Electronic Range Select is minimal; ERS is basically an updated version. Autostick doesn’t just let you go up and down through the gears at will. Just like ERS it won’t let you downshift if it puts you beyond redline and downshifts automatically as you slow to keep the engine from stalling. Neither system is like the double clutched electronically shifted manual transmissions found on some super or race cars.

 

Thanks guys...I do have the AWD Citadel with the 2 speed transfer case, I'll try to work it on my way home. Can't complain about this tranny sure its a 5 speed but I'm impressed with its buttery smooth shifting. I see a lot of reviewers knocking off the 5 speed as the weakest link but I don't see it that way I'm satisfied with its performance.

 

Well on my commute on the way home today I engaged the tranny's ERS function briefly and saw the EVIC info on the gear changes from D - 5 - 4 and back to 4 - 5 - D somehow I didn't felt any abrupt changes in the tranny during my manual gear selection, we'll try it again tomorrow and try to drop it down to 3....I guess I'm just used to my other vehicle's tranny when engaging the auto tranny manual gear selection you can feel the surge/changes to the speed right away.

 

Yeah, 4th and 5th are both overdrive gears 4th being .75 and 5th being .67. Thats not a big difference and you won't notice it much unless your watching the tach and are going a constant speed with a steady foot. 3rd (not the alt. 2nd) on the other hand is 1.00 and is noticable. I'm not sure which 2nd gear is accessed by ERS, I'd assume it's the higher one ,1.5 and the 1.67 will only come into play when accelerating from a stop or 1st.

 

Well for today unfortunately my wife relieve me of my D

I hope she doesn't get used to driving it too often...lol

ZCR1 thanks for the info I'll probably just won't bother with it unless it is needed, just having the thought of dropping to one gear like in my TSX to give that extra oommph sometimes in certain situation.