Originally Posted By: Srt20
I have heard before from people that they felt the pentastar 3.6 was kind of a slug in lower rpm when mated with the older trans (5sp?).
Mine is with the 8 sp trans. And it feels pretty impressive for a 6 cylinder. But I will say the eco programming that makes it shift quicker to the next gear does make it feel sluggish, especially around town. When I drive it now I automatically turn the eco button off and its much more responsive and quicker feeling.
I think the eco programming on mine is a little to aggressive.
+1 on the eco button.
I would not be surprised if a lot of people test driving Chrysler products had the eco button turned on, and came back unimpressed with the tranny and the engine.
On my Grand Caravan I came to the conclusion that for our type of driving, the eco button is useless.
I had it on for a while, when traveling to Florida recently, and I could not figure out why, when going through the hilly terrain, the downshift was delayed for so long and the vehicle lost so much speed, that the cruise control would have to go almost WOT up the hill to regain the set speed.
It finally dawned on my that I had the eco button was ON. Once it was Off, the tranny would downshift much sooner and did not have to accelerate as much while going up a hill.
I found that my car used less fuel with the eco button Off.
Also, the tranny behaved the same even with the cruise control off. It felt almost like an ON/OFF switch when ascending a long hill that for sure required a downshift. I would press the gas pedal further and further, waiting for the tranny do downshift, but once it did, the throttle was opened up so much that I got this sudden acceleration and had to back off the gas pedal. Once th eeco button was off, the tranny behaved as it should, with no sudden power surges.