Automatic gear selection question
 

I have a fairly steep hill on the road to my home that is posted at 45 mph. When the cruise control is engaged and I get to that hill the car shifts down two gears and revs the crap out of the little engine until it gains a couple of mph, then shifts up to drive before the crest of the hill. Shifts back to OD at the crest. How can I alter the shift point to not shift down two gears to ascend the hill? When the car shifts to 2nd gear at the middle of the hill, it comes close to 6000 rpms. I am not trying to race up the hill, just drive up the hill sanely!
My wife has a Honda CRV that ascends the hill with much less drama since it knows how to select a gear.

Might try manually operating the gas pedal. My car pulls hills way better since Trifecta tune, it added torque and a retune of the transmisson shift points, and quickness. That might be an option to consider. Or maybe the wife will loan you the Honda when you need to go up that big hill.:D

This is one of the things that was greatly discussed when our cars first came out in '05 ('06 model).

Most discovered that when you are familiar with the road or suspect this will happen because of the severity of the incline, manually shifting to "I", beforehand, will reduce or eliminate this.

my '08 does the same thing. It's weird to me that the car can't just drop one gear, into 3rd. Instead, it drops to 2nd, then back up to 3rd. I don't want to deal with obtaining a tune, so I guess I'll just live with it. First couple times it happened I thought there was something wrong with the transmission/computer, but have since come to realize it's just one of the 'quirks' that some members here have grown to love, lol. :smile:

I was hoping that it was just some quirk that could easily be sorted out like the old days. I love the little HHR but, I am quickly becoming sick of GM. They seem to screw up the most simple tasks.

I would suggest taking it out of cruise control on that hill. That way you have control over the accelerator.
The cruise control is trying to maintain the input speed. The cruise system will "mash" the gas if it can't maintain the speed. This in turn tells the computer "need more speed!" The computer then tells the transmission "change gears,need more speed!"
Do you see where I'm going with this?

I have been doing that but, I was hoping for a solution to what should be a simple issue. In the old days we could change the position of the kick down cable and solve the issue. I am just angry since my wife's car (with less power) can drive up that hill seamlessly. The HHR just goes NUTZ. Makes me wonder what kind of engineer programs the computer and why doesn't GM hire someone that can do the job. For crying out loud, hire the guy that did the programming for Honda!!!! He knows what he is doing..

It is possible that something could be out of adjustment. I would talk to a good transmission technician and explain the issue. Might be as simple as a reprogram or such. Good Luck.

Well Road my hhr does it my miata does it and the millinia does it as well. Maybe something about these small mouse motors. My 7.3 liter diesel truck does not even sniff a reshift. So as usual i have no clue. I rarely use cruise up here in the mountains.

From my 09 Manual-

Using Cruise Control on Hills
How well the cruise control will work on hills depends
upon the vehicle speed, load and the steepness of the
hills. When going up steep hills, you might have to step
on the accelerator pedal to maintain the vehicle speed.

When going downhill, you might have to brake or shift to
a lower gear to keep the vehicle speed down. When the
brakes are applied the cruise control turns off.

Which in my mind says don't bother using it on steeply graded hills.