One thing we've found out, the owners manual is total bs on a lot of things, so I would not take it as gospel. It is almost like GM knew Pontiac was going and they did not even bother with it.
I've had my car for 6 months (bought it with 36K, now has 45K miles) and it has always operated like that. The numbers on the dash do not change unless I actually move the lever down or up, BUT the gears always start from 1st when I stop.
OK, I just pulled out my owners manual and mine is working exactly how it describes. It says the
Driver Shift Control (DSC) mode allows you to choose the top gear limit of the vehicle's transmission and the vehicle's speed while driving down hill or towing a trailer. To use this feature, do the following:
1. Move the shift lever from D to S. While driving in this mode, the transmission will remain in the driver selected range. When coming to a stop, the vehicle will automatically shift into 1 (First) gear.
2. Move the shift lever forward to increase the gear range, or rearward to decrease the gear range available based upon your current driving conditions and needs.
The number displayed in the instrument cluster is the highest gear that the transmission will be allowed to operate in. However, your vehicle can automatically shift to lower gears as required by various driving conditions. This means that all gears below that number are available.
The display in the instrument cluster will change from the currently displayed message to 4 (Fourth) when you enter S (Shift Control) and change to indicate the requested gear range when moving the shift lever forward or rearward.
When using the DSC feature the transmission will have firmer shifting and sportier performance. You can use this for sport driving or when climbing hills to stay in gear longer or to downshift for more power or engine braking.
The transmission will only allow shifting into gears appropriate for the vehicles speed and engine RPM:
The transmission will not automatically shift to the next higher gear if the vehicle speed or engine RPM is too high.
Note: Here is the debate as I see it. I take this to mean it will not shift to the next higher gear OUTSIDE of the selected gear range, not between gears withing the gear range which it does do. It could be interpreted that it would not upshift
at all once you stop while in sport mode. And that is what your car was doing, right? But it does not say the dash indicator would ever automatically change to 1 when you stop, unless you manually shifted it down to 1. It would always show the maximum available gear. I think they just left out "outside of the selected gear range" after gear in this sentence.
The transmission will not allow shifting to the next lower gear if the vehicle speed or engine RPM is too high. An audible warning will sound and the downshift will not be allowed. The downshift request will have to be made again once the vehicle reaches an acceptable speed.
The key to the way it works is the gear range in bold I noted above. It is not a fully manual controlled automatic transmission, which I wish it was. We can only select the range of gears for it to work. Now it will drop into 1st at a stop if you move the lever down 3 times. Then it will stay in 1st until you move the lever up to 2nd, and stay there until you move it to 3rd, and etc. But it does not automatically start in 1st at a stop and require you to manually shift up if the dash indicatior shows 3 or 4.
Bottom line, I still wish I had a manual trans. But I'm saving that card for a newer Mustang someday in the future. If the transmission programming could be changed to allow for full manual operation without having to downshift every time, it would be interesting to try. But I can see GM and Toyota for that matter making the automatic upshifts as a way of reducing warranty claims from over revving the transmission or something.
I still wonder what other's cars do in DSC mode.