While idly wondering if the Pakmara can really do that, Crunchy Cookie
said:

; My only question is: has this changed?  How are the automatics on the new 6 and
; RX-8?  And are all of the units on the 6 actually made by MAZDA now?  I remember
; 94-97 (or is it 94-02?) 626 4-cylinders having Ford automatics that shifted just
; as badly as Mazda's, except broke a LOT (guess who took the blame?).

In the summer of '02, while my manual tranny Protege was in the shop
for a large scheduled maintenance thing, they gave me a current model
626 automatic for the day.  I thought it was underpowered, but that's
the engine, not the tranny.  I did not notice, or at this time
remember, any problems with the transmission.  I've driven cars with
worse, and cars with better.

I currently own a Mazda6 with the SportAT.  Having owned/driven this
car for about 15 months, I have no complaints about it in auto mode.
In manual mode, I find that it doesn't self-downshift soon enough in
city driving.  In auto mode, no problem.

So far as I know, the 6 only has two transmission choices, manual and
SportAT.  And the SportAT is different from a "normal" automatic.  Also
so far as I know, Ford does not use a dual mode tranny in any of their
own cars.