Here ya go...
In a "mis-guided" effort to avoid the gas guzzler tax, some brilliant fob tucked away in a design cave somewhere came up with the glorious idea of trying to improve gas mileage ratings by locking out 2nd and 3rd gear under certain conditions. They call it the Computer Aided Gear System (CAGS). The basic premise is in 6-spd cars when the operating temperature is above a certain level (I think 180 degrees), AND you are at 1/4 throttle or less, AND you are shifting out of first between 18 and 21 MPH, the transmission will force you to shift from 1st directly to 4th - automatically bypassing 2nd and 3rd gears by locking them out. What you feel when driving is the car wont go into gear if you try 2nd or 3rd. By doing this its supposed to get you to a higher and more fuel efficient gear more quickly.
The practicality is its a pain because you get into a shifting rhythm of 1 to 2, then 2 to 3, etc, and its suddenly interrupted when you happen to hit the right combination of conditions. Many people react by looking down at the tranny as if somethings wrong - taking your eyes away from the road. And if you are trying to time your merge into traffic or into a turn it will disrupt that causing you to not accelerate as intended which may actually bring you into closer proximity to a nearby car - i.e., a dangerous aspect some people talk about. Think of it this way - what would happen if your regular car started to stall when you where trying to do a merge acceleration into heavy traffic? Your car would slow and instead of blending smoothly into the traffic opening, the guy you were trying to get in front of will suddenly come too close or even clip you. That's the unintended consequence of this feature.
I agree with all who say getting a skip shift eliminator is the way to go. I paid about $13 for mine, and it took longer for me to get the car up on ramps and chocked than it did to crawl underneath and install it. Very simple and easy to do.
Go for it!
