Is it normal for a car not to shift in the cold?

[fish_eat_sleep]

I might have mentioned something last winter about it but I was just thinking about it again this last week.. I have a 2001 pathfinder with the 3.5L. Whenever its really cold, especially this winter, my car won't shift into 3rd for the first couple miles. It does the 1-2 shift at 15mph and then forgets to shift at 25/30mph leaving me stuck in 2nd and unable to surpass 50mph safely until I either pull over stop at a light to put it in P and back to D. this happens only when its REALLY cold but its annoying. Also the O/D gear won't engage sometimes until after I get to where I'm going (5 or more miles of driving) contributing to bad MPG's (averaging 13-14 in winter months including letting it warm up for 5 min in the AM)

Passengers in my little car Always crack jokes at me for driving like grandma on the on ramps and for doing 55 instead of 70 when I'm sitting at 3000rpm instead of 2000rpm with no O/D gear. It's not "Broken" so I'm not going to fork over cash to make an old car new but its starting to make me wonder if other vehicles behave similar? Is it just my car that HATES cold air?

The Nissan 3.5 warms up as quick as any old car, but the transmission acts lethargic in the cold. Its unbelievable how much more get up N go this car has when the air temperature is 40*+ compared to 5*.

[Macgyver55]

Cold can do some strange things to cars but no, it isn't "normal" for it not to shift when cold. It may be delayed some but should shift even with a short warm up. The fact that it works after stopping and shifting makes me think that it could be an issue with the gear position sensor or something on that order.

Aside from that, has the transmission fluid and filter been serviced regularly?

[fish_eat_sleep]

Well, iv had it since 99,000 and I'm at 162,000 now. I think I had all the fluids done at 148,000 including transmission, rear diff, and transfer. I assume the filter would have checked at that point. It does drive well at least 7 months of the year!! The fact that all my fishing buddies and passengers think its odd for a car to do that, made me think about it again. I don't disagree with them either i guess.

[Shack]

Not too long ago (late 1990's early 2000's) it was normal for some Dodge transmissions to not shift into overdrive when outside temps were below 0.