going down a steep hill it seems to stay in gear longer.
High gear or a lower gear? Some vehicles are smart enough to hold a lower gear to prevent the driver from overheating the brakes.
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What is the basis of your comparison? Same CRV now vs 6 months ago? Or your CRV vs somebody else’s CRV? Or your CRV vs a different make/model?
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This is normal. The feature is called grade logic control. It adjusts the transmission shift programming, depending on whether you’re climbing or descending a hill.
For climbing, the angle sensor etc will automatically downshifting and hold a lower gear. This is helpful because it will stay in the lower gear even if you let up on the throttle which is nice if you have to do that and then jump back on the throttle. Some cars will just immediately upshift if you do that.
It cancels after you level out.
On the downhill, it will automatically downshift and hold a lower gear to provide supplemental engine braking.
It’s triggered when the angle sensor detects the car is going downhill and you have to let your foot off of the throttle and then go to apply the brakes with a certain amount of pressure then that will trigger the downshift. If the car isn’t slowing down and you apply brakes again, it may respond with another downshift and so forth.
Apply the throttle at any time to cancel, and resume normal shifting.
My Honda has the feature I like it and it works well. Although I’ve noticed there doesn’t seem to be a way to disable it. It just comes on automatically. And it can be a little abrupt and unsettling for anyone not expecting it. Hope this helps.