IS it bad to always downshift and upshirt your auto trans like you a 5-speed?

[Rev]

The only real advantage to manually shifting an auto tranny is if you are racing and your car can benefit by a later shift point than the governor in the tranny will allow. With a modified engine with a different power curve, one may wish to shift later to take advantage the higher torque/power peaks.

For example, I shift mine at 5500-6000 rpm. In D my tranny will shift at 4500 rpm. About right when my engine was a stock "C code" 289, but not now.

Rev