I have been seeing a couple of threads about people having problems going into 5th gear or 6th gear. Is this a defect in the transmission or the gear box? And if it is, is it corrected in the 2002 models? I have heard of a new transmission being put into the 2002 models.

This is not a problem I am looking forward to in the future.

 

Never had that problem with my 02,the shifting into 5th and 6th gears took a little getting used to,and for the first week or so I'd find myself going into the wrong gear from time to time but I don't think it's a problem with the car.

 

I managed to bend the shift fork for 5th gear on my car. This was with about 12K miles on it over 20 months. It happened during normal (easy) driving while doing 35-40 mph. When I went from 4th to 5th, it felt like the shifter sort of got stuck between 3rd and 5th, then I ended up in 3rd. From then on, it was very stiff going into 5th as well as coming back out of 5th. I have no idea what happened to cause the problem.

The dealer repaired it under warranty and performed the 2nd gear grind update while they had the transmission out. It took about two weeks to get parts, and I just skipped 5th gear while driving during that time (not a big inconvenience). I have heard of very few problems of this sort and would not be concerned about it. This is the only real problem I've had with my car in over two years of ownership.