Hey everyone,

I just bought an '05 CVPI from the Victoria PD with 153,000 km (95,625 mi). It's absolutely spotless inside (minus the holes from the equipment and all), and only minor cosmetic damage on the exterior. Prior to buying I had the local Ford dealer do a pre purchase inspection, and other than recommending a brake fluid flush, they said the car was in fantastic condition.

The only thing is that the trans feels lethargic and jerky, especially when starting her up, waiting 10-20 seconds, and shifting into drive from park, or into reverse.

Any thoughts on what it could be? Thank you so much for your help!!

The trans on the '05's are (apparently) notoriously unreliable. Its a bad combo of the first year of drive by wire (could explain some of the lethargic performance, I loathe the DBW on mine), last year of the old style transmission and I believe an overall bad tune compared to other years.

I have an '05 with 44k miles and the tranny acts funky sometimes. Think its just the overall nature of the beast. I hope to talk to some of the good tuners and get it tuned sometime soon here. I read that you can hard tune out a lot of the drive by wire issues and tighten up the tranny performance. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in about that.

My 05 MGM trans acts weird occasionally as well. If it feels like it's slipping or anything though, be prepared to spend lots of the green stuff.

Most Panthers I've driven always do a bit of a "jerk" when you go from P to D or even D to R. It's just the gear engaging. Considering it's a PI (higher abuse than the average car obviously) and an 05, I'd expect a trans replacement soon unless if the department already did one. If it doesn't feel abnormal though after what I are the guy above me described, just keep driving and enjoy it .

I'd agree with guys above and only add that the dealer I got mine from said it takes a second for the pressure to normalize and to give it a second once in gear as its unhealthy to just pop it in and go. not sure how accurate that is but it was the explanation/recommendation of the lurch into gear