Is your downshift giving you whiplash?

[MindScape]

Same!

Same same.

I'm at ~4500 miles now and I only feel a 'clunk' really when shifting manually into first - Guess I'll just not do that any more and let it downshift to 1 automatically as needed.

 

[Go2ZZZ]

Same same.

I'm at ~4500 miles now and I only feel a 'clunk' really when shifting manually into first - Guess I'll just not do that any more and let it downshift to 1 automatically as needed.

In sport mode, (with after market exhaust) sounds awesome when downshifts

 

[MindScape]

In sport mode, (with after market exhaust) sounds awesome when downshifts

That's 99% of the time the only reason I am downshifting (but with stock exhaust, so it's not as awesome)... ?

 

[BusyBee]

Being a 9AT Titan owner, I can tell you what is likely going to happen here -

Modern Nissan automatic transmissions have a "learning" period where they apply shift logic to the driver's tendencies. (This is how it was communicated to me from several up and down the Nissan chain). The first 1000 miles or so are the worst, but it supposedly tailors for up to 5000 miles. The 5000 mile figure was relayed to me from a regional corporate customer service/engineer/tech guy. I got to meet that guy during a serious issue with my 2017 Titan. This is relevant because the same programming exists in the newer model 9ATs as well.

The 9AT in my 2020 Titan was very clunky when downshifting to first gear. Early on, it was very dramatic like OP describes, but that didn't last very long with my truck. It was, however, at least a couple hundred miles. The truck did not like going into first gear if it doesn't have to. It would often start in 2nd or 3rd gear from a very slow roll (~3mph specifically). So much so that if you did a "go, no, wait, now go" type thing like approaching an intersection to squeeze through, you could introduce a situation where the truck would have already gotten into a higher gear and would then decide to go back into first. They have since ironed that out with a TCM software update.

Fast forward to a couple months ago - I brought my truck in for the Parking Pawl recall on the 9AT transmissions in the Frontier and Titan. With that recall, it included the TCM update I never got. It's butter smooth and responsive at the low end now. Shifts smoother now at 47,000 miles than it ever did in gears 1-3. My fuel economy took a sizeable hit, but the truck is truly excellent to drive all the way around in a way that I'm cool with giving up around 1.5MPG on average.

TLDR: I believe the symptom you're describing will iron itself out over the car's break-in period, or it will be addressed in a TSB that they'll apply if you get past, say, 1500 miles and the car is still rough shifting to first when coming to a stop. I wouldn't go running to the dealer just yet. However, if it doesn't get better over the course of driving it, I'd bring it in. The only thing that gives me some pause in that is the severity in which you described the lurch. That happened exactly once with my truck and never happened again, and it was early early in the mileage too - might have been right where yours is now.

Thanks for the detailed write up! This gives me some hope. I’m up to 145 miles and I can say that the downshift that happens around 24 mph is smoothing out. I barely notice it now. The issue remains when I’m going down hill (and since I live in Virginia, hills are pretty much unavoidable) this is where “the clunk” occurs. I have noticed that in order to avoid the clunk, I either need to go slower or faster than 24 mph when going down hill.

All in all, it’s a great car though.