I beg to differ from the opinions of the other peeps who replied before me.

The Mazda 323 A/T tranny is pretty much different from other A/T works in terms of how the "hold" operates.

In a normal A/T, the O/D just gives you that extra high gear for better fuel economy when on a highway.

In the mazda 323 familia, the "hold" doesn't operate the same way as the O/D. With the "hold" off, the tranny operates like any other A/T. But with the "hold" on, it basically turns the A/T into a sort of manual select tranny with 3 gear settings.

Example:

Setting: A/T hold is ON and shifter is in D or 3. The gas is floored.
Result: tranny will quickly shift from 1 to 2 to 3 and stay there but it will only stay in 1 & 2 gear positions just long enough to get to the MINIMUM speed to shift to the next higher gear.

Setting: A/T hold is OFF and shifter is in D or 3. The gas is floored.
Result: tranny will let the engine rev up to redline before shifting from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. The tranny will optimize all the revs available before shifting to next gear.


This is explained in the car's manual. Better read it for more details. :idea: