glyphmon

Naturally, first post due to a potential problem. I used to be a regular over at taurusclub.com. Situation: Today I was driving the regular commute to work which involves a nice, straight, smooth cruise @ approx 60 MPH for 2-3 miles. 2007 V6 AWD Milan Premier, 2800 miles. While I was at 60 MPH on a straight stretch, no ice or snow or anything, ideal conditions, the transmission decided to downshift, engine goes up to about 5500 - 6000 RPM for a couple seconds, feel the car slowing down. I let lightly back off the pedal, it upshifted back to relative normal and then repeated the process. It did this for a few seconds. I disabled Traction Control temporarily to see if this would affect matters at all, it didn't. I decided to just hit the gas relatively hard to A) get back up to speed, and see if that would kick the thing out of whatever it was doing. This seemed to do the trick and I didn't experience any other weirdness for the rest of the day. This occurred at least 20 minutes into my 45 minute commute so everything should have been plenty warm and toasty by that point. Though I'm not sure what the average new AWD Fusion/Milan should be getting for MPG, I've been averaging around 22.4 MPG with my own measurements at every tank (the cluster shows 22.6). My commute is at least 50% highway style driving and as far as I can tell, I'm usually driving in 6th gear. I'm not sure about the torque converter though, as in I can't say for sure if I've ever seen it lock up though I'm pretty sure it has been. On the same route, my 2000 Sable gets an average of 26 - 27 MPG religiously. Now, admittedly, going from an FWD 150,000 mile 3L 24V engine to an AWD 2,300 mile 3L 24V with 21 more HP, I would expect a difference in MPG, but I wasn't quite expecting that dramatic of a drop. Anyone else have a similar experience or know if the numbers I'm experiencing are normal for this powertrain configuration and age? Any advice or comments appreciated. I will be setting up an appointment with the dealership as soon as the holidays are over. Another thing, what's the best time to switch to full synthetic, allowing for an adequate break-in period? I switched to Mobil 1 at 87,500 miles in the Sable. Peace out and hey there to any fellow TCCA'ers.