300E hard shifting
 

I just bought a 1989 300E I notice it shifts a bit hard from 1st to 2nd gear(automatic) Is that normal?
Also where should the temp gauge stablize after warm up? Is there different temp range thermostates I can get?

Is there a delay in shifting and then a hard shift? That is usually cuased by a bad vacume modulator on the transmission. I just dropped my 90 300e off to have the transmission rebuilt yesterday. My problems were typical for this transmission, no reverse and hard/delayed shifts. My temp guage sits at the line above 80. But hey the car has 184K mi on it.