Recently my brother purchased a 2000 se and it is having tranny issues. It seems to only have 1st gear. If you give it almost no gas (keep the rpms under 1900) then it shifts decent into each gear. If you go WOT it shifts through the gears. But normal driving it will not shift out of first. It will go right into neutral. We are thinking that it will need a tranny but figured we would ask first. He is going to try a tranny fluid/ filter change, it can not hurt to try. The car has 208,000 on it.

Possibly some sticking solenoids, although I don't know why it would occur only under those conditions. If he'* going to try the fluid/filter change, throw in a can of SeaFoam'* TransTune first to help clean things out - then change the fluid. See if that helps.