Okay, so after driving for say over 30 minutes at a time (especailly City, stop and go driving) I notice that the transmission shifts from 1st ---> 2nd and 2nd---->3rd get harder and harder. Eventually the shifts will start to violently shake the whole car. Though the downshifts are still smooth. Once I get where I'm going and leave the car off for at least 15 minutes the problem seems to go away. Any thoughts?

Check your fluid and come back here with how it looks etc.

Have you done a fluid/filter change or flush recently, if not...when was the last time?

Had the tranny flushed about 2 months ago. The fluid level is good and I don't have any check engine/warning lights.

Ok, being that it was a couple months back. Please head on out and check it now. Being that it'* acting up, you will want to look at the fluid and see what is going on with it currently.

Drive the car, then check it. We want to see the fluid after things have been stirred up a bit.

I gotcha, I'll check it tonight after I make a 30-mile run to North Tampa.

You have over a 100K on it. Mine started to do that too. I don't know how you fix it though because mine was fixed when i did a tranny swap with the new engine too. I had the same issue though. Hard shifting. I noticed I was parked on a hill and if I didn't put the P brake on it would shift crappier than usual. Fluid was always clean and full.

I checked the Trans. Fluid tonight after a drive of about 34 miles. And once again towards the end of my journey the tranny was upshifting with an abrupt shake. The fluid level was reading as normal.

What did the fluid LOOK like? Smell like? Clean pink? Or pink contaminated by grey? Smell fresh? Burnt?

We're looking for TINY particles of friction material suspended in the fluid.

I'd say it was clean pink. The smell seemed pretty normal to me and I didn't notice any partical traces or metal fragments. No burning smell persay. Occasionally the smell of burning oil does make it into the cabin. I'm pretty sure thats unrelated, and frankly I can never tell if its my car or someone elses coming into through the AC.