318ti drives lousy with cold engine

["Sharon Cooper" <sharon_cooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone:

I recently got a 1998 318ti, with automatic transmission.  Everything about it
is truly wonderful, except when I first start out in the morning. Although I'm
driving at about 20 mph, the RPM's are high (2-3000) until the engine warms up,
and the car feels like it's in the wrong gear, noisy and straining.    I called
the dealer and was told that it's programmed to do that to warm up the engine as
quickly as possible, and that I'd get used to it.  It really feels ugly when
it's doing that.

Does anyone know if this is actually expected behavior?

Thanks for any help/advice,
Sharon

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