I don't know if it's my imagination but at times my MY13 XS seems reluctant to change down. I can be travelling along a narrow country lane at modest speed and when I come to a rise, instead of changing down the revs will drop and the car will start to judder a little just like it would on a manual. It will change down eventually or with a bit of pressure on the pedal but it just doesn't seem as 'seamless' as it ought to be.

Any ideas?

I also have a MY13 XS and feel that it behaves in the same way under the same conditions. I usually anticipate this and put my foot down a bit to force it to change down but on a winding country lane it changes up as soon as you lift off for the next corner.

I haven't tried it yet but it may be worth putting it into sport mode for those conditions which seems to be a bit of an anomaly for the roads round here. It probably won't affect the fuel consumption much as it isn't brilliant on the country roads. GONE - '07 TD4 GS manual Zermatt Silver
LONG GONE - '55 Norton Dominator 99 SS cafe racer

lot to be said in favour of a manual gear box Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

"lot to be said in favour of a manual gear box"

Dual mass flywheel and fried clutches come to mind


On a more serioous note, the gearbox learns how you drive, if you regularily drive gently it will hang onto the higher gears, sometimes longer than you might wish, it won't do any harm.
I personally drive quite hard, kickdown is used liberally, so she rarely hangs onto high gear, the reverse is true, can actually be going very quickly and find she is still in 5th. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Does the same on mine, MY14 hse lux. Feels like kangaroo fuel. I normally use command shift as you can select the right gear for speed. I find the normal auto mode slow to react and it farts around changing gears in bends which annoys me.

It could be egr related as it feels like that sort of hesitation but i have yet to mention it to the dealer.