Transmission & Differential - Manual shifting on 2003 ATX... can it be done?

Hello all, please forgive the noobish question on my first post ...

I've searched around a bit and haven't found any discussion of this topic, so here goes.

Have a 2003 EX which I had to get in AT because it's mostly driven by my wife. As I understand it, this transmission is electronically controlled right ? Is it possible to manually control it ? I.e. with + and - buttons. The reason why I ask is I really hate the sound of the motor in this car when it revs up (among other reasons) and I'd like to be able to force it to stay in 4th or 3rd, for example when driving on hills.

Also, not having driven a great deal of ATX cars, it seems like the torque converter doesn't stay locked up -- for example when going up a hill in 4th, the engine will rev up a bit before it shifts to 3rd.

OTOH, would doing this destroy the trans and lots of other stuff it was possible?

Thanks all...

Anyone??? At least tell me if I'm nuts!

The way an auto works is that when you select a gear (lets use D4 for this example), the car will pick a gear equal to or lower than the gear you've selected; the only exception is that most transmissions will never select 1st gear. This means that on most transmissions, if you have the car in D4, your car's computer can pick between 2, D3, and D4. If you have it in D3, it will pick either 2 or D3. The only way to get an auto into 1st gear is to manually select 1st gear. If your car doesn't have a "1" gear selection setting, your car will probably never see 1st gear.

To basically sum it all up (in case you don't feel like reading that whole paragraph),you can force an automatic-transmission equippedcar to stay in a low gear, but not a high gear.

EDIT: Oh, and you can run through the gears as if your car was a standard. I don't care what anybody says... it's not that bad for the transmission; after all, it's in the car manual (or at least it's in the manual for my car). The worst thing that will happen is that you'll eventually wear out the shift linkage.

Its funny you say hills because i just had the experience while going to PA. I actually just selecet D3 and it kept the revs up enough to actually make it up some of the hills without slowing down to much and also not flooring it.

Well yes I could do that but my whole point was I want to be able to lock it in 4, so it DOESN'T downshift to 3. Or to lock it in 3 so it DOESN'T downshft to 2.

I couldn't stand listing to that motor screaming away doing 70mph in 3rd gear for any longer than necessary. Is it the ATX or does the 2003 1.7L have no torque at all? My 1993 had no trouble going up hills in 5th gear and seemed to have a good bit more power overall. Of course the car was a bit lighter as well.

Theres a big difference in at and mt the manual has more power and alot more control of how that power is used.

Yes I'm sure we all agree on that point; however I'm still looking for an answer to my original question:

Is it possible to fit a 2003 ATX with some sort of "manu-matic" i.e. "tiptronic" to use a VW term mode? I want to be able to prevent it from downshifting.