Just today I noticed that my Cabriolet is shifitng hard between 1st & 2nd gears - no clunks or noises, just a jerky shift. It's less noticable with a slow acceleration. All other gears shift fine. I checked the fluid level, and it appears to be fine. Any ideas?

is it manual or automatic

It's a 1997 with an automatic tansmission.

cool. I have auto too. it shifts smoth from 1 to 2 to 3 but hard on shift from 3 to 4 with a little bang.
I'm not an ace in auto trannys, but I know that when it shifts hard it shifts fast. and many people say its better becouse less heat is generated.
Did you cheack the quality of transmision fluid?
when does this happen? morning, after driving, never goes away?

It seems to do it all the time. I think I'll try changing out the fluid to see if it helps any.

my father has an mazda 626 and it has a jerking problem from shifting 1 to 2. but it is in desine. many people hate it and they change oil to full syntatic and that reduces the jerking by like half in morning and by like 75% when warmed up. just small fact. I want to change to full syntatic also to gain more protection couse my car has already 187K miles or 300K km.

Thanks for the tips. I'm planning on chaning the fluid, and I'll let you know what happens.

k, wana hear how it turns out. go with syntetic, expensive but worth it.
I will change with next oil change.