[descentgate]

Okay, I'm 2400+ Miles in after I had the update done. Just did a cross country trip which included the hills of Appalachia for a good chunk of it. Some notes:

1) Sticky-Hill-Assist? The hill assist seems to be so aggressive at holding the brakes that my brake pedal has a notchy / sticky feel as you release the brake on a hill (more notchy as the hill grade increases). I'm not sure if anyone else has been experiencing that too. I had an update done last year (see beginning of thread) and I never experienced this type of brake pedal feel with that update or the previous update or even the original transmission programming.
2) 1->2 Shift at low speeds - Car is more reluctant to shift at low speeds from 1->2 at low RPM (the minimum that shift takes place unless I try to trick the computer is at 2000 RPM. The laggy 1->2 shift I used to have is eliminated.
3) Uphill shudder Got stuck in a traffic jam in Pennsylvania. The traffic was moving uphill. After hours of moving the car at about 65 mph, the creeping was quite shuddery than normal (over about 2 miles). Now back here in the city, the creeping in-town is well-behaved on more level ground, and even on uphills. Downshifts were a bit more jerky when executed after a long period of high speeds. It seems transmission temperature dramatically affects shift quality in the Focus.
4) Overall: - Satisfied with the experience on the road trip. The transmission heats up when consistently at long speeds. However, pretty satisfied with the transmission so far (never truly complained about it :).