My '95 does this also. Seems to be heat related. It usually only happens after going a few higher speed freeway miles or after downshifting going up a long hill. Starts out really slow like in "winter mode" then abruptly shifts into first and proceeds to upshift normally. I can feel when this is about to happen by the hard/sticky downshifts that occur when coming to a stop. Sometimes standing on the brake and giving it some gas will force the stuck device, whatever it is, to "unstick" itself and it then starts properly. Not running the ac seems to help and I've also added an external Hayden trans cooler. Make sure the fluid isn't burned as this will agrevate the problem. Mine's been like this for a couple of years and the car has 98k miles. I suspect the transmission spent some hard time in the "sport" mode at the hands of the previous owners teenage son. Although I've seen a few other postings like this and they all seem to involve the '95 model year.