decelerating while shifting?

Quick question, I was driving a mid-late 90s impreza sport wagon (automatic) today and it seemed to decelerate slightly when shifting gears. My car is a manual, and I rarely drive automatics, but I have never noticed anything like this in previous cars. It is not a significant slow down or lurch, but just a little hesitation/deceleration. Is that normal for an automatic/impreza? The daily driver is pretty easy on the car, so I cannot imagine it stems from abuse, perhaps poor maintanence?
Any ideas? Thanks in advance

Hesitation in the automatic tranny could be due to fouled fluid. If the fluid is left in the tranny too long, it can separate and form acid that will corrode the gears and disrupt the seals. The other thing that can happen is that the churned fluid mixed with the wear shavings from the gears can turn to grease. Both are bad. The good news is that flushing the fluid can improve performance almost immediately.

thanks, I figured I'd change the AT fluid for her anyway, simply because she could not remember the last time it was done. Hopefully that is it. Thanks again.

Um C.R. Newsom the AT tranny does not have gears, rather clutch packs. It is clutch packs and planitary gear sets. But no gears in the sense of a standard tranny.

It is normal to feel some hesitation between shifting in an automatic. You can feel it quite a bit if you drive a mercedes or other luxurey car. Automatics do not have the same response to shifting as a manual will have. But changing the fluid is a good idea no matter what. Do a full service on the car.

And flush ALL of the fluid out, that includes the tourque converter. You will nees a special automatic tranny flush pump.

Good luck, hope it all works out better.

I apologize if I was unclear. I was referring to "gears" in the sense of teeth on a hub that interloc with other teeth on a hub to transfer power from one shaft to another (i.e. gears in the mechanical/Webster sense of the word). Sorry for the confusion.