Interresting thread and timely at that. I have a 2002 300M Special that started acting very similar to your intrepid. It'd been getting slightly rougher at the 2-3 shfit cold and very rarely a rough down shift when coasting to a stop. Then out of the blue I get a Check engine light in the middle of a 20 minute highway drive. I get close to home and it kicks into 2nd gear limp mode as a slow down enough for a corner. Got home and it gives me the P0700 code and nothing more. It didn't bother again for a week of normal 30 min low speed city driving, then after a fresh trans fluid change at my favorite dealership (it was due) it stated kicking into limp mode every time I make a longer trip (20+ minutes highway speeds). I'm going to have the dealdership pull the tranny codes for me and make an assessment. I'll check here to see how your problem turns out and I'll let you know what mine turned out to be when I get those codes pulled.