96 camry automatic will not shift into highest gear when cold

[sedge04]

my 96 4 cyl. camry has trouble shifting into the drive gear in cold weather. when i'm on the interstate and this problem occurs the RPM rides at about 4 which burns alot of gas, when i want it to ride around 2 1/2 in drive. the cold air will not allow car to warm up as i'm driving it, and so alot of times i just pull over and wait for the thermostat to reach the right spot where it will always seems to shift. what needs to be changed out?

[EvoFire]

normal. Wait till it warms up. Car won't shift up to 4th gear unless its warm

[Mike Gerber]

^ +1. This is perfectly normal. You probably just never noticed this before now. High gas prices have us all looking at everything that may be costing us extra gas.

Mike