A method for changing the timing of gear changes of an automatic transmission for a motor vehicle including repetitively updating a current value of a count whose value is a measure of driving behavior, performing an evaluation of driving behavior and updating the current value by a value determined from the evaluation, determining shift schedules that define the occurrence of a gear change to be produced by the transmission, and using the updated current value to establish from among the shift schedules a shift schedule that defines a gear change to be produced by the transmission.