willard

If you begin with a smallist car, say a Camry or ES300, and then place a good size V6 sideways, East to West, in the engine compartment there isn't much room left for the transaxle and fully integrated diff'l.

That may well be why the ATF oil sump/pan is not deep enough to hold enough ATF for COLD operation. If you fill it completely FULL with COLD ATF it will be too full once the ATF warms to operating temperature. A deeper, not as shallow, sump could allow for maybe another quart of ATF.

But that would mean raising the entire transaxle to keep the gears from stirring the ATF into a foam, or lowering the bottom of the sump even closer to the roadbed.

Just a few of the relatively minor problems with FWD.

Is there any chance this flare problem only involves the new 6 speed transaxle?

More gears. more clutches, less room for an ATF sump large enough...

willard

another thought...

Hydraulic pressure is used to engage the clutches and a return spring to release them and force the ATF back into the sump. The viscosity of the ATF while cold might be just enough that this return flow isn't quite fast enough to keep up with the ATF pump's capacity in certain shift sequences.