Warmed up the car for a minute, was doing a K-turn and when I shifted into reverse on a full stop, car just didn't feel smooth at all. Felt jerks. Went from Reverse to Drive, felt the same jerk I felt before.. Looked at temp needle, was still on cold / below cold.. is that normal behavior? Car has 50K miles, had transmission fluid changed at 40K

 

Mine as 100k and during cold temps when the car is not at operating temp it shifts are more "jerky" like. When it warms up its fine.

 

Yes it's normal.

Until the car warms up the shifts will be noticeably more jerky/less smooth - trans can't shift like butter if the butter is still frozen. it's going to be more noticeable in an AWD car because there is more driveline lash.

 

My 2015 350 AWD shifts a bit harsher than normal when first started and driven, Within a couple min of driving it’s smooth as butter.
Granted I’m in Canada so my cold is pretty dam cold. You could always do another drain n refill on the transmission as you only get about 3 quarts out when doing it, you could also reset ECU and see if that helps any. Realistically both the 6 speed and 8 speed are reliable as hell.
Also with the mileage you have things aren’t going to feel quite as smooth as when the car was new. I’ve got 100,000km (60k miles) and car feels different than when I bought it at 40,000km for sure.

 

The shifts between first and second on the 8-speed are a bit jerky when it's very cold, I'm talking temps below -5C or so from what I remember last winter. Hasn't been cold enough here just yet to see that.

 

Completely normal - when I first got my 2018 AWD F-Sport in January, I noticed it and inquired at my service appointment. They told me it was normal and they offered to let me drive a brand new model with less than 50 miles on it. Since it was below 40 degrees and the car hadn't been driven that day, I agreed. Of course, they tried to get me to trade mine in for the new model - but I only wanted to hear it on cold start and feel the first couple of shifts - the same exact thing with the new car.