1. A system for selecting an economy mode shift schedule for a motor vehicle, comprising: a transmission having a torque converter and a plurality of selectable gear ranges; a transmission control circuit including a control module having the economy mode shift schedule stored therein, the transmission control circuit configured to operably control the transmission; an engine control circuit configured to control operation of an engine, the engine being operably coupled to the transmission; a communication link configured to transfer information between the transmission control circuit and the engine control circuit; wherein, the control module further includes instructions stored therein for executably controlling the transmission control circuit to receive engine torque data from the communication link, calculate vehicle acceleration, determine an accelerator pedal position, determine a mode of the torque converter, compute a net tractive effort force of the vehicle, compare the vehicle acceleration to a first threshold, the accelerator pedal to a second threshold, and the net tractive effort force to a third threshold, select the economy mode shift schedule for the transmission based on the comparison; and control shifting between gear ranges of the transmission according to the economy mode shift schedule.