This paper presents a vehicle model for analyzing the transient shifting characterisitics of a passenger car with automatic transmission. Then the presented vehicle model was linked with the dynamic model of an automatic transmission. In order to identify the parameters of the vehicle model, we installed a test equipment with an accelerometer in a conventional vehicle and performed road tests. With the proposed vehicle model, we simulated the dynamic characteristics during shifting, and benchmarked with experimental results. Moreover, a modal analysis was carried out to investigate the effect of the vehicle model in the frequency domain and to obtain the transfer function of the vehicle model. In addition, we showed the numerical results in the time domain for analyzing the effect of each stiffness element, such as engine mountings and suspensions.