Why does my car try and take off from 3rd gear after I put it in drive?

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When I have the car in drive it won't go down to 1st or 2nd gear, it only stays in 3rd gear when it takes off. This started happening only occasionally and now is occuring 90% of the time I drive it, forcing me to manually shift to 1st and 2nd after I slow down or stop and want to accelerate again. Any advice on what could be causing the issue or what I should do? My car has done just over 200, 000 km/124, 00 miles. Any help would be most appreciated! Thank You!