I'm seriously considering the purchase of a 2004 545i with the SMG transmission. Unfortunately, the test drive was flawed by what seemed to be inordinate hesitation when initially accelerating from a stop. Felt like being stuck in molasses! I've asked that the car be examined by the local BMW dealer prior to finalizing the purchase.

I've also done some research on the net (and found this forum). There were a series of posts from 2004-2005 describing this "problem". What I haven't found was any conclusive information that BMW has resolved it. Can anyone out there shed any light?

Otherwise, the car is nearly flawless, and low miles (28K). From CARFAX, it looks like it was owned in the Sarasota Florida area (and unfortunately was in some sort of accident in Bradenton). Does this ring any bells with members here (the car seems otherwise clean!).

Thanks!

 

Could you elaborate a little more on this... what exactly happened? Is the car not moving when you step on the gas? For how long? Keep in mind it is a manual transmission and it does need to engage a clutch... Dont expect it to move right away when you let off the brake.

Can you post the links to where you found the threads talking about your molasses problem? I would like to read it.

SMG is an awesome transmission and is very very fun to drive... there is a small learning curve on it and 98% of the population here who bought it loves it... most earlier problems were due to hydraulic pumps leaking and losing pressure, hence not being able to engage the clutch. There was a handful of people with transmission banging into gear, more like dropping the clutch but that was fixed LONG ago with software update in Version 16 we're up to like V25 or V27 right now.

But you said the car was in an accident? I hope its nothing major and I hope you're getting a REALLY good price because of that... if not there should be some other SMGs out there that you can look into.

 

Basically, when starting up after a traffic signal I pressed on the gas, started to move, but got far less response than I was expecting. I pushed further on the gas, and after what seemed like a very long delay, finally achieved some acceleration. After that, things seemed pretty responsive. Further upshifts were fine. The sluggishness would repeat after each stop. Downshifts were also fine, and nicely rev-matched. The only real problem was the off-the-line performance.

Thanks!

 

I'm still trying to find out more about the accident -- it showed up in a CARFAX report with no details. The car is at a dealer's lot (not a BMW dealer). Price seemed pretty fair ($33K with Nav, sport package, and Logic7 stereo) and it had only 28K miles. Looks great. Does that seem to be a reasonable price to you? I did see another 545 (Steptronic) at the local BMW dealer with 45K miles for $43K (but that included a Certified warrantee)

 

There were problems and complaints about SMG but never experienced or heard of a slow start off. Look at another car...