So, it's been a solid month since I've taken delivery of my 2006 530xi AT FWD cpo bought at the end of Jan and have now noticed that this car has no ooomph in 1st or 2nd gears. My old car, still have it, is an Audi A4 1.8t MT. Drove that car for 8yrs before finally getting this BMW. The A4's turbo was so punchy off the line, I think my right foot became used to how sensitive the gas pedal is on it. When I apply the same pressure dynamics to my new car, it just seems to meander off the line. The most surprising thing to me is that my new car has ~100 more HP than my old one. I know it's not really fair to compare a light, turbo'ed, MT car to a heavier, non-turbo, AT car but I figured the extra 100 horses & AWD would make up for that ...and some!

Is there something missing/wrong with my car or do I just need to recalibrate my right foot?

 

You need to install a Sprint Booster.

 

Turn your traction control off and make sure you put the tranny in manual mode and you should have some jam.

 

You have an Automatic Trans correct? Before my Dinan upgrade I notice that my car started off in 2nd gear unless I had the Trans in sport mode. If your car does that it will kill of the line performance. Use the sport mode in the transmission and or get a Dinan software upgrade.

I also found my car sluggish of the line, again before the Dinan software, just felt like there was a delay in hitting the gas and the car actually moving. Big change from my MT M3 which was immediate in its responses. Part of it you learn to drive through by giving it more gas when starting off.

A lot of members have been happy with the sprint booster which over rides the factory delay when accelerating, but they also hide it from their dealers...

 

Are you sure about that? In Drive, Ive noticed the first gear seems to be real short so I actually accelerate slower than traffic. Because of that, I now only cruise in Sport Drive since it seems to eliminate the first gear all together! (seems to have some hearty pickup and will stick with the gear up to about 55mph).

Lately Ive been just using Steptronic in my 06 525xi just to make the can accelerate more like... well... everything I've driven before. I wish to hell there was a way to disable the adaptive tranny!!!

Oh well. Still love it to death. Back to my hiding under my rock.

 

Same with the manuals... First gear is so short, I basically use it only to get started. At about 2500-3000 I get it to second, and I'm gone. I've gotten to 90+ mph in third, with more room to go.

 

I'm pretty sure and confirmed it with some BMW experts but I have the V8. This transmission programming may be exclusive to the V8 models.

 

I think "ooomph" is a standard feature on the M5.