Update: Well, it's a nightmare. Needs whole new shifting unit. $900. Ouch!

Darn. I'd give you a steal on mine (just swapped my automatic to a manual so no longer have use for it), but its from a pre-LCI. :(

I've had just the opposite thing happen. The transmission would not go into Drive.
Back in May of this year on the same day it happened twice. Was out with two other people in my car. Made a stop to pick something up before dinner, when we got back into the car it would not go into Drive. Happened again a few hours later when we came out of the restaurant. In both instances I had to shut the car off and restart, then it worked fine. It has not happened since.

Bringing the car in for it's last CPO service next week, will mention it to the SA but I'm sure they won't find anything.

Just had a similar problem with my 530i LCI, except sometimes I can't get it out of Park and sometimes it didn't like going into reverse. Mechanic tells me (after OD scanning) that I need a new electronic selector (part no. 6131 9208 272 for RHD car with SAT, I think it's xxxx 271 for LHD). I had previously redone the cracked wiring at the bottom of the shifter (see thread "Lights on shifter not working"), and thought my recent problem was a new manifestation of that one. Anyway, the mechanic took the gear selector apart in an effort to fix it and whatever he did, the problem seems to have gone away, at least for the last few days. Perhaps it was just some dust making dodgy connections. If you need to replace the shifter, shop around. I was quoted nearly AUD900 for the part, but you can get it online for less than a third of that amount. Just google BMW and the part number. Also, my mechanic says it's not a problem to get it into Park by switching off the engine. Finally, if you really are stuck in Park, I found out that if I disconnected the cables going from the selector to the top of the gearbox and then restarted the engine, the shifter worked fine, though I got the gear selector fault message on the dash. When I reconnected the cables a few hours later, the problem had disappeared, although it wasn't long before it happened agai