Rudy

evperry, don't fret. Just accept the fact that you made the right choice but you'll need a little practice before you truly realize it!

yvesj

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

But I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to the dealer where I bought the car again.

The last time I asked them (Park Avenue BMW, NJ) to perform a job, it was to program the CCC for my Motorola V60 + a recall that included a software upgrade (13.2 I believe).
When I picked up the car, the phone did not work, arguably because it's not a BMW phone.
Much worse, because of the software upgrade, I lost all navigation (DVD does not get recognized and ejects), all Voice control (function currently unavailable, it says), and i-drive freezes for 5 seconds every twenty seconds, rendering it all but unusable.

That was 7 weeks ago.
Supposedly, we are waiting for a new CCC that is backordered, and have no idea when it will be here.

I'm not even sure the CCC is the problem, I never saw a software upgrade "break" a physical component.

JDN

yvesj, I think most of us agree that it is not a software problem.

azwdct

There is definitely something wrong with your car. As mentioned above, I experienced the same problems you were having and was contemplating returning the car. The tech told me that the smg is adaptive and must adapt to your form of driving and that mine somehow thought I drove passively resulting in the aggravating lag and slow shifting. That being said, I agree with the other posters that I do not necessarily believe the transmission is adaptive. I have seen nothing anywhere supporting this. Nevertheless, after the dealer had the vehicle for a couple of days and reset the software, the transmission behaved in a totally different manner. I love it now and would not consider another transmission. When working properly, it is physiologically impossible to shift a manual as fast as the smg does. It's not the M3 smg, for that I'll wait for the M5 This is definitely something you should take to the dealer.

Rudy

Glad to hear you got things sorted out azwdct. I knew you'd come to appreciate the SMG once it started behaving!

In case anyone missed it, here is a tech rundown on the SMG from TIS. Again, if the system was adaptive this document would say so. The only adapting it does is in Automatic mode and then, it only adapts in "real-time" (i.e. based on current conditions -- speed, throttle postition, angle of incline, etc.) and, as far as I can tell, it doesn't "learn" anything over time.

As I said in another post, on an SMG, the adapting has to come from the driver, not the car!

Rudy

yvesj, I understand your reservations about taking the car to the dealer. It sounds like your dealer is a typical one -- slightly clueless when it comes to the complexities of the systems on these cars.

If they are reloading software on your car (as part of this CCC fix) you might find that the SMG magically is fixed when you get the car back! Keep your fingers crossed, I guess!! Maybe you should tell them about it now so they can do whatever else is needed while they still have the car?

If the SMG isn't any different when you get the car back, you really should either take the car back or take it to another dealer. There's no reason to drive your car with the SMG shifting so slowly. All it's doing is causing you to dislike something that is, in actuality, very likeable...

azwdct

To elaborate on what Rudy said, when the smg is behaving as it should, it more than just "very likeable", it is truly an amazing transmission. The trick, however, is to have a knowledgeable tech who understands the intricacies of this complex transmission. My dealer lets only one tech work on my car and, in fact, when I had my issues, the tech took me on an extended drive to make sure everything was working as designed and pointed out the habits of the transmission as we drove.

Jimbo

Software may not "break" a component but is sure can foul its operation just like it was broken.

I would suggest finding another dealer.

Good luck.

btw, in a forum poll, only about 15% of our members that voted have SMG. Either they're way ahead of the curve or we're all way behind!

JDN

I'm not sure about that, Jimbo. The 6-speed was not overly popular before the SMG came along. Probably more manuals now with the 5-series, including SMG, than before SMG. Safe statment since there is no way of checking.

Iceman

They're way ahead, IMHO.
Like we have been ahead when we bought our E60's and loved the design...
SMG is the future!
I really wanted it, but my wife was too scared...