a061444

There was only one dealership here in S. California that had an SMG equipped car and it was a 645i (Assael BMW, Monrovia). So, I took the opportunity today to test drive as I have never driven an SMG car before. The salesman said it was the same transmission and motor offered in the 545i. So I took the test drive. He gave me a brief description of how to operate the SMG and gave me the wheel.

At first, I was a little nervous, kind of like when I first learned to drive my manual transmission VW Jetta. I drove in manual mode, shifting through the gears with the lever and then with the steering wheel paddles. I found it more comfortable with the lever, since making right turns at the light and changing gear with the paddles seemed awkward. After, making two loops around the dealership neighborhood, I could say that I was already getting the hang of it.

I would say the toughest part is making sure you rev to about 3500 rpm then shift to the next gear (for normal driving, racing you would try to shift at redline). The next gear will then start a little lower at about 3100 rpm. You can see the SMG going through its operation as you shift, then a slight delay of about 1 second, then see the rpm's lower about 400 to engage into the next gear. The SMG operation of shifting is very smooth and there was no head bobbing at all. I then tried the sport mode and it made the shifting a lot faster to about half the amount of time. But, even in non-sport mode, the shifting was just as fast as any automatic transmission.

The big surprise was the auto mode. Placing the shifter in the righmost position, D, the instrument cluster registers it as D1, D2.... The shifting was smooth and absolutely no jerkiness to the shifting at all. I had in auto mode and talking to the salesman, at one point forgot it was a manual based transmission. It felt like an automatic with a slight hesitation between the gears.

Bottomline, SMG is the future of transmissions. I am definately getting one. Its the best of both worlds.

SMG = Highly recommended.

Leonard.

Rudy

Leonard gets it!

EBMCS03

Hahah nice! first review of no lurching of SMG driven by a newbie...

soc_fans

I test drove NewBiemer's 545i SMG not long ago and the feeling is just so great. I felt the SAME WAY as you when i first sit on the car.

Anyway, you're so lucky that the dealer let you test drive the 645ci. Normally dealers don't allow customers to test drive their 645ci.

I just agree with your opinion on SMG. My next car will definately be a SMG.

ornament

I test drove M3-SMG2 before making decision of my 545-SMG order. It was so great though it was my first SMG driving. SMG is the way to go. I will update my impression of e60-SMG soon....just two weeks more.

pennetta

This was from a poll done a while ago, more SMG's than I would have guessed. 40% of this forum's cars were SMG or manual and 38% of the SMG and Manual group were SMG's.

SMG [ 18 ] [15.38%]
Steptronic (automatic) [ 70 ] [59.83%]
Manual [ 29 ] [24.79%]