I am a long time BMW owner. Currently I drive a '98 e38 and have had two e39's along with five other BMW's. I'm a good DIY'r and have been able to keep my e38 running well. However, at 165K miles, it's at that point again where I'm having issue after issue. In other words, I've started to get the bug for a new(er) car.

I work at a luxury import dealer and we took in a really nice '06 530 SMG. It only has 36K on it and has (as far as I know) every option offered including heads up, comfort sport seats and NAV.

It's been sitting there for a while now and I could buy it at a decent price (under $20K).

Now that I don't have as much time to repair things myself, I was hoping to get some feedback as to what I could expect as far as reliablity and when to expect things to need replacement.

Thanks

 

Search the board for SMG issues - use quotes like this : "SMG Trans". I think the pumps were a problem along with other issues. I almost ordered my '45 with SMG, but changed at the last minute to Steptronic and am glad I did. The e60 SMG was a good idea, but may not have been well implemented. It was only available for a couple years and there are probably more than a few good reasons why. At the very least, you should expect a big discount for SMG over auto or manual.