550i

I'm looking to buy a 550i once they come out or even a used 545i if I could ever find the right one I want. What I want to know though is how come there are no SMG's?? I look on Ebay and there's 13 545i's for sale currently and 27 completed. None have SMG. I searched on cars.com, which is huge, and it listed 111 used 545i's for sale. 2 of them had SMG.

Also, when I went to a dealer about a month back to inquire about a 545i he told me they didn't have any SMG and that they were extremely hard to find. He said I'd have to order one. He then proceeded to talk down about the SMG saying how hard and jolting it shifted and that it wasn't very fun or comfortably to drive. I think he was saying this in hopes of talking me into buying a manual or auto but still.... I searched the new car inventory of several dealers in my area (northern cal) and only found one dealer that had an SMG 545i.

Are people just not liking the SMG or what's the deal???

I will say that the two that were on sale on cars.com that had SMG with 7k miles or so were about $5k more expensive than other comparable 545i's.

EBMCS03

Humm I dunno... maybe all the owners of SMG just like it so much so they're no selling... either that or theres Soooooooooooooo less SMGs on the road compared to automatics that you cant find any.

HEY 5K mark up on SMG??? COOOOOOOOOOOL!!! I'll sell

Rudy

I'm sure statistically, the SMG is the scarcest type of E60. I think most people simply don't "get them" yet so dealers aren't going to order any without a specific order for one.

Also, there may be some truth to the fact that the SMG owners are quite happy and aren't selling them...

FikseGTS

I agree, the SMG is not that good for normal traffic type driving, I drove my friends M3 SMGII for a while, and while it's lots of fun to drive hard, when driving normal it's not smooth at all....

Rudy

Oh yes it is. It's all in the technique, driver, experience, etc. Believe me, you can shift an SMG as smooth as a traditional manual around town once you get used to it. I took two guys out to lunch the other day and neither of them even knew I was shifting until after the drive was over and I told them...

FikseGTS

driving experience in automatic mode??? no.... it's not smooth when driving it like an automatic.... unless the 5 series has a different setup than the M3.....

JDN

Absolutely right. I never get enough of driving my SMG. One reason they are scarce is the six month production lag after the other models hit the show rooms.

pennetta

I remember a post asking the type of tranny we all had. I thought I remember there were 26% 6speeds and 12% SMG's. I also remember that 62% were steptronics. That would make SMG's the rarest.

Iceman

Welcome aboard, 550i !

bmwin14rsm

Irvine BMW will have a used SMG for sale in about two months. It is my old one.