I am currently trading in my 04 545i for a 08' M5 w/ 6K 6MT. I have owned many BMW's but this will be my first //M. What am i getting into and what will i need to look out for as far as maintaining it, problems, etc..

 

WARNING: You are in for an extreme amount of enjoyment and envy. You will now be finding excuses to go for a drive and your family time will suffer. I really feel for you, but would be more than willing to sacrifice myself for an E60 brother, so should you grow "tired" of driving the M feel free to let me know and I eill happily take it off your hands ( purely for the restoration of your family unit, I do this as a public service - waht can I say, I'm a giver)

 

from what I have read and heard...you don't want MT..you want SMG...

I am sure members will chime in eventually...GL with your purchase...

 

I love my MT on my 545i, why is it that SMG is better. I understand it shifts faster. Is it about preference or reliability or what?

 

You need to look out for slow moving vehicles. Pretty much everyone on the road is considered slow moving when you are in an M5.

 

From what I heard, the SMG was built for E60 M5 engine. MT is an after thought which was the same transmission from E39 M5.

 

Wow. never heard of that. I test drove an SMG a cpl months back and i did like it. Just love an MT.

Anything else, i havnt read of any bad reviews or defects to look out for, i mean it is a bmw..

 

The maintenance costs for M vehicles are usually more than a non M car.
Other than just making sure you are always on top of maintaining your car, instead of repairing it when something finally goes wrong, then you will be fine.

Oh and get the SMG. You will absolutely love it. I had a 5spd e36 M3 and got a SMG 545i and could not be happier. Plus, like mentioned above, the 7spd SMG was built for that engine, where as the 6spd MT was adapted from the e39 M5.
All of the track tests done by the magazines have noticed subtle differences across the board, with the SMG being the victor of the two transmissions.

Good luck.

 

Here's one of the cars I am looking at.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?paId=308250928

 

THAT car is gorgeous, get it!!! If my wife wasn't looking to replace her SUV (yeah, her and the kids come first) I would jump on that one.