Basically it is a 3 series, so less space inside (front and rear passengers) compared to our glorious E60.

It is less confortable and you can feel the engine even at 3-4k rpm .

But let's talk about the gearbox .

It upshifts and downshifts enough quickly . I thought it was faster, but maybe is set calm to don't break like on the SMG3 happened .


The problem is the lag after you touched the levers . It's annoying waiting for the upshift, after pulled the paddle .

Comparing this new gearbox to the F1 (single clutch) of my friend's F430, is seems slower . And the F1 doesn't have that long lag (and imho neither my SMG has that so long) .

The positive point of the new gearbox is the Drive mode : it is smooth compared to my SMG and it is almost intelligent in understanding when is the moment to upshift according to your drive style: it seems an automatic gearbox and not a sequential .



I drove the car for only 15-20 minutes in the city at 5 pm, so there was a little of congestion, but I should be able to retest it outside in 15-20 days on the orbital of the city, so 120-160 kmh will be reachable .


What did I like ?
The levers!!! They seems metallic and they are so stylish!
Fred, pls a kit and instructions to retrofit those levers!

 

I drove an E92 DCT and it is deadly. First of all the engine, its got to be the best V8 this side of F430. It feels like it has no rotational inertia and revs so freely. Pulls like crazy and sounds awesome when past 3-4k rmp, a bit too quiet at idle. The new DCT box is awesome, the shifts are so quick that it is almost unbelievable, no head nod like the SMG. Didnt notice any lag, it maybe lazier when performing manual shifts in low rpms but when you get going the thing is silly. Definitely faster and MUCH smoother than any of the single clutch automated boxes. Changes are imperceptible. Five auto modes, the higher ones downshift more aggressively and hang on to gears for longer. Six manual ones, higher ones produce a thump similar to SMG but again without the head nod. Not sure if they actually result in quicker acceleration times. Maybe only S6 does because it is said to produce an acceleration "surge" which I dont fully understand and didn't try it. Overall the car feels much tighter and better built than the E60, it is awesome stuff believe me.

p.s. one criticism of the box, when the car is stationary it requires a serious push of the accelerator pedal in order to get going