E46 M3 w/ SMG, yay or nay?

[camip]

Smg blows it feels like dumping the clutch isn't smooth at all. The reasons the trans goes out is because its made to be shifted on the autobahn or track, not street light to street light. Plus it's around 4k to fix.

[gtdragon980]

NAY! Those SMG's in the e46 are so crappy! They shift slow and are not very smooth at all. Please get a 6pd manual.

[straightsixe30]

I wonder how an smg would be in say a csl, not being used for commuting or traffic, just spirited driving

[nando]

You can flash the smg computer to the csl version, but id still rather have the 6 speed

[deutschman]

I test drove a e46 M3 with SMG. I can not say I liked it in any way what so ever.

[golde30]

early SMG is terrible. They are prone to all kinds of failures. Most of the time its electronic, major PITA unless you have a hookup at the dealer to use their diagnostic computer.

[James Crivellone]

E46 SMG is not that bad at all, I've driven my moms car numerous times on the street, on the racetrack, and all in all its not a bad experience.

I do prefer Sport mode and S4 or higher for shifting, and usually manually shift and take it out of Automatic mode. Auto is not THAT bad, but its certainly jerky compared to a standard automatic.

Most people that i've met who complain about SMG have not driven one long enough to really use it to their advantage. You cannot drive it like an automatic and you somewhat drive it like a manual, minus the clutch portion of it..

SMG in the E60 M5, and DCT in the new M3 is much smoother though.

[CrusherCurtis]

NAY, no brainer, can't believe this is a thread.

[Vtec?lol]

E46 SMG is not that bad at all, I've driven my moms car numerous times on the street, on the racetrack, and all in all its not a bad experience.

I do prefer Sport mode and S4 or higher for shifting, and usually manually shift and take it out of Automatic mode. Auto is not THAT bad, but its certainly jerky compared to a standard automatic.

Most people that i've met who complain about SMG have not driven one long enough to really use it to their advantage. You cannot drive it like an automatic and you somewhat drive it like a manual, minus the clutch portion of it..

SMG in the E60 M5, and DCT in the new M3 is much smoother though.

this
Feels funky at first but it's good fun. You'll need a tune to get it to kick out faster.
A lot of the times it's the electrical that goes out and even the sensors are big money. It's a very expensive system to maintain. the SMG on an e60 though, that's fun!

[QUKBMER]

Dont buy it !!! :tsk: We have a 2005 m5 out side waiting for a smg pump almost 3500.00 for the part only.

[TehRaydarlover]

Drove my friends once and it seemed no matter how many time you tried to up shift it wouldn't shift till about 5k rpms, I lul'd pretty hard.