BMW manual gearboxes suck

[Mblaster]

Spent the day at the LA autoshow and I came away with a horrifying revelation. BMW has got to have the worst shifting manual at the show. They are like rowing a boat in a jar of mayonaise filled with marshmellows. WTF . From the new 645 to the 545 they shift like shit. YTF can't the germans learn from automakers like Acura. Their gearboxes are crisp, short and neat. My old E34 is just as good or better than the new BMW's. They got all this fuckin technology now but can't make a nice shifter action. I just don't get it.:dunno

[yotone]

i wouldnt be surprised if they stopped making the manual transmission in 20 years or less.

[91M5]

Sometimes I wonder if the old relationships with the makers of the transmissions dictate which ones they use as much as anything else. Who knows. My M5 has a shortshifter but I liked the stock feel. Just too long for track driving.

[hakjai]

agreed! after driving my integra for so long it took a while for me to get used to the long soft shift of my 330, i love the car but it definately took some getting used to

[SilverBeam]

only some do. I noticed this with the 6 series at the show as well as with the new 5. My E46 feels a bit tighter. The E46 M3, the E39 M5, the Z3 and the Z4 ALL have much tighter shifters stock. A popular mod on other models is a Z4 shift kit, sells very well with the E30 crew, I will probably do it to my car, to clean it up a lot.

PS: were you the E34 M5 at the GCC on Saturday? With the crowd around your car I didn't get a chance to say that your car was beautiful.

[BlackChrome]

You think a SSK can fix most of the problem?

[SilverBeam]

Originally posted by BlackChrome
You think a SSK can fix most of the problem?

at yeast 50%. I'll say it... the clutch pedal is also a bit flimsy. But I was at the auto show too, and compared to a lot of other cars, BMW clutch is stiffer and more consistent than most. You can’t please everyone and you can’t win them all.

[bmwman91]

The manuals they put in new ones are kinda crappy. My worn Getrag 240 still feels better than the new ones. OH well.......

[Jx2]

I don't have much experience with manuals (yet), but I must say the stick on my E36 has been both very enjoyable and very forgiving. :)

[ibizam3]

The new ones are ZF if I'm not mistaken, or at least the late 90s models had ZF transmissions. I prefer the Getrag 265/6 in my E28 to pretty much anything.

[ae86_16v]

Gotta remember that Acura's and such are cable driven (I think that is the term).

So there is a certain advantage to that. But definitely, Civic Sis and Integras have of the best "feeling" shifters around.

[PrinceE30]

I really don't get the advantage of all this SSK stuff everyone is talking about. I felt one or two and though they were nice, they were notchy and hard to get in the gate at times.

I have my stock 325 shifter, and though it may shift like a rowboat, my shifts hit right on (and easily) EVERY TIME (despite some DEAD bushings).

I guess the point of my statments come down to this thought I've had about SSK's for a while:

More races have been won by accurate shifting than have been won by fast shifting. Shifting fast isn't going to win you a race (unless you're a 1/4 mile junky), but shifting inaccuratly WILL lose you a tranny (and perhaps an engine).

Driving a car is as much about precision as it is about speed. The more precisie your driving, the faster you can go...

Just my thoughts...

-Prince

[Auraraptor]

BMW prob spends all their $ developing the SMGs....

[///Mon3y]

i felt the best shifting shifter ever in a nism 350z at the Washington Auto Show a couple of days ago. short, and its incredibly well defined, crisp, and non notchy.

[Auraraptor]

The best shifter ever was the NSX.

God I loved that shifter.

God I hated that clutch pedal.

The F1 used that as it's shifters as its benchmark.

[Rob Levinson]

Originally posted by bmwman91
The manuals they put in new ones are kinda crappy. My worn Getrag 240 still feels better than the new ones. OH well.......

The reality of the situation is that the transmissions are perfectly fine. In fact, they are basically the same units as have been used for about the last 10 years or so.

The "crappy" part you feel is the ancillary components - the new self-adjusting pressure plate and the build quality of the recent slave cylinders.

We see both of these components fail on a regular basis. Changing the slave cylinder is cheap and restores the clutch feel in the affected cars. The pressure plate is not so easy - that's basically an entire clutch job!

- Rob

[Mblaster]

All very good points. You can't stop technology. The 6sp manual will probably go the way of the 3 on the tree. And most well heeled folks will opt for the auto, and performance folks will get the SMG. I mean why even bring manuals to the show? Look at the way racing is these days, guys don't even know how to drive. The best talent in racing is to have a rich dad. Recently I was viewing some old VHS that I have of some GP's in the late 80's there is a particular sequence of Ayrton Senna in car at Suzuka and I must of watched that lap 10 times just marveling at the superior talent he possesed. Made me think that Heel and Toe is truly a lost art. Watching him work the gears in that McLaren was pure skill and beauty, if you know what I mean.

[ehlpitel]

the gearbox on the e46 m3 is tight, really short, and im a big fan of it, if driven hondas(acuras) in stck and theres no camparison, the BMW is the nicest stick car ive driven,w/the nicest gearbox

[NegativeCambre]

Best shifters I've felt have all been hiding in Honda products. My sisters Civic EX has an AMAZING shifter feel. The Toyota Scion XB (hehe) I test drove today also had a great feeling.

Not to say I don't like my bimmers shift feel, but its a different beast. Most of Honda's shifters are cable driven, while ours are direct linkage.

Steve

[Mblaster]

SilverBeam,
Yea, and thanks man.

[E36DJ]

Too bad BMWs have always been famed for their perfect transmissions.. lol

[Auraraptor]

Originally posted by E36DJ
Too bad BMWs have always been famed for their perfect transmissions.. lol

In terms of gear spacing, I really like them.