E46 M3 Smg

[Bimmer_4_good]

a a a

first of all o want to say hi to all the bimmers around the and specially to the members of DTM POWER .am an old bimmer who own a E36 328 i 2d and am willing to buy an E46 M3 i have two options either i can get a yellow pheniox M3 with SMG II within this week or i will wait for 4 months to get a Black M3 with manual transmition.i need your advice because am afraid of this SMG , i know its alot of fun but am aware of facing any problems with it in the future beside i don't know is the preformance and controle are the same in both gears as i like to have controle on the car and not to let the car controle me.

Thanks 4 your help

[330Ci St.Grey]

Have a read of this month's Car and Driver. They take an SMG for a spin and describe it quite well. Effectively the SMG is a different way of shifting the M3's six-speed. The actual transmission in the SMG and the stick are IDENTICAL, except that the SMG (SMG II in Europe) has a Siemens controlled hydraulic system to do the shifting when told by the paddles behind the wheel.

It's a good compromise if you drive in heavy traffic a lot, share the car with a wife who can't drive stick (the full auto mode, though less smooth than a true auto, is a good compromise for days you don't feel like using the paddles everywhere). I still say a good stick beats it though...