M3 SMG Gearbox!?

[LewisL]

Hi All,

 

Looking to get an E46 M3 found a nice 1 fully spec'd sat nav tv etc & it has the SMG box!

 

What are these like!? better than manual!? any problems wiht them!?

 

cheers,

[GIXXERUK]

this is the paddle shift ? my bro in law had a convertible m3 for a while after his 911 and he got fed up with it, said the novelty wore off and he missed the manual and it took away the fun of driving, i borrowed it for a while and i loved the way it revved in between the down shifts to match the engine speed to the gear, like on a bike

he had it 6 months, no problems with it though and he murdered it everywhere

[Andy]

Brother has had a couple of them with the SMG boxes and they are pretty nice to drive having used them on a few occasions. Only downside as far as I am aware is that they are horrifically expensive to repair/replace if anything goes wrong with them.

[LewisL]

is it quick between shifts!?

 

does it give you gears when you want them!?

[GIXXERUK]

is it quick between shifts!?

 

does it give you gears when you want them!?

 

i found it faultless in that respect

[LewisL]

Excellent!

 

think i may have found my new car!

 

will miss the Z but didnt realise how much i need back seats lol!

[Andy]

On the SMG box, you can still use it in a manual tiptronic mode which is nice and you can also change the ferocity of the gearchange to alter it from hard for top speed runs to smooth for cruising.

[LewisL]

sounds better & better1

 

i assume it can be set for fully auto as well!? for those lazy days! lol

[Andy]

As far as I remember, yes it can. You change it by pushing the gear selector stick left and right.

[Pure]

They also have launch control, gradient assist, throtle blip on down shifts (same as heel toe in a manual) and some other gadgets.

 

Gear change is around 0.085secs between gears. Set SMG mode to 6, sports mode on and DSC off....the gear change is VERY brutal!

 

You won't be disapointed. Fanastic gearbox. I loved mine.

 

The only downside I found, is it is hard to drive the car slowly. Quite jerky changing gears slowly and drivng slow....M3 with SMG loves to be driven like it's been stolen.

 

:-)

[cfoster]

have a word with chicken Lewis as he has just bought an E46 M3 and looked / test drove loads!! As per PM the SMG2 boxes on E46s are nice, just the E36 original ones were rubbish!!

[Andy]

just the E36 original ones were rubbish!!

 

+1 a truly hateful experience!!

[p1tse]

have read that these are great once you get use to the style.

 

think you can adjust the speed of changes etc.

 

if they have it in the csl, it's got to be good.

[LewisL]

Took a manual 1 out from a garagelast weekend!

 

Went well but the car stank like it had been sat in a lake for a week! lol bloke wanted to do a deal for my ZED but something didnt feel right or smell right lol!

 

Not drove the SMG yet! but might have another look round this weekend!

[p1tse]

one thing to note, it's expensive to repair if things go wrong.

i know there have been a few instances reading m3 forum etc. but it's not like a high % of them going wrong i don't think

[Cool Hand Luke]

Yeah, just echoing the earlier posts really SMG2 boxes found in E46's are supposed to be good - a big improvement over the old SMG boxes in the E36.

 

CSL did have SMG but its set up differently to the box in the normal E46's - newer software amongst other things with quicker and much more aggressive shifts. I believe if you went for a later model E46 M3 CS (2005 on) these have the same box as found in the CSL.

 

I'd still take a manual though for a bit more driver involvement (unless it was a CS or CSL)