| Message: | | But my prediction is that this will be THE topic in years to come among E46 M3 sites. As SMG cars come out of warranty, there are going to be a lot of hard feelings over repairs, cost and inconvenience included, between BMW owners and their dealers and/or BMWNA.
Looking at the dealers' dilemma, when an SMGII-equipped car comes in malfunctioning, they have a lot of unchartered territory to diagnose and repair. There will be a learning curve involved, for sure. Nevertheless, many are going to be multiple visit fixes, like William is experiencing.
The cost is also going to be an eye-opener. Add to normal wear items like clutches SMG-specific items like sensors, relays and pumps, and this is not going to be a simple system to keep on the road over time.
As I've said before, my opinion on this is that technology always carries this risk...scientific developments like SMG (others before like airbags, ABS, traction control, etc) always go hand in hand with cost. Even a simple telephone is going to break down more often than two cans connected by a piece of string. If the technology is worth it to the buyer (and clearly many SMG owners are passionate about the technology), then they just assume this risk and increased cost.
The problem will be the unsuspecting buyers that don't know what they are getting themselves into. Unlike many other systems that can retro-fitted with less expensive technology, though, SMG is pretty much repair it or sell as a non-running car...not much of a choice. Other expensive systems...self-leveling systems in older cars like the M-B 6.9 and the BMW 750s come to mind...were easily retrofitted with standard suspensions at a fraction of the cost to repair OEM (the 6.9 air suspension is something like $10K to overhaul, for example).
Many will argue that regular 6 speed cars will need repair as well, and that's true. And like M's of past, they will certainly be more costly than your average BMW. Nevertheless, replaing clutches is common in performance cars....relays, switches, sensors, pumps, and the labor to diagnose them, is not usual.
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