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Re: Any good reason why SMG is not comming to (archive)
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Posted by Ray Koch on November 10, 1999 at 14:45:05:

In Reply to: Any good reason why SMG is not comming to posted by America? on November 09, 1999 at 12:15:35:

1) Demand - From what I gather BMW does not believe that there will be enough US demand to import it. I lot of people don't even know what the SMG is.

2) Performance - The current SMG (a first generation effort), while being pretty nifty, has a few bugs. BMW would have to rework it to make it more attactive to US buyers.

3) Price - I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that the current SMG option costs $4500 over the manual in Europe. That may make it cost prohibitive for many buyers.

The lastest review that I read (I don't remember which mag it was) of the new Ferrari 360 with the F1 said that while it was cool it had some flaws and they would have opted for the manual. Supposedly the F1 electronically controled hydraulic clutch trans is currently the state of the art in a production car. I believe that these types of auto transmissions will eventually replace the Steptronic type auto boxes in performance cars when the prices come down and the technology gets better for daily driving.

BMW will probably offer the next-gen SMG in Euro M3s and maybe M5s. I wouldn't expect it here until 2004 at the earliest.



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