Quote:
Originally Posted by ruff
The nice thing about 6MT is it is at the zenith of it's technology, sorta of speak. It is a safe choice for someone like me who plans on keeping the car well past warranty. With DCT you are going to have DCT 2 in the near future and probably a whole new kind of transmission in the not so distant future.
This initial version of DCT may be bug laden and outdated fairly quickly. Imagine, if you may, the costs of fixing it out of warranty. Look at the first version of SMG, not exactly old technology and not exactly a highly sought after transmission. How long will SMG have been in BMW's stable vs how long they will have offered manual transmissions? People may think manuals may be on their last legs, but I believe that in the future they will be highly sought after and will at some point make a come back. Too many baby boomers with childhood memories of sports cars sporting manuals.
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Automanual transmissions will be improved upon the same way engines are improved upon. The fact that the next generation engine will be "better" has not kept me from buying a car (unless the engine is in its last year of production or something). I think the same thinking applies to DCT. Yes, in 5 years I might have a car with an outdated automanual transmission, but I would probably be in a position to say the same thing about the engine, too--especially considering this generation engine does not have DFI. So, that doesn't concern me.
I haven't driven an SMG car, but I get the sense that SMG wasn't exactly there in terms of versatility and performance. DCT should deliver--at least on paper it seems to. So, as long as it performs well, I won't have reason to think about how much better the next generation might be, and wish I didn't have the first generation. If it doesn't perform well, I guess the joke's on me.
Yes, it is true that DCT is more complicated than a manual transmission and therefore might incur higher maintenance costs after the warranty expires. But, my principle has been to get rid of the car after 4-5 years, and I plan to do the same with the M3, but you never know. I can see how one would be concerned if one was planning to keep the car for much longer than that.