Gentleman I need advice on which M3 transmission

[BMWDAD]

I have NEVER owned a auto, but my next car (M3 or 1M) I am thinking about the dct. My current car is a 335i coupe/sports/ssk 6 speed

If you were scared to buy a dct but did, I would love your input.

I HAVE driven for short periods of time a dct, pdk, and dsg.

I know this is a touchy subject.

This will not be a daily driver, (I am retiring), but I do make the LI to Richmond run a lot.

Thank you in advance, and be kind to me. I am old but looking for some sound advise.

[nitro]

i have a 6mt e92, but the last 2 years i had the mitsubishi evolution X with tc-sst (the mitsu double clutch). When i purchased that car i went through the same agonizing decision as you. Have driven manual my whole life and was a bit skeptical about dual-clutch trannies and although they are not auto, had a hard time committing to something without a manual clutch (by the way, before the evo i had the gti and went through the same agonizing decision)....

with the gti, i went with the 6spd. but with the evo i opted for the dual clutch. my thoughts?... performance-wise, it was awesome. Much better than a manual clutch. Lightning shifts and downshifts with rev matching made it so easy to drive the car hard. Plus I got the benefit of being able to switch to auto when the traffic was bad or when i was just taking it easy. My original fears regarding performance and that "fun factor" quickly dissipated. So why did i go back to 6mt with the m3?.... i missed the manual clutch.... i know it's a bit slower and there are days when i wish it shifted by itself... i also know that dual-clutch is the future.... but there's something about the manual clutch that helps me feel connected to the car (in the evo, i didn't feel as much of that connection bc teh car basically drove itself)... I'm not sure if i'm explaining it well. the shifts aren't as fast in the mt but the act of shifting the old way just puts a smile to my face.

I'm not sure if that was helpful... in the end its a personal choice... and a tough one at that. Ultimately, i think you'll be happy either way bc the m3 is just so much fun in both variants! (and i'm sure the 1m will be as well!). good luck!

[TTG]

Drive them both.....

I did not like the feel of DCT on M3, I did not feel connected to the car so I went w/ 6M. But then M is not my daily driver. No regrets.....

[SenorFunkyPants]

Great...there hasn't been a "shall I get DCT or MT" thread for at least a couple of a couple of days!

[HebrewhaM3r]

The DCT will make you feel like you're less of a man.

[Reid]

My R35 has a DCT only because a manual transmission was not an option. My E92 has a 6MT and is far more involving and fun to drive, despite being a much slower vehicle.

6MT all the way.

[james1]

Had a couple of E46 m3 with SMG box, and when i got my e92 i got a manual,
i couldve quite easily got a DCT, but the car i found and liked, happened to have manual,
living in london (traffic) its been a shock, being on the clutch alot, as all my cars of the last few year (daily drivers anyway) have been auto or flappy paddles.....

although i m getting used to it again!
Purely with the traffic situation i ll probably get a DCT when i trade in......mainly out of laziness lol!

Good luck whatever you decide!

j.

[duk]

sorry nothing like 6MT more engaging

DCT will be quicker however

[BMWDAD]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

Great...there hasn't been a "shall I get DCT or MT" thread for at least a couple of a couple of days!

Like I said lets be nice! I am old.

Thank you, gentlemen I have two thoughts.

1. My sons client has a double clutch Ferrari (I do not know what it is called)
He told my son after a year he was bored and wished he went manual.

2. Car and Driver made a very interesting statement in M3 vs 911. (M3 won) They called the dct the second best car in the world behind the manual version. This is a very interesting statement.


Again I am not looking for a winner/loser here, just some thoughts of people like myself who were scared to go dct.

[Radiation Joe]

I had the DCT for two years. Turned it in off of lease for a 6sp manual. You'll appreciate the smooth lightning quick upshifts. So will your passengers. There are various times when the transmission won't anticipate your next move and so will not provide the response you might be expecting. If this is not a daily driver (daily = more than 15k miles per year) the DCT is a good choice.

I really do appreciate the increased involvement of the 6sp. It's a lot more work around town for a lazy old guy like me, but I still think it was the right choice this time around. I drive about 25k miles a year.

Also, I get about 10 percent worse mileage with the manual as I did with the DCT.

[Krozi]

R..'1...3...5
|__|__|__|
..._|-'''|--,|
..'_2...4_''6

[elh0102]

I've owned a lot of sports cars, all conventional manual transmissions. I recently bought a new M3 with DCT, and I like it very much. I had a 996 GT3 as my most recent street/track car. If BMW had the clutch feel of the GT3, I would have stayed with it, but in comparison, it's just not very good. I've only had the DCT car a couple of months, so too early for a reliability report, although so far it has been flawless. And I must admit, it comes in handy when wanting to be lazy around town with the morning cup of coffee. As always, it is a personal preference. The DCT adds an extra dimension of all-purpose utility, which is part of a sport sedan's purpose, and it also adds to high performance on track. So objectively, except for cost, I'm hard pressed to see any downside to it, assuming acceptable reliability.

[sameh]

**********If this doesn’t convince you nothing will************
I didn’t know this before buying my DCT but it was a great surprise for me finding that about my M3. I suspect that few of the DCT owners don’t know that or didn’t know it before buying it. OK here it goes
While driving on the automatic mode, if you just punch the throttle it goes to the lower gear or sometimes 2 lower gears (that we all know) but if you floor the pedal, you will feel a click, like you clicked a button (surprisingly THERE IS a button on the floor behind the pedal, I encourage everyone to check it). Once you do that, the car goes to whatever gear that brings the RPM to 5500 or higher (which I think is the best pull for the M3) then if you keep on pushing the button (flooring the pedal) it stays on that gear till the very edge of the red line (wherever it is, cause it changes as the car warms up and under other stressful conditions-didn’t know that either, love watching the red line going from 5500 in the morning to 8000 as the car warms up) then it goes to the next gear and does the same thing. It’s basically the same concept of launch control but on the go. Now there is not an equivalent for this, substituting the computer with a driver and the reason is, you might always pick the right down shift gear to get the RPM at or above 5500 (we all know that once or twice you’ll pick a lower or a higher gear depending on how much adrenaline the asshole in front of you pumped in your system) but what a man can’t duplicate is the shifting RIGHT ON THE EDGE of the red line WITHOUT LOOKING. And don’t think that the shift lights are enough; the shift lights turn red way before the edge of the red line. I tried duplicating that with the shift pedals but if you’re minding your own business driving 55mph on the 7th gear and suddenly you need to pull instantaneously (surprisingly those occasions become much more common once you are in an M3). So now you need to pull the left pedal at least 4 times to get to the right gear which definitely takes more time than the split of a second that the computer needs. Then you need to keep your eyes periodically on the rpm to get the utmost performance for the next shift.
Sorry for the wordy post but this is by far the best feature I like in my M3.
Now for you who didn’t know that and will try it today, don’t worry the car WILL shift up at the edge of the red line, so just keep on flooring the pedal.

[nitro]

Originally Posted by sameh

**********If this doesn’t convince you nothing will************
I didn’t know this before buying my DCT but it was a great surprise for me finding that about my M3. I suspect that few of the DCT owners don’t know that or didn’t know it before buying it. OK here it goes
While driving on the automatic mode, if you just punch the throttle it goes to the lower gear or sometimes 2 lower gears (that we all know) but if you floor the pedal, you will feel a click, like you clicked a button (surprisingly THERE IS a button on the floor behind the pedal, I encourage everyone to check it). Once you do that, the car goes to whatever gear that brings the RPM to 5500 or higher (which I think is the best pull for the M3) then if you keep on pushing the button (flooring the pedal) it stays on that gear till the very edge of the red line (wherever it is, cause it changes as the car warms up and under other stressful conditions-didn’t know that either, love watching the red line going from 5500 in the morning to 8000 as the car warms up) then it goes to the next gear and does the same thing. It’s basically the same concept of launch control but on the go. Now there is not an equivalent for this, substituting the computer with a driver and the reason is, you might always pick the right down shift gear to get the RPM at or above 5500 (we all know that once or twice you’ll pick a lower or a higher gear depending on how much adrenaline the asshole in front of you pumped in your system) but what a man can’t duplicate is the shifting RIGHT ON THE EDGE of the red line WITHOUT LOOKING. And don’t think that the shift lights are enough; the shift lights turn red way before the edge of the red line. I tried duplicating that with the shift pedals but if you’re minding your own business driving 55mph on the 7th gear and suddenly you need to pull instantaneously (surprisingly those occasions become much more common once you are in an M3). So now you need to pull the left pedal at least 4 times to get to the right gear which definitely takes more time than the split of a second that the computer needs. Then you need to keep your eyes periodically on the rpm to get the utmost performance for the next shift.
Sorry for the wordy post but this is by far the best feature I like in my M3.
Now for you who didn’t know that and will try it today, don’t worry the car WILL shift up at the edge of the red line, so just keep on flooring the pedal.

i want a dct now.

[elm3]

You are going to have different answers, because people are different and they will give you their opinion. I would drive them both and decide on which one you are the most comfortable with. At the end of the day, it should be your decision and not others. My opinion is on the 6mt, but that is me though.

[bobbyd1961]

Originally Posted by BMWDAD

I have NEVER owned a auto, but my next car (M3 or 1M) I am thinking about the dct. My current car is a 335i coupe/sports/ssk 6 speed

If you were scared to buy a dct but did, I would love your input.

I HAVE driven for short periods of time a dct, pdk, and dsg.

I know this is a touchy subject.

This will not be a daily driver, (I am retiring), but I do make the LI to Richmond run a lot.

Thank you in advance, and be kind to me. I am old but looking for some sound advise.

mdct all the way. go with the manual and i dread to know what that clutch replacement cost is on an M3. and they always blame the driver.

[Radiation Joe]

Originally Posted by bobbyd1961

mdct all the way. go with the manual and i dread to know what that clutch replacement cost is on an M3. and they always blame the driver.

That's hilarious!

I dread to know the cost of replacing the DCT when it fails at 50,002 miles. And it will. BMW will not allow the dealers to replace the DCT transmission fluid even if the customer requests it and offers to pay. Can anyone show me how long BMW automatics last when people leave the "Lifetime Fill" fluid in them?

The 6MT uses an expensive dual disk clutch; this is true. If you wear it out in less than 100k miles, you need to retake the "Manual Transmission Driving - 101" course.

[Kyoshi71]

Originally Posted by BMWDAD

I have NEVER owned a auto, but my next car (M3 or 1M) I am thinking about the dct. My current car is a 335i coupe/sports/ssk 6 speed

If you were scared to buy a dct but did, I would love your input.

I HAVE driven for short periods of time a dct, pdk, and dsg.

I know this is a touchy subject.

This will not be a daily driver, (I am retiring), but I do make the LI to Richmond run a lot.

Thank you in advance, and be kind to me. I am old but looking for some sound advise.

I had 5 BMWs, all with manual transmission. My M3 is M-DCT and it's awesome. Wouldnt go back.

[Nautik]

F1 uses a similar type transmission, so I think that should save your manhood if your buddies ever get into that argument with you!

DCT is one of the main reasons I will be picking up the 2012 M3, I'm sporting SMG right now and I love it (after having driven manual all my life, even my Camaro is manual).

My opinion is if you are going to be driving this car regularly, I think an auto clutch is the way to go. If you are just messing around on the weekend then you might enjoy the manual more. Or if you have another sports car that is manual, get the DCT.

[IbanezGod]

i went DCT, and I love it. This is coming from the past 10 years in a 5MT and 6MT.

No regrets. It's a blast! The lightning shifts give me goosebumps

[donovan]

People that have been driving 6MT all theirs lives say the DCT is magnificant and buy one and its not a fucking automatic.

[RevFreak14]

If it wasn't my daily driver I would've seriously considered a 6MT. I don't care if I can't shift as fast as DCT, there's nothing like the driver involvement with a classic manual. However it is my daily driver and Miami traffic seems to get worse every day. We must be the only city in the world that decides to do construction on every major highway in the city at the same time. With this in mind I'm glad I got the DCT, so I can throw it in automatic in the mornings. DCT is also very fun in spirited driving. Can't go wrong with either one and I have no regrets, however I'm an oldschool type of guy, and if the car wasn't my DD, I probably would've gone with a 6MT.