Not a BMW fan, but i have always respected their willingness to provide manual transmissions as an option. Maybe it's old news, but i just read in Autoweek that the new '05 V10 M5 will have SMG instead of a true manual. The trend sadly continues...

 

It is a true manual. It's just controlled, in part, by a computer.

 

They are claiming that drivers will get confused in the maze of 7 forward gears.

 

BMW's brand new M5 has stunned road testers with its performance, handling and a remarkable 11 separate modes for the car's seven-speed SMG sequential gearbox. However, despite claims that this is simply "too many" modes, engineers in Munich are said to be hard at work on even more selectable options for future versions of the semi-manual transmission. "You can never have too many modes," said one high-ranking engineeringer. "That's why the next generation SMG will come with over 100 user selectable settings, almost all of them bafflingly pointless. To begin with there will be some fairly obvious choices such as 'Sport' which offers a more aggressive change strategy, 'Track Sport' which offers even more aggressive change strategy, and 'Club Sport' which offers a change strategy so aggressive that on every upchange the car will literally smack the driver in the face with a big club. These settings will be joined by other sport modes including 'Lucozade Sport', 'Sky Sport' and 'Dickie Davies' World Of Sport'"
However, our Munich source says that this is just the tip of a very silly, gearbox-related iceberg. "The real developments for the next SMG system will come in automatic mode," he claims. "Traditional autoboxes typically feature just a simple 'Winter' mode. We will take this to the next logical step with 'Spring', 'Summer' and 'Autumn' modes, plus additional settings including 'Drizzle', 'Light Breeze', 'Slightly Overcast' and 'Oooh, It's Mild For The Time Of Year' modes".
Our BMW spy also claims that further developments may include modes selectable on the basis of the driver's mood, including 'Comfort', 'Tired', 'Bloody Annoyed' and 'Strangely Wistful'. However, he denied recent rumours that we may also in future see a 'Shouldn't You Have Decided On The Car's Settings For Us Since You're The Fvcking Engineers' mode.

From SniffPetrol.com

 

It is not a "true" manual.

 

Ha ha ha...that's pretty funny!

 

Point taken. But I'd bet that even the purists would be converted after a 30-second drive.

 

ROTFL!

 

The "problem" is that because this gearbox was developed from the start as an SMG box, the gears are arranged in an unusual layout. so IF they were to attach a lever to this transmission, the shift pattern would be very unsual (i.e not in a standard H pattern). So the confusion idea is purely hypothetical.

 

"1, 2, 4, 5...yeah I can count, so what?"--Chris Rock