2009 BMW M3 Convertible DCT Review

2009 BMW M3 Convertible DCT Review Thank you BMW. Thank you for giving us an alternative to what I believe is the world’s worst transmission, your SMG, replaced now with this, your DCT. Let’s check its tech, you'll like it. This DCT is BMW’s second effort at an automated manual transmission. DCT is dual clutch transmission. There are two clutches mounted and have concentric plate at the output side of the engine and those drive two shafts of gears, two, four and six are on one shaft, one, three, five and seven, it’s a seven speed, on another shaft. As a result, the next gear is always ready and engaged waiting for its clutch to put it into power connection with the motor, that’s the basic idea. Unlike that previous BMW transmission, the SMG, this one, does not feel like you're driving a box of rocks. It’s quite smooth and visceral when you want it to be. It’s all operated by this basically video game controller down here in the console. Over to the right is either drive or sport mode. The other shifting method is here on these paddles on the wheel. Now further modifying the shifting is this rocker switch right here behind the controller, all the way to the left, one bar is the most comfortable, the least aggressive. It really behaves like a very normal, modern automatic transmission. When you kick it over here to the right, you need five bars, still in the automatic mode now, hit into the gas a little bit and it takes off, go. And teaming up with those settings is the power button right here because we’re on an M and let’s you unleash a different level of aggressiveness out of the engine. And when you're in the more aggressive setting and you're going manual, you get some great throttling by the vehicle, you know that automatic rev matching, throttle blipping stuff. It makes you feel and sound like a much better driver than you are. That could be one of the great values of this car. Can this car really be an everyday driver in traffic? Okay, here we are in the little borough of South San Francisco, little streets, town and environment. There's Bertolucci over my shoulder, and now we’re going to do some stop and go. I'm in the most comfortable automatic mode right now, one bar ND and there’s none of this clunk-clunk, bop-bop that we’ve had from the SMG from BMW. It just feels basically like an automatic. The difference I'm noting is this; here I am at a stop off the pedal, there’s no creak. There’s roll but there’s no creak. Now in stop and go bumper-to-bumper is where I hit this gearbox is going to test your patience. Because just as soon as you step into it to try and get some engagement which takes a second or so, you might need to be back on the brake pedal because the traffic stopped again. That’s easy to do with an automatic. That’s even easy to do, though tedious with a manual, but in this car, you're kind of delayed so much. It’s kind of a rubber bandy feeling. In any event, manual or automatic, the shifts on this car are so fast and tight and clean. So what puts power into this gearbox? It’s a 4-liter BMW V8. The great 414 horsepower, 295 foot pounds of torque, the zero to 60 on this car, the convertible with the DCT is 4.9 seconds. This same car with a manual is 5.1 seconds. So you pick up 2/10 by going with this gearbox which brings the question, how much does this DCT work? Yes it is a technological wonder and it’s as good as an automatic, we’re close enough in everyday driving so that’s nice. So we’re down to one thing, when you're driving flat out, is it worth $2700.00 to pick up 2/10? Okay, so as I told you, the DCT is about a $2700.00 option but you say hey Cooley, I can't buy it alone, I got to have a car wrapped around it. How much is that? This guy is 65 base. That’s the convertible M3. Our car is 75 because it adds a cold weather package you may or may not need. Electronic dynamics control around all four corners and the dreaded gas guzzler tax and that 75 doesn’t even start touching nav and audio options. So, it can be a pricey small car but with this top and this transmission, one of the trickiest.