[Billy Cheeseman]

whilst playing around in manual mode on the 8 speed box I pulled away in second gear - the car is still bloody quick off the mark and it made me think is first gear really needed?????????? who knows, maybe a 7 speed box doesn't fit with the German engineer whose ocd only allows him to have even numbers!!!!!LOL

[....,,,,..,,..]

Towing a caravan, stopped at lights on a hill.....

[dopper99]

Probably need it when pulling away on a very steep hill

Edit, snap!!

[Steven1077]

No doubt the 0-62 speed would drop, you could go back to 3 gears like the old days, but who wants that?

[Billy Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by Steven1077

No doubt the 0-62 speed would drop, you could go back to 3 gears like the old days, but who wants that?

fully agreed but you are slightly missing my OP - all I meant was 1st almost feels superfluous as pulling away in 2nd is still so bloomin' fast!!!!

agree the reason the 0-60 times (and also co2 levels) have dramatically dropped on the f30 vs the e90 is because of the 8 speed box vs the 6 speed

[Cootie]

Have to say that from a personal perspective if you ignored the emissions angle (difficult to do, of course...) I would prefer fewer gears. The car does on occasions feel like it's hunting for the right gear, whilst 8 gears is arguably too many gears when you're using the paddles and pressing on down a country road. That is arguably compounded by the impending next generation of 9 and 10 speed autos, which are almost taking you into CVT territory.

I reckon Porsche has the right idea with PDK, keeping it to 7 speeds with 7th being locked out in sport mode.

[Nick the Greek]

BMW quote between 6 and 8% improvement in CO2 and emmissions for the move from 6 to eight ratios in the auto box.

[Billy Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by Cootie

Have to say that from a personal perspective if you ignored the emissions angle (difficult to do, of course...) I would prefer fewer gears. The car does on occasions feel like it's hunting for the right gear, whilst 8 gears is arguably too many gears when you're using the paddles and pressing on down a country road. That is arguably compounded by the impending next generation of 9 and 10 speed autos, which are almost taking you into CVT territory.

I reckon Porsche has the right idea with PDK, keeping it to 7 speeds with 7th being locked out in sport mode.

agree - although the 8 speed is bloody good, the 6 gears in my e90 felt enough with 1 - 5 for driving and 6th for cruising on motorway

in 8th gear on the motorway I always feel I have to drop to 7 to overtake

[BGB]

Definitely needed for Towing. Its amazing how the car changes when you have 1300Kg on the back.

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by BGB

Definitely needed for Towing. Its amazing how the car changes when you have 1300Kg on the back.

That's like giving a lift to an American family

[BGB]

your being generous with the term Family