[buze]

So there. I know it's only the 'lesser' <= 2.0L that can have manual, and that very, very few of them are bought, but I tought perhaps there would be a number of people who will ping in to compare notes!

I've done 9000 miles in mine already, and still 'discovering' engines phases.

What I found so far:
+ ECO PRO: probably the most useful mode; laggy if you accelerate slowly, and on the first 50% of the accelerator course. But if you floor it with the revs reasonably up, the lag converts pretty quickly into an awesome burst of acceleration...
+ "Comfort": this mode is pretty boring, and is not terribly useful; it's more linear than ECO pro, but without the "kick".
+ "Sport": twitchy, requires to keep the revs up, and very strangely the acceleration "flattens" as you go up in revs, UNTIL you release the foot of the pedal.... at that point you can feel a small burst of acceleration, even tho you are... decelerating! [even with traction control off]

I primarily drive in ECO PRO here, as I do like the feel of the "kick" once you get your revs right...

[BMWLVX]

Another manual driver here. I absolutely think it's dog sh*t. I really regret not stumping up the extra for the auto You live and learn.

Like you, the Sport mode feels very twitchy when changing gears. I feel like my passengers will get whiplash. One person thought I wasn't used to a manual but then I put it in Normal mode (don't have the ECO mode) and the changes were much smoother but there's not so much go from the car in this mode. I'd hate to be stuck with just one mode for driving.

[buze]

Well, the sport mode is not really made for the passengers... However the "normal" and "eco" are fine for "normal" driving.. The gearbox is nicely staged etc. One thing I moan about a bit is the "starting from stop". I have a lot of difficulty at making it smooth.

Apparently it's due to a valve added to the clutch control circuit to prevent boneheads from dumping it.

[am36]

I also have the manual 'box. I like it, can't say that I've particularly noticed any difference in the different modes - though I rarely use eco pro or sport.

Buze - the starting from stop is a bit juddery at times, for me particularly when I need to rev it more than normal (e.g. on a slope).

The fact that the transmission will allow you to crawl in 1st and 2nd without stalling is a bonus I didn't expect.

The only time I really miss the auto is in really heavy city traffic, which thankfully as I live in the sticks doesn't bother me too often.

[Rodion]

I have manual gearbox and I can live with it. Especially knowing that there are issues with automatic gearbox -> http://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showth...ight=reversing

Couple of things though:

Starting from stop is pain in the ass. Because of "anti-stall" feature, ECU gives power while lifting the clutch. After clutch is up and car moves, anti-stall feature is gone and there is "powerloss" feeling for a half a second. This happen every time I start slow or moderately.

If I start fast acceleration, this of course doesn't happen. I am planning to ask if they have update for gas pedal response concerning this, or anti-stall update.

Second one is smooth gear changes with power. Hard to do. Either you end up burning the clutch or "jumping" the car forward. But I think this is problem with engines with a lot of torque. I remember driving an E-class Mercedes with manual gears and a lot of torque and it was as hard to change up smooth with power.

Moderate and slow acceleration gear-up goes smoothly.

[buze]

I just had the occasion to drive in "sport" mode on clear, empty country roads, with excellent visibility, for about an hour :-)
My conclusion is that the only useful amplitude of the gas petal is about 1/4 down. If you go lower, you don't accelerate harder, ever, and even most of the time "drown" the power of the engine.
So, in sports, 1/4 accelerator down, that's were the engine power is "compresssed". Anything lower makes it a bit worse. I tried disabling the traction control, but it doesn't seem to do anything...

[buze]

Thread revival!

My car is is at the dealership at the moment, one problem I reported is that the clutch pedal is 'clunky', it's no longer 'smooth' when releasing the pedal. A couple of times it even got 'stuck' down to about 3/4 of the course, and I had to use the side of my foot to pry it up.
As you can imagine, it's not recommended when driving.

I also mentioned the 'shudder' when doing smooth starts too; the car has now 20k miles and I'm still nearly incapable of doing a clean one, unless I rev the engine quite a bit first.

IMO it's a car problem, they loaned me a 116d and I can do smooth starts all day long with it.