I find the shifting behavior of the 7G, especially the complete lack of response in downshift/passing situations, to be life-threatening. Having currently 4 BMWs, 3 Mercs and others, the old 5-speed transmission was far better than this sluggish 7G disappointment.

 

Exactly. All the paddle shifters are glorified momentary push switches. When you wire them in, they'll do exactly what pushing the shifter to the plus or minus signs. Also all the current features of the shifter will work. Hold - to grab the lowest possible gear for the speed. Hold + and it will go back to D mode.

 

vipsa is completely correct. The problem is that they dont do what they are supposed to.

 

sounds pretty straight forward I hope the install is easy. Cheers

 

The install should be pretty easy for anyone with a minor understanding of automotive electrical work. The problem comes with adding additional wiring to your car and possibly having aftermarket connectors and plugs all over. I personally hate sloppy unsightly wiring and for that I haven't wired mine in. If you do decide to do it, post pics of the install. See if you can get the OEM connectors for the paddles at least and have him use those. For the shifter, I think t-taps is the only option, shoft of hacking up the harness.

 

I see what you mean now. If I do the c s m control module will the gear stays unless I tell it to change? Otherwise this is no good

 

Find someone that has them here and PM them. There's a few in EU that have them stock. I don't know on the Merc 7g but other cars with that feature I've driven, they hold the gear until you redline, then they upshift for you. I think the autoshift RPM is programmable too, but way too involved.

 

@snowmuch: A typical scenario - You are driving on a highway and come to a toll booth, so you pull the downshift paddle to go from 6/7 to 3rd. After about 6 to 8 or more seconds, the 7G finally responds.

Upon accelerating again the trans starts from 2nd (in "C") or 1st (in "M" or "S") and shift through only until 3rd, as this was the last manually-selected gear. I find this a nuisance, the ZF in my V12 resets to "D" on the transmission's automatically shifting to a lower-than-selected gear.