Big Goober

I've had a similar experience to others with the jerkiness of the transmission coming out of a near to full stop. I haven't seen anyone reply in the positive but I have been able to isolate my problem to the car not shifting to 1st gear occasionally while in Sport+. When letting off the brake and starting to give it gas, it attempts to get to 1st quickly and causes some hesitation and jerking. Mostly embarrassing but I have had it while turning left and it hesitated enough to scare me and the car coming towards me. Again, occasionally, probably 5-10% of the time. I have gotten used to looking at what gear the car comes into when I stop or paying more attention to the upshifts.

I took the car to the dealer primarily for this (and the starter recall- which dealers should have the parts for) and they couldn't duplicate the problem but went ahead and updated the transmission program. My car was a 08/2016 build and they've updated since then.

Well, I still have the same problem, but I've noticed that most of the upshifts are smoother when coming to a stop- much smoother. I would be embarrassed by the hard shifts from 3rd to 2nd and especially to 1st, but almost all of that is gone and the programming matches the engine speed much better to hit the shifts smoothly.

The downside- I have noticed that Sport+ hangs on to a gear instead of downshifting when I let off on the car to maintain a speed that I flew up to. Not really a bad thing as the car may just be interpreting this as a momentary pause until accelerating again, but it is there nonetheless.

I don't have the update date, but for those of you with a car build around that time with similar issues, it may be worth a visit.

mo11

That's exactly how I am too, hahaha! I look at the gear i'm on after a complete stop and make sure it shifted to 1st. The jerking motion only happened to me twice, after that i knda learned how it likes to be driven, so it's never happened again. What I've noticed on mine is when slowing down and its downshifted to 2nd gear, and i have to speed up just a little bit, it doesn't like it when i step on the gas and lift off of it. So, now i just usually step on the pedal at a small fraction just enough so it doesn't shift up to 3rd. Almost making my foot stiff so it doesn't rock back and forth in relation to the car creeping up. It reminds me of how i used to step on the gas pedal when i was still driving a stick 20 years ago!

Big Goober

Funny, I had that same exact thought today when I came to a stop with Sport+ engaged and it stayed in 2nd gear. I feathered the gas until it was firmly in 1st before accelerating normally.

ryanSTL

hi all - i am coming up on the end of my 3 year lease of a BMW 435 m sport Gran Coupe that i honestly really love. the only car under 65k that calls my name is the C43 coupe and I plan to drive one soon. I may buy my BMW, but we'll see.

I've been following this clumsy transmission issue on this forum for awhile now. I'm really shocked at the way you all describe it and seem to not be too upset. I would go mad spending $60k+ on a mercedes (AMG badged no-less) sports coupe that had clumsy jerky shifting in slow moving around-town traffic situations.

what am I missing here? a $20k car shouldn't drive like that.
I really want to like the C43, but this has me scared away a decent bit

Big Goober

ryan, while I have used the word "jerky" to describe the feeling, I wouldn't characterize the transmission like this as a whole.

Again, my issue has been that the transmission isn't always going to 1st gear in Sport+ mode and sometimes comes to rest in 2nd much like in Comfort mode. The transmission is very smooth in Comfort whether accelerating quickly or casually even being in 2nd gear when you start accelerating from a stop. This problem also seems to be happening less frequently so it may be working itself out.

The only reason the transmission jerks coming out of a stop in Sport+, at least for me, is because my transmission isn't landing in 1st gear but 1st gear is selected after some gas has been applied (like a bad shift in a manual). Again, if 1st is selected whether by the car as it should be, again 90-95% of the time correctly, or if I notice it is 2nd, the transmission is smooth. What I have started to do if I see it land in 2nd is to "feather" the gas in until I know 1st has engaged. Should I have to worry about this in a $60k car like you said? No, and this is the reason I took it to the dealer. I told my advisor it still has the problem and he seems interested in figuring it out. Most I can ask for, for now.

What I noticed in the update was that now the car is smoother in it's upshifts when coming to a stop as I believe the car is doing a better job at rev matching than before. Was it bad before? No. It just wasn't as smooth as say a Honda Accord or my wife's Ford SUV, but those cars were programmed to slow much more smoothly.

I still love the car and would buy it again, but I haven't had good luck with BMWs and swore I won't buy another one.

5ilver-5urfer

The 435 is a really special machine. The C43 drives like a loud obnoxious hatchet whereas the 435 drives like a muted precision scalpel. You'll miss your 4 series for sure for certain reasons. You'll also forget about a ton of those reasons when you give the C43 wide open throttle in Sport+ with the performance exhaust. Make sure you test drive the hell out of the C43 before committing to it though.

Jimmy C43

When brand new, I felt I was having similar problems (all related to Sport+ only, and only under 5 miles per hour), although now that it's broken in the "jerky" problems have stopped. I currently have ~3,750 miles on the odometer.

In hindsight, I think 90% of the problem was me... as in not being used to the vehicle and not knowing how to drive it properly.

Unlike a lot of the enthusiasts here, this is the first really high performance vehicle I have ever owned (other than 2 Corvettes, a 1995 & 2001, both purchased a few years old).

My vehicle immediately before this C43 was a 4 cylinder Camry.

For what it's worth, now that my car is totally broken in it seems to drive/perform a whole lot better than when it was brand new.

I took delivery with 150 miles on it and never broke it in (ignorance on my part perhaps, but by the time I became aware there was a break in period suggested in the owners manual I had over 1,000 miles on it already). This combined with the not so gentle 150 miles (I'd imagine) that others put on the odometer before me, it most likely would have been for nothing any way.

ryanSTL

i appreciate the comments to my post. i am really 50/50 on the fence of the 435 I have now and the C43. a test drive only uncovers so much about a car. most of you have daily experience which is valuable for a fellow enthusiast like me,.. who is drawn to benz. would love to hear more comments, thanks

5ilver-5urfer

I can probably provide some advice but it's subjective depending on what your driving style and driving preferences are. I sit in about 2 hours of traffic a day and really only get to whip around on weekends, so my requirements from a daily driver are based on that. Other than that, ask away - I have about 30k km on my 435 and 15k km on my c43. Pretty unbiased at this point.

matteo882

would love to hear more from you, actually... i drove the C43 today just on city and residential streets--didn't get to really open it up and test some of the limits so i was actually quite disappointed with it. the PE absolutely brought a smile to my face but i found the steering to be relatively numb. considering giving an 340i a test drive now however i don't like the interior much. currently drive a stick so may want to consider manual in the BM...

5ilver-5urfer

There is definitely a gap in terms of driver's engagement between the W205 and F series. That being said, the current F series is so long in to its lifecycle that I personally wouldn't even consider it. I'd definitely wait on the G series if I had the luxury of time before buying...but then you might be stuck waiting 8 months post launch before you can snag a good deal...

All in all, the C43 is a much better car in pretty much every aspect than the current F series except for the aforementioned driver engagement. To some people, that's a non negotiable. To me, I needed a highway cruiser that could provide some weekend fun as well.

You mentioned you currently drive a stick. If you like the feeling of driving stick then you will really miss it in any car. I drive my brothers Mustang GT here and there - it's a ton of fun but not something I would be able to live with as a daily driver on my commute. Hope this helped man - let me know if you want more detail!

NYCSoiL

9 speed transmission is a complete garbo. 2>1 gear the car rocks. 2>3 rocks, jerks. Often it get stuck in the 1st or 2nd gear and rev all the way up to the limit before shifting to the next gear or unless i shift it. I sold C450 for that reason and while the new 9s tranny is slightly better I still don't like it.

303_AMG

Are you talking about sport plus or other settings? I've never had mine get anywhere near the limit unless in sport plus, but isn't that kind of the point of sport plus? I can agree there is some jerkiness, it's kind of interesting how much the 9 speed feels like a DCT more so than the torque converter that it is. I still like it better than the MCT in the 63, but I personally think both need to be replaced by a good DCT like what the AMG GT or CLA45 get.

Most likely going to get the AMR Performance tune on mine in the next couple months, which they say has "smoother, firmer transmission shift patterns", curious how that will actually be.

NYCSoiL

Unfortunately, not just in Sport+. Even in comfort it does that. But I have OE Tune though... So far the best transmission that i had is 8 speed automatic in the Genesis.

303_AMG

I would definitely think that has something to do with the tune (I could be wrong though of course), unless there was a transmission update. I received my 43 at the end of March and drove the first thousand miles in comfort per the manual and never had it go higher than 3K-3500 RPM unless I put it in manual mode and controlled the shifts myself. With sport plus on the other hand it often revs pretty high, which is why I leave it on comfort until it's warmed up as I'm not trying to redline a cold engine.

keninblaine

I test drove a used C43 coupe yesterday with Prem Package 2 but no Perf exhaust. It had been traded at my Porsche dealer so thought I'd try it out since the only other ones for sale are new ones about 100 miles from me. I'm coming from a Macan S, which I just sold, and even though it was a great performer, it was a bigger car than I wanted so decided I'd get something a little smaller but still performance based and comfortable. Not having time in the C43 to familiarize myself with the electronics, it was pretty confusing to perform some of the simple tasks like changing radio station etc., and my initial impression was frustration. I'm sure it gets easier with some experience. I started in S+ and was initially put off by the jerkiness and not knowing what it might do next. After backing off S+ and trying the C and S modes, it seemed much more settled and predictable although I wasn't sure sometimes if I was starting off in first or second unless I put my foot in it. Have to admit the trans is more like a Porsche PDK than the old MBZ trannys which were hopelessly slow in shifting. This one snaps off shifts pretty quickly and rev matches nicely. I think S+ is OK for what it is designed for, so should be used for aggressive driving and not normal driving. The exhaust sounded decent, so am curious how much difference the PE makes. I hated the auto-stop feature imposing itself. On my Macan I could disable it with a button, and it would stay that way all the time until I reset the button. This one kept resetting itself, presumably because I was cycling through C, S, and S+ modes and thus reactivating it inadvertently. All in all, I was impressed with the C43 despite feeling a little overwhelmed by the electronics.

I am waiting for an Audi RS3 to arrive soon at my dealer so I can drive it and compare it to the C43. I know the RS3 will be quicker with 400 hp and a 7-speed DSG, but it could be less refined and luxurious than the C43. We'll see.

303_AMG

My experience with my car has been that if I leave it in comfort, it will NEVER go down to first, it always stays in second even at a complete stop (which is kind of strange to me, coming from a 6 speed manual S4 before owning this). In Sport plus it will always downshift to first BEFORE coming to a complete stop, and in regular Sport mode it only shifts to first at a complete stop.

keninblaine

Thanks for the clarification of shifts into first gear. I kind of assumed that but didn't have time to verify it. It actually seems reasonable to me, as in Comfort mode, starts in 2nd gear seem sufficient and avoid the head snap if you hit the gas a little too hard. The 2-1 shift in S+ should be OK except that it didn't seem as seamless (with rev matching) as I have experienced with the PDK transmission. It was so smooth that I usually wasn't aware of it except for the display showing me the gear change. Speaking of which, it would be nice if the C43 displayed the current gear (in all modes) like the PDK equipped Porsches do. While I know the tachometer is a little more important, I found it helpful to know what gear I was in, at all times, with the PDK.

RichardCranium3

FYI - if you switch to the AMG display, current gear and digital speedo is always displayed.

keninblaine

Thanks. That is good to know. Didn't have time to play with the display options.

Jimmy C43

Thanks for this information!

Off hand, do you happen to know which menu/submenu the AMG display you are referring to is under?

303_AMG

No problem, I have a heads up display on mine so I always see what gear I'm in, and I would agree that it's certainly not as nice as a PDK but how many transmissions are haha. It is interesting how much it feels like a dual clutch though, it's definitely one of the fastest torque converter transmissions I've ever driven.

Beat me to it^, was going to say the same. Also, if you have a heads up display, it will always show your current gear.

RichardCranium3

Steering wheel home button, then bottom of the list. Once you're there, up and down switch between boost and temps, G meter, lap timer, and display of current Dynamics settings.

NathanC43

Guys. I finally can 100% duplicate this jerky issue. It always happens at gear 1. To make the jerking occur, first switch to sport+ mode. From a full stop, apply the gas paddle. Before tranny auto-shift to gear 2, completely release gas and reengage gas immediately. Then your car would start jerking so hard at gear 1. I am not sure if its normal or not. If you have other sporty car. Please help to do the same on it and see if the jerking occurs.

303_AMG

I'd have to be in your car with you to see what you mean. If you're in first gear, and completely take your foot off the throttle, and then hit the throttle, it's going to jerk of course considering this car has 384 lb-ft of torque.

But I'm guessing you mean something else when you say it's jerking? Have you ever driven a manual before? If so, does it feel similar to when you go too slow for a particular gear (lugging the engine) and the car starts to shudder (shake) before stalling?