I recently picked up a 2005 E55 wagon and noticed that the shift buttons on the back of the steering wheel function differently than on my 2003 E55. In the older model, you had to place the transmission into manual mode before the buttons functioned at all. In the 2005 model, I can use the buttons at any time regardless of transmission mode. I like this a lot, but when my wife drove the car, she accidentally touched and held the left shift button, which of course placed her in the lowest possible gear. Listening placidly to opera, she wondered why she was bouncing off the rev limiter.

No need to state the moral of this story, but when did they make this change?

 

Must have been in 2004...my E55 is 2004 MY and it functions in the same way.

 

I don't know about the previous 03-04 model but when you're in Manual mode, the gear will stay red line until you shift to the next, it won't automatically do it for you. It is very annoying when I accidently tapped the shift button on the steering wheel during normal driving, they should make that active only when you're in M mode.

 

The change was made for MY 2004. This was discussed here, I believe you can search on it in this forum and get more information. The buttons can be disabled for those who find themselves shifting accidentally.

-s-

 

Yup...when I purchased my car last year, I test drove an '03 before ordering my '04. Like others said, the change took place on the '04 MY. Now, I hardly need to be in manual mode.

For '05, hitting the downshift button downshifts the car one gear from it's current gear position, instead on going down 5-4-3-2-1.