once the converter or clutches fail, you really need to rebuilt the entire thing. Once those metal shavings and burnt fluid are in there everything else gets messed up. But it is also true that the electronics are much more likely to fail than the mechanicals on these trannys. And many times a dealer doesn't want to diagnose the actual problem - anything related to transmission = replace the entire thing to them.

BTW - my neighbor had the trans go out at 140K miles on their 740iL. Wife drives it. From what I see she isn't too kind to the car. Still. They were not thrilled about it on such a premium car. And again - this problem with transmissions is not limited to BMW. The older 4 speeds in BMW's and MBZ's were much more reliable going past 200K easily. The newer 5,6,7 speeds seem to be more fragile, likely because of additional complexity. I've heard about just as many failed MBZ transmissions in the 2002+ models as with BMW's. Same thing with Jag and Audi for that matter.

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2003 4.6is - SOLD
2003 M5 Imola
2008 Mini Cooper S
2011 Mazda CX9