[R1100S]

Let me just say up front that my wife and I have both driven MT cars exclusively.

My wife and I have a 21 month old son. So far, we've used my '06 Double Cab Tacoma for kid hauling duties. Her '00 /M Roadster was used as her daily driver to work.

We decided it was time to replace the /M with something more practical. My wife became obsessed with the X3. We drove several. Meh.

Then she decided she wanted a 1-series. We test drove a 128i with steptronic, and then a 135i with DCT. Decided we wanted the DCT. We even tried our son's car seat in the back, and took him for a test drive.

All right...time to order. By the time we add all of the options we want, we are somewhere north of $44k. Ouch. BUT.....we LOVED the car.

Then we did a little research. And heard about this thing called a "high pressure fuel pump". We sorta balked. We still wanted the 135i, but started looking at 328's, 528's, ect.

Then we found a CPO '07 550i FULLY LOADED with an auto trans. Test drove it, and didn't mind the slush box at all. The M/S mode isn't as terrible as I would have expected.

Since we have a kid, we need at least one car that relatives can drive in an emergency. My wife was recently hospitalized, and our relatives really struggled with trying to get our son's car seat out of my truck and into their car. We bought this so my mom, mother-in-law, sister, and all other non-MT drivers can take care of my child in an emergency.

Kind of a bummer. But look at it this way.....We're driving a 550i! LOVE the Head's up Display!