E36 Alpina Switchtroinc Gearbox

[gwatson]

What are they like? Do they have paddles or are the fully automatic? I assume this effect both performance and fuel consumptions.

My biggest concern is the car sounds like an automatic which will take away from the beautiful soundtrack the 3.3 produces

G

[Dunk76]

They are normal autos with a decent manual override, controlled using buttons on the back of the steering wheel

Flat-out shifts at high revs, they don't sound that different from a manual (Alpina remap the shift speed as well).

But in D, yes, they sound like an auto.

Don't write them off until you've driven one though, they're brilliant.