SMG II - Gearbox: Available only on the M3 (at the time of writing), SMG II is a clutchless manual gearbox drawing on BMW's William F1 transmission technology. With 11 separate programmes which can be operated by two paddles behind the steering wheel, by the traditional gear selector, or a mixture of both, it can also be driven in self-selecting mode where the gear changes take place automatically.

The Sequential Manual Gearbox, aka Sequential M Gearbox, Tiptronic. This is not an automatic, and its not a manual. It's a sort of mix between the two. There's no torque converter ( like an Automatic ), yet the driver can opt to have the onboard computers change gears for them. The clutch is also no longer required in this type of gearbox since the SMG-II computes the information, all gear changes are made via hydraulics which are electronically controlled.