When I was shopping around for an E46 coupe, the one option (or lack thereof) I would not compromise on was a manual transmission. I drove a steptronic 330i while my car was on order and the driving experience simply wasn't the same. Lag between shifts was abundant and the car would shift for you when it wanted to anyway so I failed to see the point. After driving with the manual transmission for a good 7 months, it was time to tighten things up. The stock manual transmission throw is entirely too long and there is way too much side-to-side play while in gear. Some sort of aftermarket shift lever was needed for my style driving.

I asked around on the various Internet forums about a short shift kit and much to my surprise, I found out that many people order their cars with the steptronic transmission. This made it difficult to find a review on a short shift kit but after awhile, I began collecting reports from people who had tried different kits. The consensus on the UUC kit was that it was a solid kit and I was unable to find someone who had a complaint with it.  Once I found out that the UUC 330 kit costs $295 and the Autosolutions kit was around $220 and the feedback on the Autosolutions was that it was a solid kit, I decided to order an Autosolutions kit. After talking with Ronald at Autosolutions, I found out that there were two kits available, a regular short shift kit and a super short shift kit. I couldn't decide, not having tried both, so he just sent both kits and said to send back whichever I didn't want. Below, you can see the difference between (from left to right) the super short, the short, and the stock lever. It is easy to see that most of the work on the short levers is done on the transmission side of the pivot point, requiring a shorter throw from the cabin side. The opposite is true for the stock lever. Tim and I installed the short lever in his 330i and the super short lever in my 330ci. We both decided the super short was more suitable for our needs as the throw was cut roughly in half, the super short lever has not left my car since.

I have been 100% satisfied with this kit. The only issue I had was when I first installed the kit, it was rather difficult to change gears. Not that there was anything wrong with the lever or the pivot point, it just required more force. This was alleviated easily with some white lithium grease. Perfect, short and sweet. I love the feeling of leaving a small patch when changing between 1st and 2nd as well as 2nd and 3rd. I swear my 0-60 time has been reduced by at least 1/10th of a second. The performance gains are most certainly there, but daily driving has not been affected. Of course, it took a couple of days to get used to, but after I did, driving was just as smooth as ever. The only thing is now when I drive other cars, I feel like I am driving a school bus!

In my opinion, a short shift kit is one of those "must-do" modifications that I now recommend enthusiastically without reservation.  I would still like to check out the UUC kit to see what everyone raves about, but I am content for now.  I remember someone telling me that when I finally installed a short shift kit in my car, I would kick myself for not doing it sooner and that I would never want it any different. I have since found this to be true. For people who have a manual transmission, this will enhance your driving experience every single time you change gears. What a difference.