Transmission Gear Slipping Problems of BMW M3

I am the owner of a 2003 M3 equipped with the smg-ii transmission (VIN wbsbl93493jr21921). For the past year (since the car accrued about 11,000 miles), the car has, with increasing frequency, failed to make the shift from 3rd to 4th gear under hard acceleration. Instead, the transmission slips into neutral and the engine free-revs often past red-line. The result is that the car loses acceleration (dramatically if the fuel is cut-off when the red-line is passed), but because the driverã‚s foot is on the gas, the brake lights do not illuminate. This recently nearly caused me to be rear-ended. As you can imagine, when accelerating to merge into highway traffic, an unannounced loss of forward momentum is very dangerous. BMW has replaced the transmission (twice), which has failed to correct the problem. My dealer has submitted a puma to BMW engineers (twice) without a response. The most recent submittal was about two months ago, which coincided with another puma submittal from another dealer about the same problem. I am aware of at least three other people with the exact same problem. (one of them is on his fourth transmission and still has the malfunction. ) BMW, however, has not taken adequate steps to remedy the problem, issued a service bulletin or otherwise addressed the safety issue. My inquiry to customer service was also unhelpful. At the end of August, I sent a letter describing this problem with return receipt to the attention of the general counsel of BMW of north America, llc. I have received no response nor has any attempt been made by BMW to contact me. My attempts to reach any part of BMW other than customer service have also failed.

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