SMG won't go into gear at random times

My 2002 M3 has 80K miles on it and about two years ago the SMG started randomly not shifting on command, with the display blinking the selected gear. I happens in in any gear sequence and without warning. It will happen more frequently if shifting above 4500 or so RPMs. It won't happend for days and then it happens and can happen more than once on the same day. I wait a up to 5 seconds or go up a gear and it will engage. Quite unsettling at times. Dealer looked at it over two years ago and said I needed a new SMG. I've been living with it since, not a big deal, but its keeping me from trading or selling the car for a new 535i. Any suggestions out there?

Trade-in? Fixing or replacing SMG's sounds expensive...

Well it sounds to me like the SMG pump is failing quite a common problem for this vehicle. This is of course with out properly looking at fault codes. Yes it is a expensive repair, but you dont have to replace the entire transmission. A SMG transmission is really no more than a manual transmission with a electrohyadraulic shifter. You command it to shift and actuates the correct hydraulic system to select that gear. The pump and pressure sensors in your vehicle may be getting weak, so when you command the gear to change it take a little while for the pump to build the pressure to actuate the shift. This repair will have to be done on all SMG 2 vehicles sadly to say, thats whats been keeping me away from them.