Firstfives.org

I'm not sure about anyone else, but the reverse on my 5-speed seems a little too easy to mix with 1st on engagement. I can't remember how my 88 535is was setup, but I don't recall ever feeling as iffy about 1st vs R engage when driving it (sold it last year, hadn't driven it in 4 yrs).

Was there any kind of reverse push-down spring lockout, or perhaps a reverse engage indicator light for these cars?

No, I've put almost 200K on G265 5 speeds and I never had an issue. There should be a noticable extra detent spring to compress. I suppose you could wire up a dash indicator light to the back up lights without too many problems but it never came that way.

Just had a chat with my mech (car was in having clutch replacement done), he indicated it's usually hard to engage, but they could fit/fiddle with the spring to make it a bit harder to enage.

Thanks for the feedback!