I am the new owner of a 1994 540i. This is my first BMW.

silky-smooth transmissions. Mine seems neither terribly responsive nor
silky-smooth.

1) Shudder when accelerating. I know this can be related to driveshaft.
My mechanic confirms this, although it's not the "typical" remedies
that are recommended elsewhere in this newsgroup. Those fixes have
already been done. He recommends changing out the whole driveshaft.
Thoughts?

2) Tranny seems to not downshift as it should for first half-mile or so
of driving. RPMs very high, like it's not shifting into higher than
3rd. Then a noticeable "settling" of the transmission as it does what
it's supposed to do.

3) Generally, gear shifting does not seem smooth as silk at all.

I know this is hard to comment on in this kind of forum, but just
wondering what your thoughts are. I am aware of the Nikasil issue with
the cylinders, but not sure that any of these things have anything to
do with that.

Basically, it comes down to this: I bought the car to have a FUN car to
drive, right now it's not, and I don't know if it's my car in
particular or if my expectations are wrong/too high.