I have the 6 speed manual and learned to drive standard on it. I also find it difficult at times to put the car into 1st gear. I was thinking of having the manual trans fluid changed and have a quality synthetic put in? good idea??

 

Maybe +fireamx will chime in here... I believe he did it to his and I'm not too sure he is convinced it was a good idea.

 

you need to replace the 1st gear syncros, it's common problem on 2004 models

 

Brewski, try putting it into 2nd. gear first, then slide it up into 1st. gear.
I never had a problem down shifting into 1st. gear, but (up shifting) 1st. to 2nd. gear was always "notchy". As time went on it seemed to get a little smoother, or maybe I just started getting use to it. It did always seem to shift better after it warmed up though.
At 30k miles I had the trans fluid changed. The 6spd. comes from the factory filled with ATF4, but they install Synthetic motor oil when they refill it.
I'm not completely convinced it improved the smoothness when shifting.
The next time I have the fluid changed, I may request some fresh ATF4 to be put back in.

 

if the syncros are ok, you should blip the throttle before shifting into gear this will get the syncros spun up to engage better.

 

Put Amsoil 0W-20 synthetic in my tranny a couple weeks ago ( '07 roadster with 5K miles), and it seemed to make the shifts a little crisper with some cold weather improvement. However, the "notchiness" is still there.

Love my X-Fire, but man, it shifts like a truck or a FWD vehicle.

I recall road tests critiquing the smoothness of the original SLK 6 speeds back in the mid- 90's.

Guess the choices are to either live with it and shift carefully or get an automatic.