Gearbox issue - wont engage 1st and 2nd Gears

[mmm-five]

According to the Gearbox guy it's not the 1st failure he has seen.
He also mentioned that the E46 M3 has the same weakness ,and hes made up a machined billet piece for a guy that drag races his M3.
Whilst Searching the Net, i also came across a post on one of the US forums of a z4m that had the same issue.

The E46 M3 doesn't have the same gearbox as the Z4M, so it can't really be the 'same' issue (well it could be if the description is knackered gearbox).

Mine's used regularly, has 80k miles on it and feels no different than it did when I bought it 70k miles ago - and it's not like I drive it like Hoke Coleburn (Miss Daisy's driver).