While a large chunk of the automotive community (mostly non-US) is rather fond of the aging manual gear box.

Fact is that with a manual transmission you simply have more fun in a car, not to mention you feel a little more connected to the driving process.

Automatic transmissions, on the other hand, are much quicker and far more economical, and in today’s world, that is generally considered better. So then it’s no surprise that more and car makers are phasing out the manual and go for a nice automatic gear box. And if the manual isn’t completely removed, it becomes a secondary option, which usually means more money.

BMW, while delivering performance from their vehicles, knows exactly how important the driving feeling is for its customers, so one official stepped up to reassure some fans. First off, they mentioned that manual transmission will not be removed neither from base models nor M variants.

As for automatic ones, the press release stated that for now, they are getting pretty much all out of them, with 9 or 10 gear variants not being an option. Basically, adding more gears will bring slim to no benefits, while increasing production cost and weight.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW official talks about gear boxes appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

When we talk about the now departed E90/E92 BMW M3 models, we can start to see a certain trend concerning the transmission choices of the buyers.

And it seems that automatic is gaining the upper hand on the manual gear box.

While the preferences have been evolving over the years, it is only once the facelifted version of the M3 that the automatic became more popular than the manual.

When looking at the numbers, it is all obvious: before the facelift, on their E90 BMW M3 2080 people went for the manual gear box while only 200 chose the DTC automatic. The E92 BMW M3 was a bit more balanced, with 3707 buyers going for the manual and 3793 for the automatic.

But once BMW went and restyled the M3, the new LCI model saw increased demand for the automatic. Thus, the E90 BMW M3 was requested with 1055 manual transmissions and 2532 automatic. The E92 version saw an even greater difference, with 2528 manuals and 5771 automatic transmissions.

If the pattern holds, we can expect manual transmissions to become unavailable or at the very best and optional feature on the next M3 and M4 models.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Manual transmission BMWs might disappear appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.