Quote:
Originally Posted by jphughan
Yes, but the question is when they will be able to afford to lose those customers because of the savings they'll realize on the development, engineering, and manufacturing of their cars when they only offer one transmission. It will be a sad day, but I'm sure it's coming (6MT take rate dropped from 50% on the E46 M3 to 25% on the E9x), and at that point it will depend on whether the purists will be able to overpower the bean counters. Porsche has managed thus far, though that was achieved largely by creating the Panamera and Cayenne, though you'd think that BMW's current model range covering every possible niche would allow them to make some decisions that prioritize brand image and purism over frugality.
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Yes. BMW is a business and when the day comes when they stop developing manual transmissions, it's because they would have done the math and come to the conclusion that it's cheaper to lose a vocal but increasingly-smaller minority of buyers who demand a manual transmission than it is to continue engineering the same car with two different drivetrains.