Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWCCA1
I'm simply saying their current line-up does not lend itself to a manual-transmission car. You can't blame lack of "take" for manuals for killing them off if you don't offer them in anything but real "M" cars. For years manuals were the standard transmission and the autos the option. Then came cell phones, Starbucks, and other things that used up all your hands while driving.
I have made my living selling BMWs since 1976, so I think I do know more about it than many currently at BMW. The right car with a manual is a great car. BMW hasn't had their hearts in the manual since around 2011. The F10 with a manual was an ergonomic disaster. But if you look at the current value of any older BMW stick compared to the same car in an automatic, the difference is stunning. The secondary market for used BMW sticks has been the same as the secondary market for BMW Tourings (wagons) and yet BMW continues to prove that we don't want wagons by bringing in only the M5 in a wagon. That is some self-fulfilling prophecy in which they stack the deck to prove their point. They did this when the E36/5 (318ti) came out and said they were discontinuing it because of poor sales saying Americans just don't buy high-line hatchbacks, when in its lasts full year of production it outsold the combination of all the 3 and 5-series wagons imported. And look at the MINI sales back then, and it's nothing more than a high-line hatchback.
Maybe their stick sales are too poor to continue it, but what I'm saying is don't blame the transmission until you do some sole-searching and see if BMW ever gave the stick a fighting chance by offering it in cars other than the M2/3/4.
When you think back over the BMW models that came ONLY in stick, there are some real winners: M1, 1M, E30 M3, M635Csi/M6, Z8 (non-Alpina), and the first three generations of the M5. So what do you think has changed since then?
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I've got to say I agree with you about the ergonomics, it's obvious that the automatic was given priority when it came to cockpit ergonomics. I had an E30, then an E46 both manual and now a manual E92 and the shifter is furthest away in the E92 and I kind of miss how it felt to drive the E46, it was much more 'sporty'.
The other point raised about Euro emissions standards killing them is also true and something I buy into as quite a large reason why manuals haven't been getting huge development over the last decade or so.
But the manufacturers will never come out and openly say that the EU's emissions laws are why they're no longer offering a manual because they'll look like they don't care about the environment. So it's easier (and also true) for them to say that the sales numbers are the reason.
I remember watching a Jason Cammisa video on a manual porsche some time ago and he said the gearing had to be stupidly long to pass a noise test at a certain speed or something like that!
So everything from the cars not suiting manuals, to emissions and legislation are all valid points and contribute together to its sad decline.