The good old manual gearbox will be no more in six to seven years from now, BMW’s M division has predicted.
Speaking to Asia Pacific media including paultan.org at the recent BMW M Experience 2017 event in Incheon, South Korea, BMW M’s vice-president of sales and marketing, Peter Quintus, explained that both the lack of demand for the stick shift as well as the limited amount of torque a MT can handle are reasons why the manual is dying a slow death.
The M sales boss revealed that only 10% of the cars it sells are manuals, and 40% of those goes to the US market. As for the torque rating part, 600 Nm is what its manuals can take, and that’s not enough moving ahead. The new BMW M4 CS, which was previewed at the M event before its world debut in Shanghai, has 460 hp and 600 Nm.
A new manual transmission that’s more durable has to be be developed, but it’s very difficult to finance such a project given the limited appeal of MTs. “Unfortunately, I don’t think the manual transmission has a future,” Quintus said, giving the row-it-yourself gearbox a lifespan of six to seven years from today.
Don’t American muscle cars powered by big V8s have more than 600 Nm? Australia’s Drive asked that. “We looked at US gearboxes. We found they were heavy and the shift quality was awful,” Quintus said. “I’m not even sure the next generation of M3 and M4 models from BMW will have the option of a manual gearbox,” he reiterated. So, get one while you can, manual fans.
Where does the dual-clutch gearbox stand in this debate? Even the DCT currently used by M will be going the way of the dodo, for BMW’s performance division at least. Answering Drive, Quintus said that the conventional automatic is the future, and that DCTs will eventually fade away.
“It’s more a question of how long has the DCT got to go. How long will it last? We are now seeing automatic transmissions with nine and even 10 speeds, so there’s a lot of technology in modern automatics. The DCT once had two advantages: it was light and its shift speeds were higher. Now, a lot of that shift-time advantage has disappeared as automatics get better and smarter,” he told the Aussie publication.
The main takeaway is that auto is the way to go, and we should prepare our goodbye notes for the high performance MT and DCT.
GALLERY: BMW M4 CS
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The imminent death of driving pleasure.
Heresy.
First, they made front wheel BMW. Now they gonna banish manual.
#savethemanual
Drive auto orso can high speed…
Manual is not just about top speed…
Proton selling manual cars so no problemo.
bmw is turning into audi. fwd cars, dull to drive and no manuals.
I’m happy with my M3 E36^^
Dont trust the article. BMW may come out with high tech DCT to silent their competitors.
Actually, manual gear has been dead since the autonomous driving and EEV introduced.
I derived my pleasure from using Punch CVT since it jerks like a manual
U do realise theres a manual box for preve, iriz and saga?
we are still expected to drive??!
what happen to self driving car tech? .
only applies to BMW & first world countries.. not in our 3rd world country
Don’t care, manual gearbox is like film camera or pager or rotatry telephone or. They’re useful and fun once (and we thanked them) but not anymore. Just move on!
No, manual ‘box is not the same as film camera or rotary phone! They are still a lot of fun to use and will always be. Nothing beats the feel and engagement of rowing the gears yourself, releasing the clutch timely and precisely controlling the power and torque.
Exactly, the control you gain is incomparable. No matter how good auto gearbox’s firmware is, it can never ever be in sync 100% with u.
Manual gives you the control. Europeans majority still drive manual, they call it standard gearbox as it’s the norm to expect a car comes with manual. Only when they become successful and atas like 5-series, E-class upwards only they drive auto, seen as luxury car’s gearbox.
It is a matter of time manual box will be phase out due 2 modern technologies like Double Clutch where these newer transmission can give U better mileage, emission & acceleration due to better conversion of torque 2 the wheels.
If BMW being the “Ultimate Driving Machine” said so, who am I to go against BMW. Sales of BMW do not lie. The M sales boss revealed that only 10% of the cars it sells are manuals. He also said that manuals can only take max of 600nm.
2 develop a more durable new manual transmission, BMW needs $$$ to finance such a project given the limited appeal of MTs.
It’s OK with me. My first two cars had conventional manuals which I enjoyed, except during a traffic jam. My third had a smooth CVT. My current car has a regular 5-speed auto and my next car has paddle shifters for its auto transmission which is all I ever need really. No tears will be shed from me for the death of the manual gearbox.
The world is shifting towards DSG and Volkswagen is the pioneer in direct shift gearbox.
BMW no longer (manual) Ultimate Driving Machine. Today it’s (autobox) Sheer Driving Pleasure. The tag line says it all.
This is just an excuse.Not only American muscles, alot of 3.0L modded old Toyota Supra has definitely more than 600Nm of torque. Its just the Germans that dont want to make these reliable gearboxes anymore because they require too little maintenance from their owners to make money. Gear oil is alot cheaper than Auto. Clutch parts can last very very long if the owner drives properly. Most important, no electronic gremlins in a manual gearbox.