In a recent interview, BMW M chief Frank van Meel stated that the end might be near for the manual transmission. The number of customers requesting for manual M cars has plummeted over time, just as it has throughout the car industry.
There is still enough demand to keep them as an option for now, but the manual transmission may end up being a bottleneck in the car’s drivetrain. When engines churn out more than 600 PS stick shifts are often unable to handle the power and don’t always return the same sort of fuel consumption and emissions numbers.
We might see a shift in the next couple of generations of M-cars but it is doubtful that manual gearboxes will be taken off the list of options altogether as the backlash from enthusiasts would be too damaging to risk .
