Will BMW manual transmissions be forgotten soon?

The sunset of manual transmission in BMW cars has been the talk of the town in the past years. There was even an initiative by Car and Driver in 2010 called “Save The Manuals!” However, the manuals are still here until today, especially in M cars. But will this change soon? Will manual transmissions be forgotten?

Ian Robertson, BMW Board member in charge of sales and marketing, said at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show that they will rely on less manual transmissions in the future.

“Across the world, virtually all of our 3-series [models] and above already have automatic transmissions,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales and marketing, told us when we sat down with him at the Geneva auto show. “China never had any manual transmissions; they went straight to auto. The U.S. is predominantly auto, and more and more of Europe is as well. We will certainly see fewer and fewer manual transmissions being offered.”

Robertson also added that this will not happen soon with smaller cars. There are no plans to get rid of the clutch pedal in MINI or in the BMW 1 Series. However, if the manual sales of 3 Series and 4 Series cars continue to decline, this option will die a natural death.

Will it also be forgotten in M cars? “In the M segment,” Robertson said, “purists still love the stick shift, and we will continue to cater for that. Whether we offer it in every model remains to be seen. In some instances, it is selling in really small numbers now.”

Source: Car and Driver