BMW M Chief Says The Future Of Manual Gearboxes Isn’t Looking So Good

Are the days of joyful, manual BMW M cars numbered? Well, it depends.

Speaking to Autocar, BMW M division boss – Frank van Meel – believes that the manual gearbox is obsolete, stating:

“From a technical standpoint, the future doesn’t look bright for manual gearboxes. The DCT and auto ’boxes are faster and they have better fuel consumption.”

However, that doesn’t mean the good old fashioned manual will die out anytime soon, because as long as there is a demand from the customers for such gearboxes, the M division will comply with the requests, as Mr. Meel continued:

“It’s difficult to say we’ll stick to the manual, but we still have a big fan community for manuals and we are not going to take away something the customer wants to have.”

It’s all a matter of sales figures, but it seems that more and more BMW Motorsport customers are choosing the double clutch transmission over the conventional manual gearbox.

Of course, the current M cars will retain the manual option and perhaps, if everything goes well, the next models will too; but who’s to say what the future brings?

And it seems that BMW has reached a power limit with the current line-up. The magazine quotes Meel saying that 600 horses is the most you can get from and M car, for now:

“We’re at the limit. If you go on adding more horsepower and torque, it’d probably be over the limits.”

Well, G-Power would respectfully disagree.