Photo: Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien
The BMW M2 may be one of the cheapest ways to jump on the BMW M bandwagon, but a storm is brewing on the horizon. As we wait for the F87 M2 LCI to go official, BMW M vice president Dirk Hacker declared that the smallest and least powerful M car is likely to be the last M car to offer a good ol’ stick shift.
“Wait, what? That’s the biggest BS the high-performance division could come up!” Rightly so, dearest reader, and probably the biggest change in M car philosophy ever since turbocharging became the norm across the lineup. And the reason for discontinuing the manual transmission in a few years’ time? Take-up rate, apparently, which is going down on other M cars except for the M2.
Speaking to Autocar, Dirk explains: “I like manual very much, but the take-up rate from customers on cars other than the M2 is just going down. The fact is that a double clutch gearbox delivers better performance and efficiency.” Nobody who loves driving in its purest form cares for 0 to 60 times and saving fuel, dear Dirk. But the truth of the matter is, developing a high-performance vehicle for not one, but two transmission options is more costly than you think.
If you’re the TL;DR type, the bottom line is cost-cutting. The shape of things to come is apparent with the F90 M5, which is exclusively available with the ZF 8HP eight-speed automatic. On the flip side, the M model lineup prepares to usher in CSL and GTS variants, both upping the ante with better everything.
In stark comparison to the M5, which went all-wheel-drive for the F90 chassis code, the next-generation M3 and M4 aren’t likely to integrate M xDrive. “We will increase the power of these cars, but we don’t want to increase the weight,” Dirk highlights. “We’ll use 4WD where we need it.”
And on that note, M GmbH doesn’t plan to develop FWD M cars, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Speaking to Autocar, Dirk explains: “I like manual very much, but the take-up rate from customers on cars other than the M2 is just going down. The fact is that a double clutch gearbox delivers better performance and efficiency.” Nobody who loves driving in its purest form cares for 0 to 60 times and saving fuel, dear Dirk. But the truth of the matter is, developing a high-performance vehicle for not one, but two transmission options is more costly than you think.
If you’re the TL;DR type, the bottom line is cost-cutting. The shape of things to come is apparent with the F90 M5, which is exclusively available with the ZF 8HP eight-speed automatic. On the flip side, the M model lineup prepares to usher in CSL and GTS variants, both upping the ante with better everything.
In stark comparison to the M5, which went all-wheel-drive for the F90 chassis code, the next-generation M3 and M4 aren’t likely to integrate M xDrive. “We will increase the power of these cars, but we don’t want to increase the weight,” Dirk highlights. “We’ll use 4WD where we need it.”
And on that note, M GmbH doesn’t plan to develop FWD M cars, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Google News