As fuel economy and emission regulations get more draconic, the manual inches closer to extinction. The stick shift's demise is also explained by virtue of increasing demand for electrified and electric vehicles. In any case, your choices in manual-equipped sports cars are limited in this day and age.
BMW comes to mind, with the Bavarian automaker offering no fewer than three models with row-your-own transmissions. According to BMW of North America, more than half of all M2s delivered to US customers in 2023 were optioned with the manual.
A spokesperson told our friends at Motor1 that the manual accounted for 20 percent of M3 and M4 sales, which shouldn't come as a surprise. As you're well aware, both the M3 and M4 offer more power in Competition specification. The only problem with the Competition – be it RWD or AWD – is that it's automatic only, the automatic tranny in question being the long-running ZF 8HP.
The M2, which was redesigned for the 2023 model year, doesn't offer a Competition option. Internally referred to as G87, the second-generation M2 will receive a slight power increase in August 2024 for the 2025 model year. Come August 2025 for the 2026 model year, the M2 CS is expected to enter production at BMW Group Plant San Luis Potosi.
The Competition Sport is – allegedly – an auto-exclusive car. You can think of it as the more compact brother of the M3 CS and soon-to-be-revealed M4 CS, which offer more power and less weight than the M3 Competition and M4 Competition. As opposed to the M3 CS and upcoming M4 CS, the 2026 model year M2 CS will be exclusively rear-wheel drive.
Photo: BMW
Strong demand for M xDrive should result in the G87 getting M xDrive sometime in 2025 or 2026. In the meantime, BMW's most affordable M car is meant for people who aren't scared of rear-wheel drive in adverse weather conditions. There is a common misconception that AWD matters more than tires, but tires matter a lot more than AWD in rainy weather and when temperatures drop to freezing conditions.
That being said, it's not clear how many M2s were sold in the United States last year. BMW of North America has recently published the sales report for 2023, which lists the 2 Series with 11,620 deliveries for the 12-month period. That's 2 Series Gran Coupe – which is a front-biased sedan – and 2 Series Coupe, including the G87 M2 with its twin-turbo I6 lump.
The 3 Series clocked 33,997 deliveries, whereas the 4 Series ended 2023 with a staggering 50,777 deliveries to its name. The only M product listed in BMW's report is the aesthetically challenged XM, which sold precisely 2,315 units in the US market.
The XM's plug-in hybrid twin-turbo V8 powertrain will be shared with the all-new M5, which has been recently spied testing in the United States of America as a wagon. In other words, the M5 Touring is most likely coming to the US of A.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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