Manuals and DCTs disappearing from M cars?
Senior M bod Peter Quintus suggests conventional autos will be the way forward
Therefore the news that the manual only has a handful of years to live in BMW M cars, at least according to M's Vice President of sales and marketing Peter Quintus, shouldn't be all that surprising. What should come as more of a shock is his belief that the dual-clutch alternative will meet its demise at the same time as the manual.
"It's more a question of how long has the DCT got to go - how long will it last?" he said in an interview with Drive in Australia, citing the rapid recent improvements in conventional torque converter automatics. Where DCTs once held weight and shift speed advantages, the latest autos have significantly closed the gap: "Now, a lot of that shift-time advantage has disappeared as automatics get better and smarter."
Moreover there are automatics now with up to 10 speeds, bringing benefits for fuel economy and acceleration. As for the manual, apparently there is another issue beyond emissions and a lack of buyer demand - durability. According to Quintus, manuals will struggle to cope with the latest range of super torquey turbo engines; the limit is said to be about 450hp and 443lb ft, with durability issues beyond that.
In fact, such is the way manuals are going in M Division, Quintus believes cars below the M5 may now be going automatic-only. "I'm not even sure the next generation of M3 and M4 will have the option of a manual gearbox." There you have it then - get one (if you want one) while you still can!
Why do manufacturers insist on stupid amounts of horsepower increases that need even more tech that distances the driver to put the power down and keep it all on the road?
Auto drive drone cars are well on their way....
Strangely enough the Americans who were traditionally the land of the automatic have realised that in sports\performance cars, a lot of people don't actually want all the techno-wizardry that removes them from the experience but the European manufactures seem to have got their priorities all wrong. Can I move to America please? They still seem to know how to make cars I'd actually want over there.
Why do manufacturers insist on stupid amounts of horsepower increases that need even more tech that distances the driver to put the power down and keep it all on the road?
Auto drive drone cars are well on their way....
Oh wait.
I think a boring tax efficient auto (or whatever fuel propulsion) for the daily grind and an older manual n/a play thing maintained to peak condition for the fun days is my path for the future.
Yes, I am a dinosaur (but don't forget, dinosaurs were frickin' awesome!!)
I think a RHD V10 M5 Touring would be right up there in my perfect garage line-up.
Why do manufacturers insist on stupid amounts of horsepower increases that need even more tech that distances the driver to put the power down and keep it all on the road?
Auto drive drone cars are well on their way....
If they're not prepared to keep the manual option I'd imagine they're going to see a significant drop of sales in the US as well, they're massively in favour of manual performance cars.
Complete and utter rubbish without qualification - manual gearboxes have been coping with considerably more than that for 20+ years.
What he didn't say was within the determined space, weight and cost constraints they have planned. Take out 200kg of unnecessary NVH, pandering tech and sheer size / mass of your designs and give us a decent manual box.
Ah well, at least the dumb backwards rednecks in America have managed to figure it out. Want 475lb ft through a manual? No problem, but would sir surely not prefer a manual with 650 lb ft going through it? Here, have a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty on it as well.
They make manuals in America because people are more pushy over their and seem to know what they want in a car while we are led by marketing and salesmen BS.
Ah well, at least the dumb backwards rednecks in America have managed to figure it out. Want 475lb ft through a manual? No problem, but would sir surely not prefer a manual with 650 lb ft going through it? Here, have a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty on it as well.
In regards to DCT's being taken away in favor of traditional automatics, that does actually make sense. The 8-speed ZF has proven itself to be almost as good as a dual-clutch, if not better, in certain aspects. Maybe BMW believe they can win people over with a much less complex system?
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