The G87 BMW M2 has received neither an all-wheel drive system, despite still reportedly being under consideration, nor a Competition badge, and the latter is simply not going to happen, and that applies to the G90 M5, too. In fact, none of the future cars to come out of the M division will be wearing the Competition badge, and it’s because of buyers. In a recent interview with BMW Blog, BMW M CEO Frank van Meel confirmed that the name will not resurface because future M cars will effectively be Competition models from the get-go. Why? Because most buyers were opting for the Comp model anyway. “More than 80% of our customers went straight for the Competition,” van Meel told the publication. “So we said, ‘let’s just make that the standard one.'” Van Meel added, “You might say that every M model today is a Competition.” That’s concerning if you like controlling a clutch.
More Bad News For Three-Pedal Enthusiasts?
James Riswick/Autoblog
While van Meel did not delve into detail on future product plans, reading between the lines tells us that this effectively means we’re nearing the end of the manual transmission. With the G80 M3 and G82 M4, the non-Competition variants were the only way to get to row your own gears, simply because the added power of Comp models was too much for the manual transmission to handle. This is also why the M2 CS can’t be had with a stick.
Related: BMW’s Next Low-Volume ‘Dream Car’ Is Coming From The M Division
Now that we know future M models will effectively be high-power Competition models out of the gate, it seems less likely that there will be any way to make a manual gearbox feasible. While the far less powerful non-M BMW Z4’s manual option may be getting a stay of execution, those who want M power may soon be out of luck – unless they’re willing to spend big.
BMW’s Manual Transmissions Will Become Rare (And Therefore Expensive)
BMW
A separate report from BMW Blog earlier this year revealed that Bavaria may continue to introduce cars with manual transmissions, but they’ll be very exclusive, according to M Vice President of Customer, Brand, and Sales, Sylvia Neubauer: “For the current model lineup, we always have ideas in mind to bring more manuals to certain markets in a certain quantity because we know that there are manual transmission lovers out there.” So in summary, if new M cars are Competition models without the badge, the next step up can only be CS models, and if BMW may only be able to justify the manual transmission in low volumes (like with the 3.0 CSL, for example), then that means the most enthusiast-focused Bimmers will be very pricey indeed. Sounds a lot like what’s happening at Porsche.
