Quote:
Originally Posted by bimmerjph
Your forgetting how annoyed he got about having to make a MT for this M5. That isn't an enthusiast. Thats a salesman.
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No he is an enthusiast and one of the originals from the E30 M3. He is not just a salesman.
I'm not trying to speak for him but I believe his point with the M5 ( I was in the room), is that the manual doesn't sell outside the US in such a high end luxury performance car. Other exotics have gone away from manuals so why does the largest, heaviest, most luxurious M model "need" a manual? It is counter intuitive. Maybe the US will devote resources to keeping the M5/M6 manual alive in the future but to M it is a money losing proposition as resources could be used elsewhere and no other market wants it or even will take it when offered.
The other thing to consider is that outside the US- DCTs are the enthusiasts choice and are the more desirable option for day to day. The US market is not the main target of BMW or M any longer (as it shouldn't be). The current M5 is what an M7 would have been in the day.
The M3 is now what the M5 was in the E39, and the 1M is where the M3 was. Everything sub M5 will be offered in a manual outside the SAVs- makes the cars cheaper and more fun for the US market.
I'm not saying a manual doesn't belong in the M5- I recently reviewed it and thought it made the car better for the US and low speed limits and that many don't track their cars. There is nothing better than nailing a perfect heel toe and an apex of a corner on a back canyon road- it adds to the connection but that is about it.