BMW has been gradually phasing out manual transmissions in its lineup—even in its storied M sports cars. The rationale is simple for the automaker: Most people don’t want them anyway, they introduce production complications, and they are objectively worse than automatics in many ways. This has led the company to charge extra for the M2’s manual versus the automatic outside of the United States, primarily in the United Kingdom and even the company’s home market of Germany. Listening to the BMW M CEO recently discuss the matter is just depressing.
Speaking to CarThrottle, M boss Frank van Meel said, “The manual is slower and results in a higher fuel consumption [and] sometimes has also a lower top speed, so the manual actually from an engineering standpoint made no real sense anymore.”