At least in the sports segment, there are a lot of carmakers willing to return to the classic six-speed manual transmission, and that because a lot of people miss the thrill of driving while manually shifting the gears, and that to hear the wild engine at work.
In fact, in the United States, more and more BMW customers have already expressed their wish that more cars would come with a manual transmission. This is the reason why the BMW M3 or M4 and other hot models, are still offered with the aforementioned transmission.
Porsche carmaker is also trying to stick to the same idea, praising the seven-speed manual first introduced on the 911 generation to increase performance and to reduce CO2 emission. According to Car and Driver, representatives have also stated that the possibility is still available.
Michael Steiner, CEO at Porsche, has declared for the magazine:
“From my point of view, it shouldn’t be the last. Technically, it is possible to have a six-speed manual gearbox. There are good reasons to have such a car, emotion-wise and for driver enjoyment and things like that, but if you look to the mix we have with the Carrera and Carrera S, it’s different.”
“On the other hand, if you look to the next cars we have in the more normal model line or a more conventional model line, year-by-year more and more customers are buying PDK. Within the next years, there will be definitely room for manual gearboxes, and we will have at least derivatives with manual gearboxes. But the general trend, also for car guys who would like to go on the racetrack, is shifting more and more in the direction of PDK.”
