In an interview with Autocar, BMW M Boss Frank van Meel has said that from a technical standpoint, the future "doesn't look bright for manual gearboxes."

He's right. The manual transmission isn't as efficient or as fast as its automatic or dual clutch brothers. But it doesn't seem like van Meel is flat out saying that he thinks that the manual gearbox will be immediately dying for BMW.

And that's because van Meel hedges on if the manual will stay or go. On one hand, it isn't as good technically and he can't guarantee it'll stick around, but he also says that they have a huge fan base for manuals and they "are not going to take away something the customer wants to have."

The problem is that as the fan base gets smaller, there'll be less incentive for BMW to use and develop new manual transmissions for its cars, and then it'll have to die out for business reasons, not because the boss of M wants it to.

Of course, BMW could always take a page from the Porsche handbook and build a special edition, manual-only car that'll sell like crazy and have enthusiasts adore them for decades to come. It can happen.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io