Are manuals still desirable?

[Young Thrash Driver 1020]

12 minutes ago, Driftit said:

 Tour Europe and the UK before they implode.

It's already too late.

[Young Thrash Driver 1020]

Anyway... not much new revealed here. Those of us who want manuals will still want 'em, and those who don't care/ live in the city and find it impractical (the mind boggles, my old manual 325 was superb in traffic) will continue to carry on without all the extra control and that difficult to quantify sense of one-ness with a machine that a manual delivers

I understand an E60 M5 will be faster in auto, but an extra 5% quicker isn't worth that much less involvement- to me.

Ho hum- back on the John Deere- manual gearbox with clutchless splitter and hydrostatic forward/reverse shuttle

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2914]

19 hours ago, 3pedals said:

And this bit is a bit of  a rant:

I even succumbed to test driving a sportline auto 328 a while ago and 100m down the road I asked the Dealer, is this the sport line suspension it feels a bit soft? his response ---  OH NO We HAVE THE FACTORY DELETE THE SPORTS SPRINGS AND SHOCKS AT THE FACTORY -- NO ONE IN NEW ZEALAND WANTS THAT  ITS TOO HARSH !!

I think you are getting a bit confused here Ron, there is no such thing as "sports line" suspension, there are only: standard, M-Sport and adaptive.

M-Sport suspension can be changed back to standard if required, which again, is what most customers do want. Plenty of M-Sport suspension cars out there to drive though.

[AllanC 4]

Might be a bit late on tis topic but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in..

Recently had to make the call between a 2010 135i auto DCT or a 2008 135i 6MT. The 2010 was only a few grand more expensive and 25k less kilometres on it. After driving them both went with the manual because it's just so much more engaging to drive, and I did really pay a premium for it as the 2010 would have resold better if I ever decided to. The 2008 also has the n54 engine which is easier for tuning than the n55 and was a big part of the decision.

The DCT auto is awesome though, if I had to commute in traffic alot would have gone with it.