The manual transmission is a dying breed. Even though textbooks have a slightly larger market share than in years past, it’s still only a matter of time before they disappear for good. The latest evidence comes from Japan, where BMW is sending its manual transmission with a special edition M3.
Built to commemorate the 35th anniversary of BMW’s first DTM victory, the M3 MT Final Edition will be limited to just 150 units and sold only to customers in Japan. MT obviously stands for Manual Transmission, with each unit fitted with three pedals as standard. As in other M3s, it’s mated to a 3.0-liter twin-turbo S58 inline-six.
BMW will build 50 units each in Alpine White, Black Sapphire and M Brooklyn Grey. All 150 cars will have gold rims and red seats, inspired by the original E30 generation M3 DTM race car driven by Roberto Ravaglia.
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BMW expects strong demand for the M3 MT Final Edition. If orders exceed the number of cars to be built, the company has a lottery system in place to select buyers in May. With a starting price of ¥14,200,000 (around $95,000), the M3 MT won’t come cheap either.
BMW’s plan to reduce sales of manual transmissions is well known. Although the company still sells four manual cars in the United States – the M2, M3, M4 and Z4 – company board member Frank Weber said in an interview earlier this year that “if you want a manual M, you need to buy now”, suggesting that the days of manual M cars are numbered.
If you’re a purist who can’t live without a gear shift, we suggest heeding his advice sooner rather than later.
