Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryS
LOL I think half the people who claim they switched from MT to DCT really switched from AT.
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I'd bet you are more right than most will want to admit.
There have been a lot of VW owners who went DSG and then flipped the car for a manual version - out of sheer BOREDOM with the transmission! I've seen the same thing in the MINI world (more predictable there, because MINI only has a slushbox... yet you still get people defending their slushbox as a "sporting choice" over a manual... and very few admit that they either don't know how to drive a manual tranny or don't know how to drive one well enough to have ever owned a stick shift sports car...).
I was sad to see the % MINIs sold with manuals dropping to as low as 50%, from a previous 80% just a few years ago. Same thing - worse - has happened in the BMW world... one estimate I heard is that only about 2% of cars are ordered with stickshift! Even the miata world (I have a modded miata as well) has seen more and more people buying them with slushboxes.
I should add that this is largely a Canadian / American phenomenon... majority of hot hatches and sport sedans and all-out sports cars in EU continue to be sold with manual tranny, and this definitely correlates to the fact that vast majority of people getting their driver's license in EU countries are proficient with the manual transmission, whereas in USA / Canada it is downright RARE to meet people who are comfortable driving stick... it's a "lost art", sadly...
Still, the manual transmission is at least available from BMW even on a 5-series sedan, which is more than Audi and Mercedes can say about their sedans (if you don't mind ordering and waiting up to 2 months for your car or doing ED)... I suspect we will get to the point where DCT replaces the slushbox STEPTRONIC in all BMW models (which is fine by me, no love lost for the slushbox in my opinion) but that the manual tranny will be an extra cost option or - worse - reserved for higher trim levels only.
Interesting times to be a driving enthusiast...