Title edited to end the triggering.

Can't you still retire from the military with 20 years?

Kids now need a third hand for their cellphone.  They can’t put it down long enough to grab a stick to shift gears.

Now that I can see.

did you write a 50 page peer-reviewed dissertation explaining that in the OP? No?

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My 13 year old daughter can drive a manual transmission.

Yessssssss!

My buddy called me last night. He's debating color and stick/auto for his new M2. I'd be stick all the way, but they're significantly slower, so I think he's going auto. His last M3 was auto. His M5 before that was manual. They're fun both ways. I had a SMG E46 M3 and it was a beast on the track.

I've been looking at 911's lately and it makes me sick how many are autos. Gross.

Dropping my retirement papers in 2 months

They don't make them anymore. Automatics accounted for 99% of new car sales last year, and numerous manufacturers have already said they'll discontinue all manual options by 2030. ICE cars broadly are right behind that, meaning that gasoline is going to get harder to source, even for used car drivers, as it's popularity wanes. It's practically guaranteed that shithole states will ban petrol outright.

The only reason to get the manual is because you're a manual person. Don't get the manual if you want fastest lap times or drags.

I owned 5 Challengers over about 10 years.

They were manual, auto, auto, auto, manual.

While the autos were superior, they were missing something for me that the manual has.

With as pampering and isolating as cars are now, including this M2, the manual is the last vestiges of connection with the car.

And it's BMWs last. Had to preserve one.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xennials

That's because this is our generation. The last who remember an analog world.

Lol,  a lot of my driver training on a learners permit was stick.  Right after licensing onee of the sticks I drove was a deuce and a half.   That said my military license check ride was in a 5 ton automatic which was nice.   They put the deuce on my license because we were shuttling them around for the army Guard guys that shared a shop with the Marine reserves.

I love a manual on open roads.
I loathe manuals in stop and start traffic, and especially hill starts when the guy behind you has pulled up within 3 inches of your bumper.

I, for one, welcome our sequential gearbox overlords.

Learned at 15 on Dad's company truck, a 70 Ford w/ 3 on the tree. Those things were indestructable.

Ha in my college days the trick was trying to eat a whopper and fries in a truck with no cup holder and shift in stop and go traffic on a steep hill due to the light at the top of the hill.

I've had service porters at the Toyota dealership struggle with my Supra, and it's a ZF8. One was like "I don't think I can drive that...", and the other had to be shown how to put the car in gear.

Only a couple of the "car guy" ones will move it around now, and they're really careful with it - they bring it around to the side to avoid scraping and keep it away from other traffic. I appreciate this.

Still, kind of weird. I have no doubt manual cars would have even more issues with this, given how uncommon they are in the US these days.

My 25 year old son would not have a problem driving your M2.

He cut his teeth on my 328xi wagon and even got some seat time in my 911.

ETA: I’ve only been without a manual car for probably 10 years of my driving life (50 years). I don’t own a car with an automatic right now. My first manual was my dad’s ‘78 Audi 5000 diesel. My first wife was driving a ‘77 Rabbit diesel with a manual when I met her. Ran through a couple RX-7’s and Ford’s with manuals (Explorer and Ranger Splash) and a cool Nissan Sentra SE-R in ‘92. A bunch of Hondas, a BMW wagon and three Porsches. Oh, and my awesome VW Alltrack I’m driving currently.

I taught my son to drive a manual and he is 25 and still driving one

90 seconds !! Not a chance

The real anti theft device is a 3 on the tree.

Ha those were the days.

Add in the flip phone

89

My 18-year old granddaughter can drive a manual like Mario Andretti.

Her boyfriend (who doesn't have license yet ) and all her friends are awe-struck by it.

When I took my T56 Dakota to the dealer for a recall they put a special tag on it stating it was a manual as only a few people could drive one.

Somewhere, out there, is an 80 year old car thief licking his chops at the prospect you snagging your ‘65 Ford pickup.

I want a manual bad. Not many cars available with them these days in the trim level I would want.

It would have to be a third car. Wife has an old hip injury that leaves her leg numb after working the clutch.

Just be glad he knew he didn't have the skills, and wasn't embarrassed to admit it.


Your clutch and your gear train appreciates it.

“Porsche has entered the chat.”

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Good parenting!

It's a retarded meme. It may (and has) stop a random carjacking, it's not going to stop anyone who's stealing cars for a living.

Born in 1990.  Learned do drive a manual in a little blue Chevy Luv.  My daily driver is a manual transmission and it will be the rig my Daughter learns to drive in.

I’ve seen some brains hydrolock when they take a look inside my manual ‘85 Toyota pickup with dual transfer case. I find it amusing.

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And once you realize that using the emergency break to assist in pulling out on a hill is an option then even that becomes trivial.

I'm proud my wife can drive a manual.

I daily drive manuals for twenty years before buying my first automatic.

Have always had one MT car in the driveway.

Learned on a 1970's Toyota pickup.  Single cab, short bed.  I forgot if it was a 4 or 5 speed.  

Years later I bought the same setup Tacoma.  One of my favorites to drive.

Meh. Can't really put the blame on an age group, it's only because the car manufacturers stopped making a standard trim level that had manual transmissions.  I can't stand auto transmissions, but I hate paying an extra premium just to get one too.

This.  It's like the guys who think a manual safety in a pistol will save them if they get their gun grabbed.

Only one of my three (adult) kids can drive a manual.

we don't have any manuals, so why would they know how?

I don't see this as a significant deficit for them.  Both my wife and I learned to drive sticks at a young age, but there simply aren't that many around anymore.

Now if they ever travel to Europe and rent a car  that will be funny!  

Yeah I personally love manuals, especially in an M, but other than the fun factor, they are completely obsolete.

Might as well make fun of the kid for not being able to ride a horse.

How does it compare to the F87? I've been thinking of pullung the trigger on one myself.

IIT we measure our manhood with our ability to operate a 100 year old transmission system.

Actually the manual car and truck were before I started motorcycle riding regularly (goofed off with dirt bikes a few times before ever driving any car). I could probably pick it up pretty quickly if I had a need to with the decade of subsequent motorcycle experience.

I don’t really need to, though, and there just aren’t any real opportunities to do so.

If I dedicated myself to the task and bought one of the few remaining manual vehicles, I don’t see what I would really accomplish. Just make traffic more tedious? Decrease the likelihood that someone else can easily drive me to help if I become incapacitated in a remote area?

It seems the only good reason to learn would be to carjack old people, but so far in life I’ve avoided needing to do that. Just doesn’t really affect my life at all, and it’s kind of weird when people make it an integral part of their personality.

My niece can drive a manual transmission, and can even back into small spaces to parallel park using only her rearview mirrors..doesn't have to turn her head to look behind her...with a manual transmission.  I am proud of her.

A system that the average teenage girl in most other countries can also operate.  

I still like my manuals though.

People say the G87 is less edgy, but I suspect they're people that don't one or haven't spent much time in one. I'm at 2300 miles now and my G87 is superior to my F87 in every metric that matters to me.

What G87 doesn't do is try to kill me. F87 is known for have a twitchy rear end that is easily unbalanced, including wheel hop, and while that IS very fun at times, it also almost put me into a ditch once when taking a corner and the road elevation sunk down on the outside (truck ruts). The car lost all composure but I was able to correct and keep it out of the ditch. G87 doesn't do that. G87 is planted and I can take the same roads much faster in this car.

Some will say that's G87 losing edginess compared to F87, and I agree to a point. However, G87 has the fancy traction control of the other G8X cars and you can dial it all the way down and that edginess is back. It's just not a normal character of the car. When you knock the traction control down to 4 or less..., you better understand how to correct a car that's stepping out. Jackie Ding is building a G87 race car and he learned this when he almost put it into a wall a couple weeks back.

Looks are subjective. Some argue F87 is more beautiful..., and I agree from a beauty perspective. G87 is obviously more bold and in your face. In person it's haunches and angles show it means business. It has a much greater presence than F87. My F87 blended into the background and the rest of the BMW line, G87, not so much. The attention this car draws is unlike anything I've ever experienced with a car. I'm not sure I like it really, everywhere I go, and I mean everywhere, people stop me to talk about the car. Filling up with gas? Lady wants me to take a photo of her with it. Pulling into my hotel last night? Gaggle of people come out to talk about it before I could get in and check into the hotel. Etc. I do like interacting with people, but it's becoming inconvenient at times.

I like that BMW went bolder to separate their cars from each other and all the others, though the buck tooth grille of the big brothers never did grow on me. Point is, there's no confusing G87 for any other car in the line up, that's for sure, whether or not you like the looks.

Interior there's no comparison. It's a fact that F87's interior was from 2012. G87 gets all the new stuff and tech. I personally like the tech. If I'm buying a modern M car, I want the modern tech. I do wish they would have thought hard about how to integrate the screens. That is the one knock I'll give the interior. I also wish that with all of this tech, they could give us many more options for gauge configuration other than the 2 we have. Another big miss is the "sport" gauges can't be tied to the M1 and M2 buttons. So, to get my car set up for full sport driving, I have to press the M2 button twice, then press the "M mode" button to bring up display selection, then turn the dial right and click to select the sport display. For a 2023 car, that's a lot of manipulations when they simply could have let us tie the displays to the M buttons.

Another thing I don't like is that in the USA, there is no option for a plain steel roof. You get a sunroof from the factory, or you're forced to buy the 2600 carbon roof if you want a slick top. Now, I DO love the carbon roof, but I would have optioned a steel roof if given the choice.

One other big difference is that F87 power stopped rising at about 4500-5000 RPM. It was a flat line to the red line. Those of use experienced at driving it would often shift well before red line since there was no point in revving it out. G87 pulls all the way to red line. It's clear she has so much more to give, too, absent the neutering tune she has to keep her a little less than the bigger siblings. That said, G87 takes an extra second to build boost and get going when less than 3500RPM, that's something F87 didn't do. However, I would rather have G87's grunt to the red line over the low end grunt of the F87 with the manual and the way I drive. My car spends most her time at 5K RPM and above. (ETA This is all regarding the MANUAL version. The auto version is drastically different, keeping revs where they need to be the whole time).

Yes she's a little bigger and heavier too, but that goes unnoticed when behind the wheel.

For me, the weekend warrior PA backroads guy with an occasional track day with BMW CCA, BMW knocked it out of the park. It's everything I was hoping for, and then some, in their last fully ICE manual M car.

Hope that helps!

He may not be old. I'm 31 and I've been driving a stick longer than that kid has been alive. I had only driven one automatic by the time I was in highschool and had no idea how a collum shift automatic worked when I took drivers Ed. The instructor thought I was joking when I asked how to put it into gear.


In 2001 my dad got a new super duty with a 6MT. The guy at the place he got the bed liner had no idea how to drive a stick and needed us to move it around the yard to where the bed liner was.

I've never owned an automatic and my folks at 70 years old just got their second ever automatic because it wasn't available in a stick. They still have 2 vehicles with a stick. First automatic for them was in 1997 and didn't last long.