Dear BMW: Please Sort Out Your Manual Gearbox

After driving a manual BMW, and again being left utterly disappointed with the gear shift, I think it's about time we called on BMW to make a manual worthy of the brilliant cars it makes
Dear BMW: Please Sort Out Your Manual Gearbox

As a car enthusiast, I love a good manual shifter. Modern automatics are so good these days that you can be very happy with a performance car that shifts cogs itself - and in high performance cars an auto really is the only option - but there’s something inherently more engaging about changing gear with one hand on a stick and one foot on the clutch pedal.

You see, cars are more than just objects. To the kinds of people who care about things like manual gearboxes, cars have character, and getting in tune with your car is half the fun. A manual shift allows you to do that, as it gives you ultimate control over your vehicle, and requires focus and coordination between your hands, legs and mind to get right.

Dear BMW: Please Sort Out Your Manual Gearbox

So when you make fantastic enthusiast cars and offer them with a manual - which many manufacturers are ditching, so kudos for that - the initial response is to say “good on you, BMW, for caring about real drivers.” The problem is, shifting gears in a manual BMW is not particularly satisfying, and is the one aspect of the driving experience that lets down the package as a whole. In fact, until BMW completely changes its manual transmission, I’m left with the only option of recommending the automatic equivalent of any given car (if you can afford the premium).

Recently I spent some time driving both an SMG and manual E46 M3. Both cars were great as a whole, but the one thing that let the pair down was their respective gearboxes. Fortunately, the SMG is no more and has been replaced with far more up-to-date technology, but I can’t say the same for the manual. In the E46, the throw was too long, and offered little feedback when selecting a gear. It was just all very vague, but I put it down to the fact the car was over a decade old.

Dear BMW: Please Sort Out Your Manual Gearbox

However, this week I spent time with both a 2016 M235i and 2011 1M Coupe, and the manual problem persists. First up the new car, and immediately on moving the thing around a car park I noticed that changing gear required a bit of force. (In fact, finding reverse requires you to almost punch the shifter across past first, so why not just use a lift or depress of the shifter like other manufacturers do?)

Once you’re going at speed, the problems are exacerbated. The throw isn’t as long as in the old E46, but it’s anything but short. Worst of all, changing gear requires you to really concentrate and ram the shifter into place; the action of moving the stick doesn’t inspire great confidence as to where exactly you are in the gate, and when you push the stick into a gear, you have to get past an initial resistance. It’s almost like the stick is catching on something.

The 1M, despite being older, is actually a little better, but it’s far from perfect. I found with both cars that the shift action is vastly improved by rev matching, so perhaps the problem lies in the syncromesh? When giving the 1M stick in Sport mode, braking hard and applying a heel-and-toe blip of the throttle as you downshift improves things immeasurably. Unfortunately that’s not very practical in most driving situations.

Dear BMW: Please Sort Out Your Manual Gearbox

It’s frustrating, because in all other aspects you make fantastic cars, BMW. Sure, the interiors hardly ever change between generations and the orange dials feel hopelessly outdated in 2016, but it all works nicely. As a driving experience, you’re on top of your game in chassis feel and engine performance - if you could fix arguably the most important feature of tying everything together, you’d have 10 out of 10 cars.

I think if you spent a bit of time with some of the elites of the manual world, you’d see where I’m coming from. In a Honda Civic Type R, every movement of the stick is purposeful and it feels solid underneath. You know exactly where you’re going and there’s a satisfying slotting action. The king of this is the Toyota GT86. It almost feels artificial in its brilliance, as it’s like the stick is sucked into place with a pleasurable thunk. The merest suggestion of a shift and you clunk quickly into place. It’s a wonderfully tactile experience and it means that when you’re really pressing on you’re not taken out of the moment because you’re having to focus so hard on making the gear stick.

Dear BMW: Please Sort Out Your Manual Gearbox

With the new M2 imminently upon us, I can only hope that you’ve addressed this issue. That car has so much potential - like the 1M it’s the perfect size and power output for a road car - but a dodgy manual shifter could easily put a dampener on proceedings. I take heart from one early reviewer, who said “the manual is even pretty good…it’s a tighter and more precise shift than we’ve come to expect from BMW.”

Please, let this be the turning point for BMW’s manuals. For a company that once proclaimed to make the Ultimate Driving Machines, you’ve been seriously lacking in one vital department. The one thing that makes good cars great: a quality manual shift.

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Comments

Anonymous

You complained about the M235i shifter previously but two reviews I watched said that it was actually quite nice? So your “bad” is probably a few other people’s “quite nice”. And you know if you complain about it they’ll more likely scrap the manual completely like Mercedes than give you a better one.

02/18/2016 - 15:07 |
4 | 2
Anonymous

so you’re saying BMW’s manual transmission are hard to shift? maybe they’re just for more manly guys than you :P joking

02/18/2016 - 15:35 |
0 | 0
mamut

I have driven E30 manual, M3 E46 Manual and M3 E92 Auto and I must say the BMW gearboxes are quite specific. The change is soft and delicate but it’s still very precise and direct!

02/18/2016 - 15:45 |
0 | 0
Artinmo

Im sorry.Are you a woman? Its hard to get it in the gear? Are you kiddinme? I suppose you also like those cars with servos that give you no feel/force in the steering wheel right? Cuz you know, it`s easier to steer like that.

02/18/2016 - 16:14 |
2 | 4
Anonymous

Bmw’s which are old or have done many miles tend to shift sloppy. This is really due the fact that the shifter bushings are worn because bmw uses very long gear connecting rods. If you change the bushings and the gearbox mounting stands, it feels like new

02/18/2016 - 16:45 |
0 | 0
F1VEFOUR

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

My mothers new BMW 1 Series (116i) felt sloppy from the start. My soon 19 year old MX-5 shifts like butter compared to that horcrux of a gearbox

02/18/2016 - 23:04 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

I disagree with just about everything you have said. All the manual BMW’s I have driven have been very mechanical and satisfying. The throw is long but not all that long. Plus you don’t really want reverse to be easy to get into.

Every other non-BMW manual I have driven has felt like a detached lever that I am playing with.

02/18/2016 - 17:05 |
18 | 4
CoolBreeze

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Truuu

02/18/2016 - 23:56 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Exactly. I hate getting in my friends cars and it feels like an arcade game. Like I actually need to look and make sure I’m where I want to be. I KNOW when I’m not in gear in my zhp

02/19/2016 - 03:54 |
0 | 0
Daniel 2

The manual gearbox in my E34 feels pretty nice. I can’t say the same about the ones in E90, E87 and F30.

Sometimes it can be a little “tough” to get in reverse, but usually its not a huge problem.

02/18/2016 - 17:15 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

I know exactly what you’re talking about, I’ve once driven an X3 with a manual, and the gear linkage felt as if it was made out of old rubber. But it was still better than the gearshift on my mom’s Renault Clio, which is just diabolical… it will refuse to go into first gear if it’s moving at anything beyond 1mm/hr

02/18/2016 - 19:51 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

You’re absolutely right Darren, but there is SO much to making a gearbox feel “right” with all those components playing against each other that I don’t think BMW can justify the extra R&D costs to achieve it when 90% (or more?) Go auto. That’s the sad fact of it.
Even the Alpine which has always been a driving - experience manufacturer have opted to go auto with their new Elise/4c/Cayman rival. Says alot unfortunately.

02/18/2016 - 22:36 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

The shifter in my E36 is quite moody. Most of the time it will work amazingly, and other times you have to give up on the gear you want a try for another.

02/18/2016 - 22:43 |
0 | 0