BMW customers are still looking for manual transmissions on the forums.

Manual gearboxes are slowly giving way to automatics. They are more comfortable and faster for drivers, and today they are at such a level of development that they do not increase fuel consumption.

CarBuzz was at the BMW M Festival at the Kyalami Grand Prix circuit in South Africa where he spoke with the head of the BMW M division, Frank van Mel. One of the key questions was how long will manual transmissions be available in BMW models?

"Unfortunately, the manual transmission is not so widespread anymore. It is more important in certain segments, namely the M2 and M3 models, as well as the M4. We continue to offer manual transmissions for those cars and those versions will be sold until the end of this decade," he said. van Mel.

Timo Resch, vice president of customer, brand and sales for BMW M, added that the company is monitoring the activities of customers who are petitioning online and voting, mostly asking for BMW to keep the manual transmission.

Resch said the engineers asked why anyone would need a manual transmission when automatics are faster, but then the marketing department simply told them: the fans demanded it.

In M models, the manual gearbox is still "living", but in other, more conventional models, it is increasingly giving way to automatics.