The recently unveiled BMW M2 made many a fan happy with its manual gearbox option, and it now turns out the M division intends to keep it around until the end of the decade, at least.
Asked by CarBuzz about the future of the stick shift, BMW M CEO replied that, while it was regrettably losing popularity over time, it remained an essential option for the buyers of such cars as the M2, M3, and M4. He also pointed out that there are even people posting petitions on the Internet to keep the manual transmission available in future car generations.
In the United States, the BMW M2 comes with a gear lever by default. In Germany, the stick is a paid option.