If you want to buy a new car with a manual transmission, your options are more limited than ever. Currently, there are fewer than 30 individual models from all automakers available in the U.S. with a clutch pedal. However, the models that do offer manual gearboxes are seeing strong interest from buyers who still want to row their own gears. BMW, which has four models offering a manual, had a strong 2025.
In what is now an annual story from Motor1, the website asked every automaker that offers a car with a manual gearbox how many buyers opted for one. The whole list is interesting, and you should check it out. While so many manufacturers have ditched the manual, it is heartening to see that many models, like Cadillac’s Blackwings and the Toyota Supra/GR Corolla/GR 86 are seeing more than 50 percent of buyers choose a manual transmission. Even low-volume manufacturers, like Pagani, are seeing 75 percent of buyers opt for the manual in the Utopia. That’s fantastic.
BMW currently offers the manual in the M2, M3, M4, and the Z4, though the Z4 will be gone from dealers soon. BMW told Motor1 that 40 percent of M2 buyers and 50 percent of Z4 buyers opted for a manual gearbox in 2025. On the M3 and M4, and all the different trim levels, it gets a bit muddier, and that’s because of differing trim levels. If you want a manual in an M3 or M4, you have to order a base model car with rear-wheel drive. There are no Competition or all-wheel drive models available with a manual. However, if you look at all rear-wheel drive M3s and M4s, 50 percent of M3s and 33 percent of M4s had manual gearboxes. The remaining percentage was rear-drive Competition models.
Now, if you expand the sample to include all M3s and M4s, which includes the all-wheel drive models and variants like the convertible, which has no rear-drive manual option, the percentage plummets. As an overall share of M3s and M4s sold, six to 10 percent of buyers chose a manual.
Still, that seems to be enough market for BMW to continue offering the transmission as an option, and we’re thankful that the company will continue doing so.
