A few years back, we reported that the
current M5 and M6 will be the last to be offered with a manual transmission. At the time, it was ex-BMW engineering chief, Albert Biermann, who said that the reason was low take rates (around 15% in 2012) of the manual option. Unfortunately, those figures never improved. Our friend Jens Meiners at Road & Track now
quotes BMW M GmbH chief Frank van Meel as saying that "demand had dropped to zero." As a result, beginning with the upcoming F90 M5, only DCT will be available.
That's the bad news. The good news is that manual transmission will continue to be offered on the M2, M3 and M4, confirms van Meel.