Manual gearboxes are definitely not the best-sellers they used to be some time ago. The evolution of automatic transmissions, making them the more efficient, faster, sharper choice meant changing gears yourself would inevitably become obsolete. Today, few car makers are even still offering manuals and MINI is one of those companies. The British manufacturer announced this week that it will have to pull all of its manual offerings from sale in the US, for a while.
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How come, you may ask. Well, it seems it has a lot to do with emission certification, according to Motoring File. The guys had a chance to talk to the head of MINI USA Communications, Andrew Cutler, to find out more about what’s going on. According to Cutler, this is just a temporary measure and most cars will be available with manuals once again, in the near future. Unfortunately, there’s no definitive timeline we can give you right now.
The good news is that the 7-speed DCT gearbox introduced on European MINI models a while back will now make its way into the US as well, starting with the car made this July. The John Cooper Works Clubman and Countryman models get a new 8-speed unit as well, to keep up with their 300 HP engines. Hopefully, the manuals will return as soon as possible because otherwise, the JCW Hatch will suffer quite a lot.
That’s because that’s the most popular choice of the customers when it comes to the most hardcore version of the hatch model. Understandably so, as that’s meant to be a driver’s car in the first place, not necessarily the fastest one on the road. Considering how MINI sales are doing right now, this can’t possibly help. Thankfully, it will only be a temporary measure.
Personally the manual transmission is the main appeal of buying a Mini Cooper. That’s why a lot of enthusiasts like me are pretty interested in it. Glad it’s a temporary move though.
Based on the sales numbers of this brand, I am not surprised.
^She didn’t read the article…again.
If you are referring to the JCW being in manual with the line “the most popular choice of the customers when it comes to the most hardcore version of the hatch model” … the JCW is the lowest selling for the entire fleet. If you saw the parent article that came out for BMW as an organization as a whole, the Mini brand is selling terribly. I read the article, ingested the information, and then used the information gained in other arenas to state “Based on the sales numbers of this BRAND, I am not surprised.” Rather than rushing to the gate with a manual mode right out of the box for the entire BRAND, they are willing to stall and come out with one specifically for that MODEL. The sales numbers are shit. Hopefully the 300hp finally makes this thing viable, however the price tag alone makes no sense.
Minis all have very long geared manuals. To satisfy bureaucratic edicts concerning emissions of course. Still, would be interesting to see optional shorter “sport gearing”.