These Are the Last BMWs You Can Buy with a Manual in 2026

BMW sold three manual-transmission cars for the 2026 model year. By April, it was down to two for a while, because the G29 Z4 went out of production and nothing is replacing it. That leaves the row-your-own-gears experience at BMW entirely to the M division: the G87 M2, the G80 M3, and the G82 M4, and only in their base forms. This is the smallest manual lineup BMW has had in decades, and it’s still bigger than what most German rivals offer. Mercedes-AMG dropped the stick years ago. Audi’s RS lineup hasn’t had one in even longer. BMW gets to call itself the last German holdout, but that’s a low bar, and the company knows the clock is running on this, too.

BMW M2 (G87): The cheapest Way In

The M2 is,for now until the M2 xDrive launches, the only BMW left where you don’t have to read the fine print to get a clutch pedal. Every M2 starts with a six-speed manual as the standard transmission, with the eight-speed automatic available at no extra cost if you’d rather have the quicker 0-60 time. Pricing starts right around $69,000, which makes it the most affordable new M car BMW sells, and the S58 inline-six puts out 473 horsepower and 406 lb-ft regardless of which gearbox you pick.

The M2 CS doesn’t follow the same script. BMW bumped it to 523 hp for 2026 and sells it strictly with the automatic. There’s no manual option for it at any price. So the standard M2 is now the only way to get a stick shift and the lightest, purest version of this car at the same time.

There’s also a properly weird one-off for collectors: the M2 Turbo Design Edition, a tribute to the 1973 2002 turbo, built in extremely limited numbers starting in January 2026 and sold exclusively with the six-speed manual at $82,900 before destination. No automatic option exists for it. BMW clearly knows which buyers are paying that kind of premium for a small M car, and what gearbox they expect to find in it.

Worth flagging for the future: BMW has confirmed an M2 M xDrive for 2027, the first all-wheel-drive M2 ever, and it’s automatic-only. Getting traction in the snow is going to cost you the manual.

BMW M3 (G80): Manual Sedan or Automatic, Never Both At The Top

The M3 sedan splits cleanly into two camps. The base car, at $79,300, comes with the six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive, and 473 hp. Step up to the M3 Competition and the manual disappears entirely: you get an eight-speed automatic and 503 hp with rear-wheel drive, or the same transmission with xDrive and 523 hp in the Competition xDrive, priced up near $88,600. There is no manual Competition. There never has been, in this generation.

That makes 2026 a meaningful year to pay attention to, because it’s likely the last one for the manual M3 sedan as we know it. The G80 is expected to give way to a new ICE M3 around 2028, reportedly with xDrive and an automatic only, no clutch pedal, and for the first time ever, with a mild hybrid.

Before that happens, BMW is giving the outgoing M3 a proper send-off. A 2027-model-year M3 CS Handschalter (the CS badge returning specifically for a rear-wheel-drive, manual-only special edition) starts at $108,450 and undercuts the automatic, xDrive-based M3 CS by around $11,000. It’s lighter than the regular manual M3 by close to 75 pounds with the optional carbon-ceramic brakes, and it’s reserved for North America. BMW isn’t saying how many it’ll build. If you’ve been putting off a manual M3, this is the one to chase, and it’ll be the last new one.

BMW M4 (G82): The Manual Exists, But Only For The Coupe

The M4 follows the M3’s playbook almost exactly, with one extra wrinkle: the manual is coupe-only. There’s no manual M4 Convertible at any price. Drop the top and you’re buying a Competition, automatic, and either rear- or all-wheel drive. The base M4 Coupe starts at $82,200, with the same 473-hp S58 and six-speed manual as the M3. The Competition Coupe runs into the mid-$80,000s with 503 hp and an automatic, and the Competition xDrive Coupe tops the regular range at 523 hp and roughly $91,700. The M4 CS is gone for 2026, leaving these three trims and nothing hotter.

There’s a small silver lining here that doesn’t apply to the M3: insiders have suggested M4 production is sticking around well past the M3’s, into 2029, with the M2 expected to run about as long. If that holds, buyers chasing a new manual BMW coupe will have considerably more runway than M3 sedan buyers do. Order books typically close a year or so before a car actually stops being built, so don’t take “2029” as a green light to wait around indefinitely.

BMW Z4 (G29): The Last Non-M manual, And The Last One Ever

The Z4 has been the odd one out for a while now, the only non-M BMW you could still get with three pedals, and a fairly recent gift at that. BMW didn’t add the manual to the Z4 M40i until 2024, packaged as the Edition Handschalter, a $3,500 option on top of the $68,400 base price that brings the six-speed gearbox along with retuned suspension, a reinforced front anti-roll bar clamp, and unique steering software. The four-cylinder sDrive30i never got the option; it’s automatic-only.

That entire chapter closed this spring. BMW confirmed the Z4 Final Edition in late 2025, a Frozen Black M40i built in small numbers from February through April 2026, priced at $77,500, with the manual and automatic offered at identical cost. No successor has been approved: not electric, not hybrid, not a continuation with Toyota on the GR Supra platform. When the last Final Edition clears a dealer lot, BMW will have no roadster and no two-seater left in its lineup, and the B58 engine will have lost its last manual application anywhere in the brand.

It’s a real loss, and not just nostalgically. The Z4 Handschalter runs a slightly different manual transmission than the one in the M2, M3, and M4, with its own specific gearing, paired with the B58, one of BMW’s best engines of the last decade. Roadsters are a hard sell to a market that wants crossovers, and BMW isn’t pretending otherwise. It’s just not pretending the Z4 deserves a quiet exit either, which is more than some discontinued BMWs have gotten.

So What Do You Actually Buy

If a manual is non-negotiable and you want the cheapest path in, the M2 is the easy answer: no trim restrictions, no premium over the automatic, and the freshest design language. If you want one more shot at a manual sports sedan before the G80 M3 and its successor go automatic-only, the regular manual M3 is good, but the 2027 CS Handschalter is the one to actually want, assuming you can get an allocation and live with six figures. If two doors matter more than four, the M4 Coupe gives you the same drivetrain with a bit more runway before it disappears. And if you’ve always wanted a BMW roadster, the Z4 Final Edition isn’t a maybe. It’s a now-or-never, since BMW has given no indication it’s coming back.

None of this is really about lap times. The automatics are faster in every one of these cars, and BMW will tell you so without flinching. It’s about whether you want to be the one doing the shifting before that stops being something BMW lets you choose at all.