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      03-23-2014, 01:45 AM   #213
JimM6GC
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Drives: '15 M6 GC; '16 B6
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Northern California

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Well, my own recent experience is that the dealers themselves are part of the problem.

This past week my wife and I drove to L.A. for a business/pleasure trip. One goal on the pleasure side was to order a new M6 GC with a manual transmission. One dealer's website indicated that they had a couple manual transmission M6's in stock. When we got there, we learned (as others have said) that some dealers refer to DCT's as manual transmissions. When I told the salesman that I wanted a stickshift-type manual, he started dissing them. According to him, the high-HP BMW stickshift cars are really difficult to shift properly outside of a narrow RPM band and are really meant for the track. I've never had a problem shifting a manual before, including my former Z06 Corvette, so I don't know what he was getting at. Perhaps he was hoping that I would get discouraged and buy one of the DCT M6's on the lot. Two other So Cal dealers (one of whom advertises his dealership in his posts on this board) didn't take us seriously at all. I don't know if they thought we were just a couple of strokers. If so, they judged incorrectly.

So up to No Cal we go. The first dealer there told us you can't get a manual transmission in an M6, whereupon I told him to check the configurator on the BMWUSA web site. He didn't seem inclined to do so, so we just walked out. The second dealer we went to simply pulled out the order guide, and we placed our order. So it took five dealers along the length of California before we could order the freakin' car.