Quote:
Originally Posted by swamy
Sadly you might be right here. But S&D doesnt explain why (or fully why) - when margins are ostensibly higher on the MT.
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Sorry if my comment wasn't clear.
Margins are not higher on a MT car. (At least, not likely by any significant amount)
If the options for an AWD MT car is only the 335i (which is a higher margin car) that means if you really want those two options you'll probably get the 335i.
Otherwise you'll live with the high volume AT, or a RWD car (since most niche people who want a MT are also the crazies who only want to drive two of their wheels)
It makes sense to offer in Europe where MT's and small engines are a much higher percentage of sales.
While it doesn't cost anything for BMW to build that car and ship it to the US, they always try to limit the # of permutations of cars they have to build, otherwise it just becomes even more difficult to manage.
I'm sure the reason they said "we won't build that car" is because they looked historically at their data for how many MT X drive 328i's they sold and realized it wasn't a big enough niche to warrant building.
Case in point if I search for 328 X drive on Ebaymotors there are about 400 cars with the automatic, and 10 with the manual. If that's any indication, then building a car that only appeases less than .25% of your purchasing audience, why bother? If that .25% doesn't like it they'll either buy a more expensive car or go elsewhere, and that's a decision they're willing to deal with.
You can ask the same questions for things like why doesn't the 320i have an option for dynamic handling? or why won't the 4 series in the US get a 20i trim, etc. And usually it comes down to the same exact answer - because no one wants it.
Supply and demand. No demand, no supply.