I agree. What is BMW and Volvo thinking? I mean, there is probably a small group of us who enjoy driving manual transmission cars. But, the sportier ones really do deliver fun when driven with stick shift....or, maybe it's my fantasy at work. I'm a '60s adolescent, when muscle cars were predominant. Although, even then, I was into European stick shift autos, which was basically only offered in such cars. My dream car when I got my license in 1963 was a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. I tried very hard to convince my Dad to buy a used one for me, around $6,000. He demurred, saying it was too fast. In the end, he got me a Mercedes 190SL. I test drove a 300SL, with a German tech who had driven for Mercedes in the 1950s. He has a distinct limp. Anyway, we drove through the streets of Monclair, NJ at 80 mpg. My heart was in my throat. The great thing about the 300SL is that it has an overlarge steering wheel. Thus, just a small turn on the wheel would produce a dramatic move of the vehicle. Sublime.
Sadly, BMW has largely forgotten their roots, and are making cars for fat old men these days it seems. The don't make a car even remotely like the 2002, which I never owned, but started my love affair with the marque. Heck, they don't even make anything like my beloved '87 325i, which is still one of the greatest cars the company ever made. Nothing even remotely "tossable" in the model range these days, and don't even get me going about those stupid run flat tires. The only way to get a manual in one of their cars here is to buy one of the "M" ("M" is for marketing) cars, and even then I think it's only the 2 and 3 range.
When I was 18, my godmother had a '57 Porsche 356A Speedster that she was willing to sell to me for a ridiculously cheap price, but of course I didn't have the money, and it didn't help that the car was in Atlanta. Her brother had brought it back from Germany, and never drove it again after it swapped ends on him one day (probably a wet downhill bend). He gave it to her, and the car mostly sat, and I remember it vividly, looked just like this one, minus the fog lamps. I think it had less than 10,000 miles on it.
My folks might have helped me buy it, but they thought that I would probably kill myself driving it, and they may have been right. It makes me sick when I see how much they sell for these days!
BTW, same godmother also had a gorgeous Mercedes 280SE 3.5, and what a great car that one was, especially in Georgia, which had no speed limit at the time!