6 MTs being phased out by Infiniti
 

that's the word I heard from one dealer today.

is this old news?

God I hope this isnt true.. Maybe your were just told this by a salesmen trying to sell something on the lot?

not the way the salesman and sales manager put it.

Infiniti is also starting to limit discounts and selling vehicles near invoice. They are moving more towards the same pricing philosophy as Lexus.

If this is true, I guess they don't want me to get the next gen G.

OP, if you are buying a car, I would take this with a grain of salt. i.e. if you want to buy a manual and they are offering you an auto and at the same time telling you that they are selling closer to sticker price, you should run and consult another dealer.

If, this is a non-sales related statement about company policy, I am still skeptical, but it could be true given the fact that the market for auto transmissions is much larger.

more than one dealer has recently told me this....this will not happen overnight, but's supposedly coming.

interesting.

Strange. Last week, I asked someone I know at Infiniti about their plans for the 2013 G sedan. He said that it will be the same as the 2012 - same variants (including the 6MT) will be offered for the first half of the year. In the second half, they will introduce the 2014 model which will be a redesign. I couldn't get much information about that one, and I don't know if the 6MT sedan will be available in the 2014 model year, but it sounds like it will still be there at least for the 2013 model year.

I believe the 6MT sales are pretty low (600/year?) I wouldn't be totally surprised if they put the kabash on it at some point, maybe starting with the sedan, but I hope they keep offering it, and actually improve the clutch and shifter in 2014...

As long as the 3 series has an MT option, so should the G. These cars are ment to be in MT form. I would personally not buy the next G if they don't make it MT.

600 doesn't seem statistically accurate, although I have no access to the real numbers.

But your instincts feel right about the 6MT Sedan. Hard to find and hard to sell (from dealership stock). Very glad to have found exactly the right one for me.

Back in 2006 with the 6.0 gen Maxima, there was a similar freak-out when Nissan dropped the 6MT on their flagship sedan, and went with the CVT-only. While the 6MT only accounted for a small percentage of cars (I think 6%), it was 50% of the enthusiast community. So people were pretty p1ssed off.

If Infiniti drops the 6MT, there's always the Germans. A proper manual transmission with AWD seems to be a mainstay there.

maybe switching to a dual-clutch type system?

The manual transmission 3-series has a much bigger market because the 3-series has lower fuel consumption which is important in Europe where manual transmissions are more popular (and fuel prices are much higher than in the US).

Assuming the G offers lower fuel consumption starting 2014, it may become more attractive outside the US, which should help with manual transmission sales.

^^ Lower fuel, but higher initial cost to acquire the car. Wonder how well the numbers work out after 3-5 years. I suspect the bmw will still cost more overall.

MT is the reason why i picked the G over the IS........ wow i can't believe it. i love MT, but i can see why they would phase it out :x