BMW's deal with Toyota has had people up in arms ever since the Z4 and Supra couple debuted in 2019. It has even been said that Toyota seemingly did not put much into the project other than designing the body and making a deal with BMW to do all the heavy lifting in terms of engineering and development. Toyota, on the other hand, says differently.

A Manual Z4 Thanks to the Toyota Supra

However, the Bimmer is a powerful, German convertible sports car, that is also not ridiculously expensive starting at under $50,000, meaning the Z4 is occupying a niche market that is really only populated by the Porsche Boxster, and that is over twelve grand more expensive. Sure there's the Mazda Miata, but that is more basic and costs about half as much as the Z4, so you cannot really call them competitors.

However, as Toyota and BMW are so intertwined on this project, the Z4 looks like it may be about to follow in the Supra's footsteps and will likely be offering a manual gearbox soon. Part of the reason this is likely to happen is that Toyota already announced the manual gearbox option across the full range of Supras earlier this year. Meaning you can get a stick in the Supra if you have the "cheap" and cheerful 2.0-liter four-cylinder or the more hardcore 3.0-liter straight-six.

It's an Easy Fix and it Could Save the Z4

Since the Z4 and the Supra have the same engine, chassis, differential, and suspension simply copying and pasting the manual transmission from the Supra into the Z4 should not be that big of a job.

The Z4 has not seen stellar sales numbers and this could what it needs to get back in the game. Previously the Z4 was seen as the more grown-up, tame, and luxurious counterpart to the Supra and a manual could give it the shot of adrenaline it needed all along.

To make things even better we may not even have to wait all that long for the manual Z4. An updated version is set to release later in 2022 with some mild styling updates and that would be the perfect time to release the manual version.

However, production for the U.S. market will begin later so we yanks will likely not see it until early 2023. It also does not look like the manual version will be heading to any other market, so the only stick shift Z4s will be exclusive to America. Currently, this is more of a rumor than a confirmation, but all the evidence points to the Z4 getting a manual gearbox.