South Africa Announces BMW M3 Convertible Pricing and M-DCT Debut at the Same time Drop-Tops for 1 Series also on the cards.
BMW South Africa, a manufacturer and exporter of 3 Series sedans to Japan and Australia, as well as other countries, today announced the launch date for the new M3 Convertible.
The M3 Convertible has been long photographed and spied – side links. It uses a hard folding top instead of the ragtop used in previous models. The M3 Convertible will be launched in South Africa in May 2008. This is the same month that the 1 Series Convertible was released. It is not the most pleasant month to let the cold breeze in. However, South Africa gets warm at midday in winter. This is why convertible drivers are often confused about when to close the top. The price for the sky-view starts at R744 500 (about US $99,000).
BMW’s M-DCT box, which claims quick changes that make it launch the vehicle 0.2 seconds quicker than the manual, has been confirmed. M-DCT, M Double Clutch Transmission, will change seven times faster than the manual. Some competitors (codenamed Lexus ISF) even go for eight. M-DCT, which is a double-clutch system, preselects the next gear before the driver does so to reduce the time it takes for the changes to take place. For slow traffic driving, automatic mode can be chosen. South Africans will pay R783 500 (USD 106,000), R702 000 for the coupe, and R673 000 for the sedan for M-DCT.
We believe that South African dads will be happier taking their kids to school now that they have more options.
– M-DCT was incorrectly stated to be 6-speed forward in an edit of the initial press release. This has been fixed.