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The 3 Series is the car that most closely represents the BMW ethic in Australia. For something like 30 years, it has been the epitome of the company's philosophy, blending sporting prowess, luxury and refinement in the one package.

For some buyers, the sporty part of its appeal stemmed from smaller but more efficient engines driving through a manual transmission.

As time has passed though, the demand for this sort of car has waned.  According to Toni Andreevski, PR & Corporate Communications Manager for BMW Australia, just five per cent of buyers opt for a 320i or 323i with a manual transmission. That has made it easier to drop the manual variants, effective from March production.

"Most of the buyers were auto, so we took a decision to rationalise the range," Andreevski says. "We've taken the opportunity to offer the automatic at the same price as the manual as well."

"There were about five per cent of people who were ordering manuals, so we just decided it's pointless offering [manuals] on the price lists and having all the sales literature there -- and all the ordering codes internally -- so we've just streamlined it a little bit.

"We can certainly order [manual] cars on special request. There would never have been manuals floating around in the dealer network anyway, so anyone ordering the manual was ordering it from the factory [anyway]."

Anybody intending to buy a 3 Series manual will not see any sort of discount though and add to that the inconvenience of waiting three or four months for the car to be delivered locally.

BMW's market dominance in the VFACTS medium segment under $60,000 currently appears under threat, with the W204 Mercedes-Benz C-Class selling double the number of the superseded W203 model in year-to-date comparison (2008 and 2007). In addition, for the period from August to December of 2007, the C-Class sold 3001 units, versus 2362 for the 3 Series in the same period.

Audi's A4 is on the rise also and the Lexus IS250 is holding steady.

Whilst the price reductions and rationalised range are not indicative of a product in trouble, don't be surprised if BMW implement other market-specific changes to lend the '3' a bit more traction.

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