Found this posting on another forum-I do not know if any of this information is correct.

Supercars.net Link

 

I hope what he wrote is true. It would be some amazing if the whole E-class lineup had the option of a 6-speed manual.

 

What you read is true, for the European/Other World market. You will not find a 6 Speed Manual Transmission in US spec M-B's, however. Eventually, we may see the 6-Spd TouchShift A/T but nothing with a clutch in the USA E-Class. ...RAB

 

6-speed manual for E-Class in the U.S ??? Keep dreaming guys !!! First of all, the 5 and 6 speed manual Mercedes that offer in the C and Slk class are a piece of **** !!! AMG car owners are begging Mercedes to built a true high performance manual but nothing happen yet. All the car magazines are de-grades AMG products for the lack of manual. And so now to think that Mercedes is gonna stick a manual in an E-Class ( four doors) sedan that are majority owned by people in their's 40 yrs. old and up. This is the time i ever heard that Mercedes is the only car manufacture that every car magazines is RECOMMANDED the 5 speed automatic over the manual. I think that said it all about Mercedes manual. When were the last time you read any car magazines that is recommanding AUTOMATIC over MANUAL?

 

For some reason the quality of manual tranny on MB is really not that i good i've heard. Before getting my car i test drove a newer W203 C class with a manual tranny and through every gear the shift is kind of sluggish??? Now for MB to put manual tranny on their higher models like the E-class would be pretty bad. IMO.

 

Yeah it does suck that we will not get it in the US, but it's still good news that MB is going to put a 6-speed manual in the W211 AMG model!

Can anyone tell me why MB manuals supposedly aren't good? Seems to me like this is just some people say because they have heard it from other people and they just pass it on. What's so bad about it? Is it notchy, what? I'm going to ask some W203 owners with the manal to see what they say about it.....

 

When you sihft through the gears it's not very smooth. It's like you have to force it a bit to engage. This is what happened when i test drove the newer c-class. From my experience.

 

From what I've been reading over in the W203 forum the 6 speed tranny is unsmooth especially 2-3 4-5 (i think) but a few people said it smoothed out and became less vague after a while. Anyway theres no way there would be a 6-spd manual in the US.

 

Nobody in the W203 forum really has any complaints about the 6-speed. They say it just gets better with age. I think that all the negative press surrounding the manual transmission was for the 5-speed in the SLK for the most part. A lot of people (in the magazines and forums) have said the 6-speed is way better.
What W203 6-speed owners have to say.