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This is my second Porsche and both have been Manuals. Manuals are becoming extinct. Some car companies have stop making manuals all together. This is a sign of the times for technology. More importantly the cultural shift of having stats of 0-60 times thrown at you with the ease of just pressing your right foot. Gone are the days of the skillful art of beating the person line up next to you with better driving skills. (Required with a manual). Now it’s all about buying a super sport car with little to now experience to drive and go fast. At least on paper. While shopping for my last Porsche , many salesmen stated that they can tell what type of person owned or whom is ordering the car. Simply by the options. The two categories were people whom just want to own a Porsche and people who wants to enjoy the ownership and drive a Porsche. I am of the group that wants to enjoy driving a Porsche. Manuals all the way! I’m not racing anymore like my young days, I’m not bragging to anyone at work or in my social circle about 0-60 times against any other cars. I’m just enjoying the pure excitement of rowing the gears up and down and listening to that sweet Porsche engine!!!! Oh and btw. The look on people faces when they look inside and see it’s a Manual! Priceless!!!! At the end of the day people buy what they want. Pdk or Manual! Both are great. But I’m old school. A PDK IS NOT A MANUAL!!! A manual is a manual. They can emulate all the characteristics they want with the PDK, but it’s not a manual!!! As the years and new models go by the manual will still have a place in the Porsche line up, a very small one but hopefully it stays for old school folks like myself!!!!
Please don't take the monkey comment so literal, I'm sure you understood what I meant. PDKs are better in racing where every millisecond counts and a perfect lap can make or break the win. I'm talking about normal enthusiasts in this forum, normal people driving their cars to work, errands, etc...
I come from a different place, I guess. I was never religious about driving manuals for either their sensory feedback -- at least until I got my hands on a Ferrari gated shifter, which unlike a Porsche 7-speed is was a hill worth dying on -- or for their now-obsolete performance advantages.
Instead, I bought cars with manual transmissions because automatics sucked. By the time automatics didn't suck anymore, the best of the manuals were already gone. I didn't see any logic or any fun in continuing to do a robot's job. I prefer to drive the car, not the gearbox. (Yes, that's a robot's job, too, but at least it's fun.)
Oh, and that sacred third pedal that everyone keeps going on about is not part of the transmission. It goes to a clutch assembly, a separate device installed to temporarily interrupt power delivery so that the transmission can shift without eating its own gears for lunch. Just as transmissions exist because of a weakness in the way internal combustion engines work, clutch pedals exist because of a weakness in the way manual transmissions work. I don't need a pedal that disconnects my driveline in order to enjoy my car.
If you are scanning ads for a car, it can matter. With about 10% of modern 911 production being MT, it’s a waste of time to click a link and see a PDK shifter sitting there. I also assume whoever is the seller knows even less than the average salesman about the rest of the car. If they are being intentionally deceptive, that’s strike 4 for anything they sell.
I had this experience a lot when searching for a used manual transmission 911. Why would the dealer list a PDK as a manual when by doing so it would possibly eliminate the ad from being viewed by a PDK shopper that limited his/her search to automatic transmissions only?
I come from a different place, I guess. I was never religious about driving manuals for either their sensory feedback -- at least until I got my hands on a Ferrari gated shifter, which unlike a Porsche 7-speed is was a hill worth dying on -- or for their now-obsolete performance advantages.
Instead, I bought cars with manual transmissions because automatics sucked. By the time automatics didn't suck anymore, the best of the manuals were already gone. I didn't see any logic or any fun in continuing to do a robot's job. I prefer to drive the car, not the gearbox. (Yes, that's a robot's job, too, but at least it's fun.)
Oh, and that sacred third pedal that everyone keeps going on about is not part of the transmission. It goes to a clutch assembly, a separate device installed to temporarily interrupt power delivery so that the transmission can shift without eating its own gears for lunch. Just as transmissions exist because of a weakness in the way internal combustion engines work, clutch pedals exist because of a weakness in the way manual transmissions work. I don't need a pedal that disconnects my driveline in order to enjoy my car.
I loved my amg GTS. It was automatic. And it was a stress free drive. Not much to think about, and I loved it.
Got the 911 in a manual because of a few reasons. But it was a tough call.
And its stressful. But in a good way. And I’m learning how to drive it better. After just 1,000 miles my shifts are way smoother and I’m able to manipulate torque by playing with the rpms.
Its immensely fun and very rewarding too. I imagine after a few thousand miles more, this car will be an extension of my thoughts.
My point in this comment is that both manuals and automatics are awesome. And for their own reasons. Someday I’ll go back to automatic. Or maybe I’ll buy something in automatic to keep the 911 company.
To each their own I always say. Both clearly have their pros and cons. But to me, a third pedal does make a pretty big difference.
I'm wondering how many 911 owners feel a need to race others as opposed to just driving fast? I've done a few auto crosses and enjoyed the hell out of them but have never felt a need to race anyone on a straight away or race track. I've owned three 911's all with manuals and love the process of shifting smoothly and quickly but have never felt the need to slam it into the next gear to beat some time or someone. What percentage of folks that have chosen PDK transmissions are more often than not just hankering to beat the driver next to, behind or in front of them? I will say this, PDK gives you a choice of being more involved in the process or not. A manual on the other hand is one way only, and you better like it or it's just a chore!
Tried out the PDK and MT 991 on several occasions before deciding on a '15 MT C4.
On the track preferred PDK since the car was much more efficient at high speed up and down shifting than I'll ever be. For everyday driving on the roads, preferred the MT for the most part but could do without the 7th gear and the little graphics telling me which gear I'm in along with the 'shift now' indicator arrows.
The OP is100% right in that if you post an ad for a used 911, DO NOT claim your car is a MT if it is PDK. I’ve seen this on used car sites as well where PDK cars are listed even when you try to specifically filter out the automatic models. No offense to PDK cars or their owners but when people search for “manual transmission” cars, they mean cars with a clutch pedal. And yes that is “black and white” for people who enter that search criteria. I completely agree with the OP’s frustration as I’ve experienced it myself. Arghhh.
05-04-2019, 10:41 AM
