And the official transmission goodness standings are:
1) Tie: Manual or PDK
2) Other manufacturer's automated manuals
3) Traditional automatic with torque converter
4) CVT

 

Awesome idea. Love it!

 

This is just a guess, but I'd think the choice is removed for drive-ability and reliability reasons. If the PDK clutch is engaging at the same speed as the flywheel, the clutch disks will last significantly longer. Who wants to buy an automated manual and have the ability to stall the car? The PDK tries to emulate an automatic in terms of minimal driver involvement and comfort, without the awful drawbacks of a traditional automatic, while still allowing for high(er) performance.

OP, If you think you might miss a manual, and you don't have any other cars that can fill that void in driving, absolutely do not get the PDK. I got the PDK because my Viper's transmission is the best I've ever encountered, and I didn't need my daily driver to suck in traffic. If I didn't have another car, with which to row the gears, I'd have absolutely gotten a 7-speed manual 911.

 

I was always a manual sports car guy, and at first thought the idea of a "automatic" 911 ridiculous. Then I drove a Ferrari 430 F1 and thought that was technically very cool and quite fun. After driving a few PDK 911s, the decision was easy. If I only drove the car on lonely mountain roads, then maybe the manual would be the way to go, but I haven't had any regrets getting the PDK, and it's technically superb. Though, if I want to shift manually, I get out my Caterham 7 ...

 

The only time I miss MT is at launch. Manual gives you the ability to control the rate of departure by controlling revs and clutch take-up, and launch control is simply too violent except for track purposes. For all other occasions I'm a huge PDK fan. Both hands on the wheel at all times and don't have worry about RPM as PDK is great at finding the sweet spot.

 

I recently sold my 2014 991 base manual and picked up a loaded 2013 C2S with PDK. Honestly, I don't think I'd go back to a manual unless it was a dedicated weekend or track car. The PDK is sublime and fits my driving style perfectly.

 

This from the 997 PDK on Jay Leno's Garage. They actually take apart the PDK. Pretty sophisticated part.

 

Funny, Jay does not know how to pronounce Porsche either If you have a manual transmission then the sport, sport plus and launch control is really a non-feature except I remember something about the engine tightening to the chassis and the suspension changing, but I have a button for that as well. I agree with Jay, manual is the way to go for me.

 

I heard Porsche looked into it, but abandoned the idea. Los Angeles is their largest NA market and there are so many folks having creative car sex out there P was concerned someone would say something about paddling during pre-orgasmic ecstasy that might lead to an accident. They didn't want the liability or bad media exposure.

 

Maybe wait for the all electric, autonomous car that will set faster lap times than you possibly could and of course you get the benefit of no transmission at all so there are no shift times to worry about when you're enjoying reading the stats about your car in your car as it's doing all the driving for you.

At first they may let you mess things up with your inferior human inputs in the name of "driver enjoyment", but eventually the enthusiast will all be happy with buying the latest software upgrade instead of antiquated things like "human skill" that went out with the crankstarter. Who wants to actually enjoy controlling and driving their drivers car when you can have a computer do it better?

 

@ maxpowers. Yes, it is inevitable. I actually know almost no one who actually enjoys driving, especially no one in my children's generation. I suppose there will always be "classic car events" where troglodytes like us can indulge our love of the outmoded. On the day when our vehicles all become privately funded mass transportation modules, I'll start taking the train or bus. But none of this will keep me from enjoying the flexibility of my PDK equipped 911 today.

 

So how would you keep a voice activated PDK from shifting up or down while listening to a Wall Street business report on the radio when they say "the market it UP . . . or the market is DOWN?"
Or would it take the superior fidelity of the Burmeister audio system to cause such driving havoc?