ChicagoWhale

Initially, the 992 was not going to be offered with a manual transmission. The PDK-only decision was made and the drivetrain engineers went to work designing it around a PDK. Besides, manual transmissions are not popular in any country outside the US.

Remember, these decisions were made a few years ago. It was only after the success of the manual transmission GT3 in the US that forced PAG to reconsider their decision on the 992. The US is a large market, and it became apparent there was still a lot of demand for manuals. So, in a rare change of direction, the manual was approved late in the process and it required some additional time to redesign some of the drivetrain architecture.

enduro963

Have you been in Europe? 🤔

ChicagoWhale

Have I been in Europe? Unfortunately, not with this ankle monitor on. But I've always dreamed of going... would love to see the Pyramids and I absolutely love Mexican food.

hinckley

Peadsw

People here in Europe drive a lot of manual on standard cheap cars but on Porsche’s and sport cars they want the Pdk/automatic. It is very hard to sell a manual Porsche. My dealer has a base manual used that they tried to sell for over a year.
Even on gt3 people want pdk. I think because it’s the other way round in America that everything is automatic you tend to want manual in your sport cars.

krabman

I think some of it is perception, you've got experience with more aggressive automatic transmission shifting algorithms in your cars. Even pedestrian vehicles like the Skoda hatchback Mrs Crab keeps overseas can be firmer shifting than a typical US spec vehicle. Over here an auto is seen by most as the transmission in their mothers station wagon because that slushbox and ones like it are all they've ever known outside of a manual transmission and many have never driven the latter but that's what was in the performance cars their parents drove..Cars with DCTs are a rarity in the US and even if you do buy one they often have less aggressive shift programming because it meets the market expectation better that way. An example would be over in BMW land we used to reprogram the DCT with the Euro spec shifting and it's substantially more aggressive, you notice it as soon as you roll out on the road. It was however mechanically identical, they just toned it down for the US. To aveerage US customers that (aren't car types) that DCT doesn't shift nearly as smoothly as the Lexus sitting next to it and it's considered inferior, to have less refinement. Even in performance circles it's hard to get across just how different DCTs are compared to a fluid coupling. Over in Corvette land people were thrilled they were not getting a DCT when C7 came out because of their lack of refinement and because the slushbox OEMs give them shift speed numbers which sound good, are competitive, but are actually meaningless. Ignorance is bliss. Yes, I'm from the US and I'm calling my country out in this respect. It's not just transmissions: You wouldn't believe how many people think putting on a 10lb heavier 22" wheel will make their car faster over here.

dhirm5

Great response. Still chuckling...

Noah Fect

No Porsche content but I thought this guy's trans-Alpine travelogue made for a great story. He reports that even the rental Miatas were automatics, and I would certainly never have expected that in Europe.

moomin

His case is pretty isolated and specific. I've spent months in the EU for work. While things are changing (MT = dying), stick is way more common in the EU than the US. Around 95% of cars in the US are Auto. In the UK, MT represented at least 60% of new vehicle registrations in '17. The trend is towards auto, cars older than '14's will almost always be MT. It's mostly down to emissions too. I'm glad the 992 will be avail in MT.