Mike in CA

That last parenthetical bit alone might be the best reason for going with the 6-speed Just kidding. Great write up and congrats on your choice!

LlBr

Hehe. That bet is really playing with fire! You get your nice new manual and The Wife starts wanting to learn to drive it. Do you know how long a clutch lasts with a non-totally-committed driver behind the wheel? If you make that bet be sure you live where there are lots of hills.

gmaier

Always one to think ahead, I've already offered to retrain her on my outgoing C4S, before I trade it in. I tried to teach her, once before. Needless to say, it was a frightening experience for all involved. Thankfully, I think she, herself, was so frightened, that she's not inclined to have another go...or, at least I hope that's the case!

LlBr

Ok, listen up buddy, now this is important, keep your mouth shut, see? Don't say ANYTHING! Never speak of this issue again! If her friends find out you may have another attempt to learn on your hands!

simsgw

I don't think we disagree, Mike. Not on the important points anyway. Like you, I've spent a lot of my life on freeways. It's been a little over fifty years in my case, but I suspect anything you haven't learned in the first thirty years probably isn't worth learning.

I certainly agree that very little is enjoyable about the sit-and-slip level of congestion. I just got stuck in a long one the other day coming back from our dealer. Car fire blocked three lanes of the northbound 405. At my age, with a stroke that has weakened my left leg, I'm sure I'd buy a PDK if I had to drive the 405 every day as I used to. The PDK certainly is a valid sports car transmission, and the fun went out of shifting with a clutch after the first fifteen minutes of doing the one-legged Stairmaster routine. Fortunately, that's a non-existent problem where we live in the high desert, and weakened or not, my leg can survive once-a-year sigalerts. (I hope. Do we have a touching wood icon?)

Now as to normal automatics, I'm less enthusiastic. I've seen some fairly tolerable ones, but the biggest problem I see with them in slow traffic is the transition from slowing on the overrun (at a rousing ten mph) to needing to accelerate again. (To an exciting fifteen mph.) Almost all of the conventional automatics have a slack, a sag if you will, on that transition unless you leave them in manual mode. When they do move into acceleration mode, they accelerate more sharply than I would using a manual transmission. This is a miniature version of the terrible jerk they apply if you try to stay in full automatic mode when cornering. The transition from braking into a corner to accelerating out of it catches almost any full automatic off guard and you jerk the passengers sharply.

I agree completely with the parts I know about in your reply, Mike, and the favorable reviews of PDK from you and other owners convince me it adds another type of entertainment to Porsches. You make me wish I'd tried one while we were shopping, just to know first hand what it is like.

Gary

Jim 'n' SC

6 Speed is "FREE" I would have to want PDK pretty bad to pay extra for it!

alexb76

I haven't followed this thread much, but basically gotto drive both for some extended period of time and pick the one you enjoyed the most.

PDK is faster, manual is more fun to drive/more engaging... very personal decision.

Mike in CA

As you say, Gary, I think we agree on the important parts. I share your feelings on automatics in general which is why, for so many years, I declined to own one in any car I, as opposed to my wife, would be driving regularly. The first car with an auto box where I found that driving enjoyment and an automatic tranny didn't have to be mutually exclusive concepts was my 2006 Audi S4 Avant. Maybe it's the paddle shift capability, it's adaptability to my driving style, the very responsive sport mode, the torquey high reving V8, or a combination of everything. But it seems to almost always be in the right gear, shifts smoothly when I want it to, and especially in sport mode is ready to go when I am. It's not as sporty as PDK but it's a big step above auto boxes I'd experienced previously. And it made me realize that I could be highly entertained with my first "automatic" in a sports car and enjoy the unique benefits of PDK with little regret at not having chosen the 6-speed.

Sorry for your "stairmaster" experience. Hope it doesn't happen again soon.

simsgw

You and me both, Mike. Of course, my doctors will be pulling for my doing it twice a week, but be damned to them.

I agree about the Audi by the way. Only by reputation in my case, but every report I read agreed with your assessment. So naturally we were planning to look only at manual boxes in the Audi S5 until we gave it up entirely in favor of testing various Porsche models. Old fashioned I suppose. Stubborn as well I suppose.

Gary

raspritz

So, I have a 6-spd, have driven PDK, and don't want it. For a DD in traffic or for the track where the point is to win, PDK is the way to go. But for those of us for whom our P-car is a toy and who want the old-school sports car experience (albeit with updated creature comforts), the 6-speed rules. To each, their own.

Mark618

Go with the PDK. I assure you will not have any regrets. You will get used to it quickly and wonder why you even considered a 6 spd. This is the new technology, go with it. FWIW the new Ferrari 458 is not even offered with a 6 spd.

Targa Tim

Of course there is regret.

Your left foot is not doing anything. Have you ever heard of muscular atrophy with lack of use?

LlBr

Nah, Get even more excitement and driver involvement by using the left foot only for braking!

ADias

Do you think? I excuse you for your lack of PDK experience. The left foot is growing muscle pushing the dead pedal, holding you in position in high-g corners, in situations where you would be retracting it from a clutch operated downshift requiring far less force. Trust me!