CAA

This post is about six weeks late but better late than never I guess. Back in July of 2012 I bought a 2009 Carrera with pdk. My intent was to drive the car daily (in D.C. area traffic) and I'd heard great things about the new PDK transmission so on paper it seemed to fit the bill. I definitely loved the car itself, but after about 14 months I realized that I missed rowing the gears on my own. I also felt that after 14 months if I hadn't gotten used to some of the PDK's "subtle nuances" that I was never going to be completely satisfied.

A couple of these that some of you may be familiar with, agree with, or disagree with, follow. Daily driving in auto mode, I never felt like I was in the right gear. I appreciated the fuel economy, but hated the fact that the shift pattern would default from 1st to 4th gear essentially after the car started rolling. Sport mode was nice, but the hard downshift to first coming to a stop just didn't seem like something I would normally do in a manual transmission and wasn't really conducive to full time use. Sport Plus, never had the car on the track to warrant using it, and it's pretty much ridiculous for street driving....but I digress.

After 14 months of ownership I knew I genuinely loved the 997 platform so I started looking for the options I felt I was missing with the current car (more HP, better brakes, stiffer suspention) - you can see where this is going. So here she is and apologies for my photography skills...

2010 Carrera S Coupe
Blk / Blk
6 Speed
22,000 miles
Nav/XM/PCM
Sport etc

Loving the car so far and just wanted to announce the change! Here are two pics of the old and new car.



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bumpjump

I might have been happy to take the '09 off your hands.

I just purchased a similarly equipped '09 S with PDK. I'm loving it so far but can easily relate to your comments about the transmission. We'll see where I stand in 18 months! Enjoy the new car--curious, where do you go for service in the DC area? I purchased mine at Porsche of Arlington but have been warned off their service department.

myw

congrats. the 911 with oem short shifter provides a really fantastic driving experience imo.

CAA

Thank you - my 09 was a non-S but to be fair I hadn't advertised it for sale. It actually went via word of mouth and was a really easy process. I had one warranty issue with my last one (vibrating passenger seat) and that was "handled" by Porsche of Tysons. I say handled because they drove it around the block for 5 minutes, came back and said "they all do that". Turns out the new car passenger seat has a slight vibration as well so maybe they're right.

The only other required work was oil changes and I did those myself - pretty easy. Hopefully I'll see you driving around the area.

CAA

Thanks - appreciate it!

Ynot

You made the right choice, if I can only have one sports car, than it has to be manual. If I have multiples than one can be PDK. No matter how great PDK is, it's still not a manual. A majority of the population will resort to auto mode as soon as the novelty of shifting with paddles wears off. Then like you experienced will become a boring car.

chris.hanle

Boring might be an exaggeration. Boring is a coralla/camry/odessy etc.

francars

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am not sure who many PDK vs Manual owners are here in this forum but I can appreciate the 6 speed manual shift. I have not driven a PDK and have heard great things on them. I know you could go faster on a PDK ,etc... but I feel the interaction with the third pedal is priceless...

socalsteve

My sentiments exactly! Call me "old school" but a sports car needs to be a manual, PERIOD! Don't care if its faster, quicker, whatever, its just not the same!!!

I truly feel PDK is just a rationale for people who would normally not drive the marque because it is a sports car and requires some work, to be able to tout it as the end all-be all...but in the end, they probably just end up in auto mode 95% of the time anyway.

Just my $.02, for whatever that is worth (not more than $.02, obviously).

wheeler

Congrats! I wouldn't have my car any other way. But I don't daily drive in traffic or anything annoying either...just a fun car. I've had mine since the first of Oct and have put about 1200 miles on it. About 2 weeks ago I installed the OEM 997.2 GT3 shifter...it is AWESOME. There truly is no substitute.

GSIRM3

Congratulations and another vote for MT.

Speedster8

Wow, I really appreciate this post. I was looking for a C2(s) manual, but seeing that there so many more PDK's, and it's superiority in performance AND fuel mileage (complexity and potentially maintenance cost), I added PDK to the search. But now this makes me think, I should definitely stick to the manual. I really am not going to drag race and unfortunately, I think manual shifting days are numbered. This could be it! Thanks for sharing.

moab

I don't think that is a fair statement. I have driven manual cars my entire life. The 911 is my first "auto" (also not really a fair characertization of the transmission) and the reason I went the PDK route is that the 911 is my DD and I live in a very congested city where driving is a major PITA. I would say 75% of my yearly driving is to and from work (during rush hour) and I finally had enough of rowing the gears a million times a day. The PDK is a great transmission, is still fun for daily driving and I have no regrets when I track the car in the summer.

socalsteve

I live in probably the most congested city in the world (Los Angeles)...and, I still love driving my manual transmission sports car every day to and from work. I do not own another vehicle.

CAA

Thanks for all the replies. My intention wasn't to say one is better than the other, or start a debate, just my two cents after living with it for a while. The red 997 was my fifth 911 (two previous G50 3.2's and two 993's) and the first that wasn't manual so I think I kept a pretty open mind.