Boomer80

As I continue my search for a used 958, I'm seeing several Manual tranny's for sale. As I've gotten older, and not having had a sports car for several years now (body couldn't take getting in and out of a low car anymore) and thus haven't had a need for a manual, I was wondering what the pros and cons of getting a manual in a Cayenne might be? I'm being very open in my search, but this has brought another dimension into the search.

raydog9379

With sports cars, the newer (i.e. last 15-20 years and newer) manual transmission cars are much more valuable as they are rarer. Look at gated Gallardo's and 360's vs. their F1/paddle shift counterparts. Will the same hold true for Cayenne's, maybe down the road if you had one of the GTS manuals from say 2009. But the base manual 958's, probably not so given the smaller HP #s.

AGARubberDuck

The biggest drawback I see is being limited to the base model 958. Going even to S brings a lot of standard niceties that are only options (likely not selected on a base), let alone GTS or Turbo. The chief problem for me would be the pretty major tradeoff for a sporty feeling manual transmission on a base, compared to 500HP with air suspension, PDCC and PTV+ on a turbo s.

One upon a time I had an early 90's Nissan Sentra with a 5-speed manual. This is the kind of car that you turned off the AC to shave off 3 seconds getting to 60mph. Personally, rowing gears for the sake of rowing gears in a slow vehicle doesn't do it for me. Now if they'd fit a manual to a turbo, shut up and take my money!

F SANE IL

No point in Manual these days. while you switch to 2nd, i'm already in 4th blowing through gears like batman. The only upside is if you live outside packed city where you have open roads, sometimes its fun to drive manual, and even at that.... when you have open roads, you're just in one gear all the time anyway. I don't see a point to it on the Cayenne and I agree with above statement "i rather concentrate on all the goodies you can get than get fixated on a manual trans.

jpru2001

If I ever get a weekend 911, I'd be fine with manual. I don't want to have to deal with a manual in a daily driver in traffic.

Sudar

Manual sedan, sports coupe I can see the appeal. Manual SUV not so much. Also going to be replacing clutches, so extra maintenance. I had pretty much all manuals, Cayenne is my first Auto

RAudi Driver

I'd never get a manual Cayenne. Defeats the purpose of a sport ut. I love being able to hop in my car with surfboards packed inside, cup of coffee in my hand and stab the gas. nothing beats it.

tigercay16

Manuals less reliable, cost more to maintain.
Two or more drivers will use the clutch at different biting points causing wear. Not an issue with Auto's.
Cayenne Auto is very very smooth and can switch into a beast instantly.
More than six gears in a manual can be hard work and missing a shift will slow you down, wrong shift can cause damage and slow you down.

dbv1

Manual all the way. It's slow compared to 911s but so are all other Cayennes, short of the Turbo. Not like you can unleash a 911 properly outside of a track anyway. I just kicked mine around some twisty backcountry roads 2 weeks ago for about 8 hours total and it was tones of fun, all of 300 hp, steel suspension and the manual shifter. Kept downshifting for the uphills just to hear the 3.6. It's not exactly a flat 6 sound but it has pretty nice grunt. I don't know, faking it with the paddles never did it for me. It's too bad they never released a manual 958 GTS but that's a different story.

dbv1

Less reliable? I've probably put something like 200K on various manuals with exactly zero problems you describe. It's cheaper to maintain too. Smooth auto? Read the autocross thread that was a here last week. Maybe smooth when you're out getting groceries but not really otherwise.

tigercay16

Never had an issue with an auto, one car I have is 35 years old. Only had it for 8 years but no issues.
Had over 8 Auto's and never had a single problem and put well over 200k on them
Had a few problems with manuals, clutch, gearbox.

My Cayenne is very smooth in comfort mode (car & me), admittedly don't thrash mine around, so it is very smooth for me, certainly shifts if you put your foot down, which I do for overtaking and this is also smooth.
guess it depends on how you drive it? In usual everyday driving auto's are very smooth and much more comfortable & easier to drive.
I used to prefer Manual to Auto but that was a long time ago and especially as manuals have cost me money and autos haven't. I've also put more miles on auto's.

I've had a couple of friends with some fancy cars who have had astronomical bills from manuals, one decided to sell the car after the repair was done. This was a Ferrari 360 so was many years ago now, but autos from
the same period have been ultra reliable for me, even with cars I have driven to their limits. I'm just not interested in driving a Cayenne fast or to it's limits. Each to their own.

Sudar

Reliability of manual mostly depends on clutch wear. Honda can go 200k on 1 clutch, not sure about Cayenne. I know some 911/Cayman people have to replace it as soon as 50k

mafpolo

Manual. It's not about the quickness. Today's PDK and other auto transmissions are quicker than a manual, but shifting gears is so much fun. It comes down to personal preference. Some people don't enjoy it. I do. As far as maintnence and reliability goes, try the cost of repair on an automatic transmission than a manual. You will need to replace a clutch at some point if you keep it long enough. The manual Cayenne's sell fast, so somebody likes them.

dbv1

Thrashing is a harsh word. These are supposed to be drivers' cars. I change oil every 4-5K miles and send out the old oil for analysis regularly. All oil reports came back looking pretty good so it doesn't seem like my driving is causing my base Cayenne (no sunroof!) any harm.

Both of you are right, it's a personal preference.

amfp

To me, if you like manual and plan to keep a very long time, that is a personal decision - go for it. To me, I think about an exit strategy. Probably is much more difficult to sell a manual in the open market, plus PDK is great transmission.