inkatouring

I find it very interesting that virtually everyone says PDK for daily driver. MT for second car/occasional driver. My Cayman is my daily and it's an MT. And I commuted 100 miles a day in some of the worst Northern California traffic through the heart of the Silicon Valley. Never did I wish I had a PDK. Never. My foot might have gotten fatigued once or twice on the worst day or two but that didn't make me want what I consider an inferior driving experience -- and, yes, I understand that the PDK is the superior performance transmission. Before I ordered my Cayman five-plus years ago, I rented a base Cayman from Hertz for a weekend to make sure it was the car for me. Of course, it was a PDK and it was a sublime transmission. But when I closed my eyes, I dreamed of the MT. And that was the answer to question for me: when you close your eyes and dream of driving how many pedals does the car have?

mile2424

Loved PDK until it failed and Porsche can't replace individual sub components......ouch

CarAholic

Ouch what happened to it and what car was it on?

okie981

Don't buy this BS line from any Porsche dealer or Porsche Indy shop.

Read this 18 page thread. Most of the common PDK failures are down to a few fairly easily replaceable components. Some indy shops will try to fix by replacing these components, but many owners try DIY.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ission-18.html

ekam

It's bombproof.... until it fails.

thedude abides

Glad I was able to get this PDK/MT debate rolling--I think!

For me, it's MT all the way. In my continuing search for a 981 BGTS, manuals with the "right" specs are tough buggers to find. So tough, I'm actually considering upping my spending limit to spring for a 981 Spyder, which of course all have MTs. My wife believes I've lost my mind and of course she might be correct.

Anyhow, we have as a DD her Macan S with PDK and it's a wonderful transmission. But as a second "fun" car, it had to be a MT. I would feel a loss of connection to the car with a PDK and even experienced this when I drove a friend's 981 BGTS with PDK. Fabulous car, it just felt like something was "missing". If I was buying for a DD and had to deal with heavy traffic, I may reconsider but since I'm not, MT for me.

BTW, if anyone has a 981 BGTS with MT they wish to part with (must have x73 suspension), let me know!

Cheers

GZ Boxster

Occasionally, I wish I'd found the right car with a manual we were ambivalent. We test drove several MT Boxster's 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2018 in addition to the PDKs. I'm happy we got the PDK so that my nieces and nephews can drive it. Wife can drive MT or PDK so that's moot. Quite a few NC/VA/WV roads would be more fun stirring the gears.

Kancamagus

An X73 manual BGTS is a throwback to the days of old. Normally aspirated, fixed dampers, manual. But I think this is the way the car most fully expresses it’s best attributes. Hold on Dude, it’s out there...

thedude abides

I can't say enough about how much that x73 suspension impressed me. Drove one with PASM and while acceptable, did not compare to the road feel of the x73.

Yes, I will keep the faith!

st981

The PDK is quicker, does beautiful blips and has a big advantage in traffic/daily driving which is where I absolutely hated my old manual sports cars.

However, since the Boxster is my weekend toy it had to be a manual. In fact, I couldn't find a manual S in my area so I ended up buying the 2.7L with the manual. I do miss the torque but only when people try to drag race me but I remind myself if I wanted to win drag races I should've bought a Tesla 100D. For me the manual makes the driving far more engaging and fun because my left foot isn't sitting dead on the side. Oh and I do my own downshift blips (heel-n-toe) whenever I feel like it (which is most of the time)

thedude abides

Beautiful! Just the experience I am looking for!

Curvesurfer

Sold my 991 PDK coupe and shopping for a Spyder 6MT.

My needs have evolved and I've become more sure of what I want/need in a sports car. My 991 was originally intended for DD and the PDK made sense. It's magical and with PSE provides a racing soundtrack.

But since then I've acquired a Macan PDK as a DD and take a shuttle to work (or will if we ever go back to the office). So the 911 was relegated to a weekend toy, solely for twisty mountain roads. For that, I find the isolation of the coupe and the lower engagement of the PDK to greatly undermine my enjoyment. Living in CA just minutes from the Santa Cruz mountains, my fun cars from now on will be topless and manual (old 911T notwithstanding).

thedude abides

For CA it’s gotta be a convertible with MT! Just like you’re alluding to more of a connection to the car.

st981

Same exact conclusion I came to recently hence the Boxster. In fact over at P9 my 2nd signature line reads 'In CA it should be a crime to drive a convertible with the top up'. Plus I will go further and say that I am truly enjoying a 'slower car' more because I can drive it harder and in the higher rev range without doing obscene speeds on the roads. I do wish the gear ratios on my MT were shorter, the 2nd is too long especially for a 6spd.

John Ferguson

If the MT were faster, I'd drive an MT. It's not. I don't. Also prefer PASM over X73 and 18 ways over LWB. Get what you want, not what someone else wants.