You nailed it.

 

A completely unanswerable question (which is better), that can only be answered by applying the individual preferences.. I like the categorizations that were mentioned earlier in the thread and that is probably is helpful for an individual to decide what is important.

I tend to be of the opinion that the more hard core users of a 911 that track their car and/or drive in a very high performance way already know what they prefer.. or at least understand the tradeoffs..

For the rest of us who enjoy a nice sports car... and it isn't an issue of extracting the ultimate performance of the car.. The PDK vs Manual becomes much more of personal preference (or prejudices) and/or daily driving habits.. And it's good to hear all the perspectives, but in the end, and within this category of driver I think you have to drive them both a bit to see what feels best..

I personally like them both and struggled with the decision. It seemed blasphemous to me at first to have an "automatic" sports car (yes I know PDK is really a automated manual.. etc).. But to me the paddle shifters on a sport wheel felt good and the more I test drove them the more it grew on me.. And the thought of going away from a manual didn't seem so.. terrible..

That coupled with mine as a DD, and as much as I enjoy a manual, I also dread heavy stop and go traffic.. If I didn't have to deal with crawl and go traffic.. I might have gone the other direction..

The other perspective is that humans tend to hate changing something they are familiar with or like.... and the PDK represents a significant change. I remember endlessly trying to explain to my father in the 80's why a PC was better for word processing or financial calculations than a pad of paper. Or even in light general aviation airplanes as "glass" ****pits started to replace steam gauges.. Change even for the better is tough to accept when you like and are familiar.

So, I suspect 20 years from now, manual's will be something in a museum sort of like the manual cranks that were used before starters.. I'm sure someone back then purists argued they were more "engaged" when they started the car that way. I'm pretty sure people once argued that electricity was unnecessary in the home and you should just go to bed when it gets dark..

Anyway, just drive it and see what floats your boat..

 

Off topic, but find it funny that writing the word "c-o-c-k-p-i-t" gets automatically censored.. lol.. interesting

 

Yea, and while we're at it, lets throw out power steering and power brakes along with those emotionless paddles.

We can just tell the "Formula 1" drivers that they will be more connected with the "driving experience" that way.

PDK convert here!

 

Power steering and brakes really aren't the same thing. Brakes or steering that didn't require user input to stay on the road would be a valid comparison.

PDK, too, is not the same thing as a racing transmission. Racing transmissions don't have "auto" modes - they require the driver the actuate the shift each and every time.