Took a very nice and thorough test drive in a 4S a few days back. LOVE the car in every way....almost.

I have heard about how great the PDK is and how people coming from a manual transmission don't miss the performance of their stick shift.

Maybe I was doing something wrong, but to me the PDK still felt sluggish compared to a traditional manual. There definitely seemed to be hesitaion/delay upon starting from a standstill, much like a regular automatic, and while manual downshifts felt like they happened quickly, upshifts felt very sluggish at times. At other times it just felt like the transmission couldn't make up it's mind what it wanted to do.

Was I doing something wrong? Is there a big learning curve with learning how to drive cars with these automated clutch systems? Mind you, I'm coming from an Audi RS4 which has a flawless manual gearbox and a high revving V8, but the quickness I expected from the PDK just wasn't there.

Any input/words of wisdom appreciated.

 

Were you driving in automatic mode or manual? Also if you put the car in "sport" (if it had it) it would shift much faster.

 

It can feel sluggish in regular mode. Put it into sport or sport plus and all your concerns go away..

 

The car never starts in first unless you put it in first. Put that baby in 1st gear and start that way

 

In 'automatic', the car starts in 2nd while in 'Comfort' and 'Sport' mode, 1st in 'Sport Plus'. Now, the response is much more aggressive in Sport than Comfort. I can't stand driving mine in comfort mode, so it's now habit for me to start the car and press 'Sport'. When I've got a little fire going, it's Sport Plus.

Or, manually shift it down to first of you like. The thing with Manual mode is that it will revert back to automatic if you don't manually shift gears within 7 seconds.

 

In normal driving situation with mild acceleration, there's bit of delay and slowness, in my case I could easily feel it with my PT, understandable however as it's only for the first gear change from standstill and the car weighs 2t. To compensate this, even in comfort mode this car is stunningly fast and after first clumsiness gear change later on is amazingly smooth with absolutely no stress.

 

When I got my 997 s PDK last year, it was sluggish at first. After breakin and verying between normal, sport and sport plus, the computer go to know my driving habits. No worries, it will change!!!

 

This explains a lot. I would put it into manual in 1st at a light and then I think by the time I actually pulled out, it reverted back to auto/2nd. I never really had a problem with aggressive driving while in motion, it was mainly issues with starting from a standstill.

 

i always put mine in sport plus and fixed to manual mode.... i just wish i got paddle shift...

i always mis-shift with the damn PDK buttons