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kentv1
I'm being told that a manual is more fun and has better resale value. I'm considering a 718 Boxster or cab 911. I was leaning toward fully manual, as well, but after driving the PDK I did get some sense of a "manual" shift, and some people these days just aren't good at a fully manual shift vehicle. In addition, 95% of the new cars out there are PDK. So, I'm wondering which really would have greater resale value and which I'd enjoy more. I'm leaning toward full manual shift at this point. I'm not intimidated by the stop and go traffic argument against a manual. I can deal with that. But is the PDK really that much fun? Better? What are your thoughts?
If 95% of the new cars are PDK that suggests when it comes time to sell you will have a larger market into which to sell. What attracts new car buyer to the PDK will also attract used car buyers.
Have to tell you as a life long manual transmission fan -- with just one exception when back in the mid 1970's I ended up with a used Dodge D200 pickup with an automatic this vehicle serving a dual role as personal vehicle and work vehicle -- I decided to switch gears, so to speak, and I bought my first car equipped with an automatic transmission. This back in Dec. of last year. Didn't buy a Porsche though. Instead I bought a Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack. With 485hp I felt an automatic would be the better transmission to get the most from the engine. (I had just gotten rid of my 2003 996 Turbo with a 6-speed manual and one of its negatives was its manual transmission. It had the effect of muting somewhat the engine's 420hp due to the issue of launching the car from a stop and the slow shift speeds running up through the gears.)
I felt the 8-speed automatic paired with the 485hp V8 would be a good combination. The time I owned the Scat Pack this proved to be the case.
Long story short after just 2 months I traded in the Scat Pack for a Hellcat.
As with the Scat Pack so too with the Hellcat, that is I stayed with the theme and got one with the 8 speed automatic. For the Hellcat an automatic is even a better choice. This engine is so powerful (707hp, 651 lb ft of torque, 411+ at 1200 RPMs (the Turbo managed just 413 ft lbs at its max torque peak)) really the only way to keep up with things as the engine gains RPMs (and it gains RPMs even faster than the Turbo and the Turbo engine was no slouch in this department) under hard acceleration is to let the automatic handle the shifts. The automatic shifts in around 150 milliseconds and as a result the acceleration is relentless. There is only the slightest pause as the transmission shifts to the next higher gear but this pause is ended by one's back being slammed back against the seat back as the brutal acceleration resumes.
Yet the car is a pussy cat in traffic, around town -- to the point I prefer to drive it vs. the town/commuter car I bought: a Mini JCW with a 6-speed manual -- but once out of traffic, out of town, and with other conditions permitting, it can be a monster. (And it is: That Hellcat name fits...)
The 8-speed transmission has a manual shift mode which lets me use the lever to shift up or down or I can use the paddles mounted on the steering wheel. Even in manual mode the transmission downshifts, err automatically, so when coming up to a stop I can let the transmission handle this if I want to. 'course, at other times I can use the paddle to downshift and the transmission goes down but there is no risk of it going down too many gears and making a "money shift". It is just pull back on the downshift paddle a couple of times in rapid succession concurrent with slamming the gas pedal to the carpet and then hang on for dear life as the car gains speed like there is no tomorrow and the scenery becomes a blur.
But as I mentioned above, with the transmission in auto shift mode the car is a pussy cat when driving around town or in commuter traffic. Even in these driving conditions I sometimes use manual mode which while I don't have to worry about working the clutch and the shift lever in unison I find I still need to be aware of having to decide when to shift. This is really where the engagement with the car comes from with a manual transmission. The clutch/shift lever becomes automatic (so to speak) after a while, after a short while, and one does this action over and over again with no thought. Really it has to be automatic. When to shift though, that requires considering various things and that doesn't change just because one uses a paddle to shift rather than a shift lever of a manual transmission. Thus I find even with the an automatic in the car when in manual mode I get my fix of manually shifting the transmission when using the paddles. Really this gives me the best of both worlds.
That the Hellcat equipped with the 8-speed automatic is loads faster than the same car equipped with a manual is icing on the cake.
After having driven the Hellcat nearly 10K miles really, the only reason to have a manual transmission in this car is to slow the car down some. With the automatic with it shifting things happen so fast -- mainly the car's speed increases so quickly -- one needs pretty much all his attention on just driving the car. A manual would result in a much more leisurely experience and one could sit back and enjoy the scenery as the car accelerates.
Bottom line is with an automatic one doesn't have to give up any enjoyment of a car and in fact the enjoyment level could possibly even go up.
Blah blah blah...
You say you are leaning towards a manual. I suspect then that's what you should get. But my usual recommendation in these cases of A or B is to always try to test drive examples of both. Use the paddle shift of the PDK and see if this form of "manual" shifting scratches that "itch".