to shift or not to shift. that seems to be the question

In my job with Porsche, one of the questions I get asked the most often is “should I get the stick shift or automatic?”  A couple of years ago, this was a very easy question to answer;  the manual Porsche’s were for the enthusiasts, the people that wanted to really feel and enjoy the car, as well as the ones who wanted the best performance.  The reason was the old Tiptronic, which in my opinion was probably the best “regular” automatic transmission in the industry, was really just that: an automatic transmission with a manual mode.  The Tiptronic had a power-robbing torque converter and only five forward gears.  It was very comfortable and smooth as well as capable of getting into an aggressive and sporty shifting pattern. But still, when it came down to pure performance, it was no match for Porsche’s six speed manuals. 

The transmission that changed everything.

For the 2009 model year, the Porsche sports cars received the new (for the retail market) 7-speed PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung) gearbox.  Porsche developed the PDK gearbox in the 80’s for the race cars and just released it for our street cars last year.  In a nutshell, the PDK is a 7-speed double clutch automated manual gearbox that simply does everything better than any standard manual transmission.  The PDK shifts quicker than any human being could possibly shift a manual gearbox.  In full-automatic mode, it also shifts smoother than the old tiptronic or just about any automatic transmission out there.  This gearbox is also extremely adaptive, almost psychic; it seems to always know what you’re trying to do and will almost always have you in the perfect gear.  When cruising casually down the street and not accelerating hard, you’ll be in 6^th gear before you hit 35 miles per hour.  That seems against everything we know about driving sports cars but it’s hard to argue with the EPA fuel economy numbers it generates and the extreme luxury-car-like comfort it provides.  As soon as you hit the gas hard, it will downshift to the lowest safe gear and not shift back up until the perfect time, even if it’s right at the redline.  This transmission really is better than the manual in every way. 

I have always been a manual transmission enthusiast.  To me the automatic vs manual debate has always been very easy: just go for the manual.  But now with the PDK Porsche has made it very difficult to make this decision; every time I drive a sports car with the PDK I think: “this is really the way to go. Why drive a manual when you can get something so much better?”  But then, I get back in to an old-fashioned stick shift car and realize why.  As good as the PDK is, there is nothing like the feeling of doing it yourself.   So which would I take?  Call me a purist but I’ll stick with the manual, thank you very much.