There is a specious argument in Jalopnik that only old guys prefer the "flappy paddles", as Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson calls all manumatic transmissions like our PDK, Ferrari's F1, and Audi's S-Tronic, etc. On the contrary, I believe it's us old guys (myself being one exception) who think like Clarkson and still prefer rowing with a stick than pulling a lever to up- and down-shift.

This poll helps figure out how age and transmission choice go together.

 

I love them both but for fastest shifts and ease of using the car as a DD, I prefer the PDK.

 

29, PDK ftw

 

Because I live in NY, I prefer PDK because heavy traffic makes driving a MT crazy, and the PDK gives me the option to go full automatic or manual. When I do go manual, I like to shift the stick and not the paddles -- the old fashioned way.

 

Drove Porsches with manual for 45 years. Working with PDK for the next 45.

 

Nuff said.

 

PDK; 29 years old. I'm a huge tech buff and the PDK is fascinating to me.

 

I do miss the manual sometimes although I never really mastered the heel and toe thing. I like the PDK and would do it again but 90% of the time I shift it myself in sport mode. It drives me crazy to be in 5th gear leaving my neighborhood at 30mph. No one in a manual trans car would be in such a high gear at such a slow speed.

 

Use Pdk in manual mode, that's what I do. I learned driving in a manual car and I do like the involvement but Pdk is just so crisp that once I drove a Pdk car manual was behind me...

 

Same 45 year strategy!

ChuckJ

 

Poll results suggesting you are in the minority so far.

 

you could make the counter-argument that if you are over a certain age, you had to learn to drive manual (especially if you are not from the USA or learned to drive elsewhere), and you are more comfortable with the manual, and growing up all the sportscars were manuals.

i don't know the numbers but i bet a lot less 20-25 year olds even know how to drive manuals than say, 20 years ago

 

Exactly what I was expecting to find. While I love using a manual stick and third pedal, I've evolved enough to embrace the latest technology and not join the ranks of the oldtimers who only want to talk about what it was like back in their day. In other words, most old guys are going to choose the stick while a higher ratio of youngsters will choose the paddles or buttons as they were raised on joysticks.

 

It's only an "age thing" for those who don't know their history (read George Santayana when you get a chance and expand your horizons).

In any case, back in the sixties the Mopar torque-flight transmissions were quite formidable at the dragstrip. This was the reason automatics raced in a separate class, e.g., B/Stock or B/stock Automatic. This is nothing new.

I personally bought one of the few LS6 454 Chevelles with an automatic in 1970. I had the tranny worked by Fairbanks Automotive and the car was one of the fastest street-racers in the Bronx. I made a ton of money racing that car because of the outrages "hole-shots" I used to pull.

I had ordered my C2S with a PDK, but I fell in love with an entirely different C2S while visiting the dealership one day and ended up with a manual. I'm sure I'd be happy with either.

I really find the Automatic VS Manual threads amusing, as I believe it's really a moot issue: a person should get whatever makes them happy. Who really cares about another person's opinion regarding what type transmission should be used.

And I say this from my heart: one shouldn't feel less manly because he's not rowing gears. I know that some people feel that way and they shouldn't: drive what pleases you.

 

Maybe a little clarification is in order: AutoWeek had an article that came up with the absurd notion that the reason the GT3 and Turbo don't offer the 7-speed manual is because of old folks who want an automatic and not a stick.

On the contrary, I find that many old timers like myself hate the fact that Ferrari and Lamborghini & Mercedes have dropped the manual altogether which flies in the face of the AutoWeek premise.

On the contrary, it seems that the real acceptance of the PDK, F1, S-Tronic or whatever you call a manumatic is more with the younger generations who maybe don't have the long history us oldtimers have with the stick.

So, this poll wasn't designed to make it PDK versus Manual or real man versus wimp or any such silliness. It was solely designed to determine if there is a statistical difference between the age of responders who make one choice over the other so as to prove or disprove AutoWeek's hypothesis. Nothing more than that.