I was at the dealership today as my friend test drove a 14 Cayman S . Since he was a manual transmission driver for entire life and recently had elbow surgery the idea of a PDK car thrilled him . I mentioned that I had a 2009 997S PDK and when i test drove the 2012 car I was so blown away by how far it had evolved that it promted me to sell my 09 car .

That's when the salesman asked if i had driven a 2013 . I had not . I had not read of any changes . The salesman expresed that the 2013 car is even superior in shifting to the 2012 car . He said it was smoother and more rapid in gear shifts .

My Turbo (manual)is in service and my 13 BoxsterS is a manual .

One of my concerns about the PDK unit is that it can evolve and if what the salesman expresed is accurate then two cars which look identical in every aspect could actually drive differently just from that one piece .

He has obviously driven them all . I did not get to ask the shop foreman or technians yet . But i did want to get some opinions from those who drove both cars .

 

isnt it just a software update?

 

+1

Was not aware of any mechanical changes from 12' to 13'.
Only aware of the software update.

 

I test drove a 13 C2S and found no difference in PDK performance from my April 12 C2S. If there was any, Porsche marketing would be touting it as a key feature necessitating immediate upgrade by trade in!

 

Had the same experience.

ChuckJ

 

Could the OP be talking about the difference between the last of the 997 PDk compared to a 991 PDk?

 

Ah that could be it- there was a definite improvement with the 991 generation PDK. Will it ever get better? Only for sure.

 

Salesmen. Nuff said.

No changes have occurred with the hardware - changes have occurred with the software, but no performance changes AFAIK.

 

No . I already knew that the 991 PDK was greatly improved when i test drove the car at the launch . It actually promped me to sell my 09 car because the PDK was that good . At taht time therre were some in the 997 forum who argued that the 991 was (paraphrasing) "softer" . I disagreed . I loved the 991 gearbox .

I also am aware of the software updates so that isn't what i was discusing either .

One topic that has been discussed throughtout variois models is that even if a model has "no changes" listed that Porsche does actually make slight improvements year to year. In fact many of the updates are even allowing them to do so mid year too.

I think in order to really know one would have to drive both cars back to back . Keep in mind that the salesman did not bring up the topic to sell me a car because i bought one from him a week ago . I believe he really sincerely feels that he notices differences after driving thse cars all day long.

 

The performance data has not changed . That i agree on . Keep in mind that peformance data did not change either on the 997.1 as well as the 997.2 cars yeat year to year there were slight improvements even when no changes were listed .

The person who would notice them the most would be a salesman as he drives the buffet of latest models daily .

 

I was advised by my dealer that my January, 2013 build 991S X51 needed a software update to the PDK. First I'd heard of 2013's needing an upgrade?

 

There is an Open Campaign (recall) regarding the PDK. It affected mine which is a launch car (very early build). A couple months ago I was driving back from the Glen and the car went into limp mode on the highway. I pulled over, shut it off and back on, and it didn't happen again. Still, I took it in for service which is when they told me of the PDK recall, which can cause this problem. They reflashed the PDK in 30 mins and I was on my way.

In the 997 PDK's, there were constantly software tweaks that were updated at the dealer. I expect it will be the same for the 991. No big deal.

That said, the 991 GT3 steering is a good example of just how much software alone can make a difference. (The GT3s steering hardware is identical to the 991 Carreras but the early reviews say it is much better feeling due solely to the new software).

 

I have owned a 2012 991 that I drove for 17,000 miles and 2013 991 (already 8,500 miles so far) both with PDK and have not noticed any difference between the two.
Sure there has been and will be software updates, but so far nothing that would really be noticeable. Now if Porsche offered the GT3 software, it would probably be a different story...

 

I've been regularly test driving cars at my dealership, and this is my very casual opinion:

997.2S PDK - not a fan at all, it was sluggish and I hated the buttons on the steering wheel.
997GTS with paddles - massive improvement, I could definitely live with this transmission.
991S, 2012 model and 2013 models, better again than the GTS, but I could not feel any difference between the year models. I reckon Porsche have finally got it right.

When my MY2014 arrives at the end of July I'll offer my opinion again, but I don't expect any difference.

Completely agree! From that Chris Harris video, it seems like that is the one we all want!

 

One may have had the latest software flash and one did not because the transmission hardware is the same on those cars so the PDK performance should be identical.

Also the steering wheels on all the 997.2 PDKs (including the GTS) are interchangeable, meaning you can spec or swap paddles, multi-function, standard wheel, etc. on any of these cars.