Disclaimer: My daily driver is an automatic. I have no issue with automatic and most days, I prefer it.
Also, I consider a manual stick shift to be in the same category as PDK. Both allow manual control of the gears. So, for the purposes of this thread, stick shift = PDK.
A friend of mine keeps sending me ads of very cheap $3500 944's for sale. Invariably, they are automatics. I'm no car expert, but I don't see it... buying an old automatic P-car.
At that point, you're getting the downside of Euro repair costs, without the upside of a gearbox to optimize HP.
Normally, a muscle powerplant with gobs of torque may reduce the need for a gearbox, but the 944 is 150hp 4-cyl, so you'd need to keep RPM's high for spirited driving, right?
I personally would
prefer a manual Tercel over an automatic 944, b/c I can downshift before turns, not after.
He is very obstinate about learning the merits of why sports cars have manual gearboxes, and does not seem to acknowledge
repeated conversations about HP curves and RPMs.
Part of this, I believe, is that he has not learned anything beyond highway driving, declined to go to a DE or AX event, etc.
He only sees "cheap Porsche" and he cites a Car & Driver review of the 944 being a Top 10 car.
I suggest that Car & Driver was not reviewing an automatic 944. In one ear, out the other.
Seems he can only seems to focus on cheap price, without any regard to what he is actually buying.
For reference, this is the same guy who claimed
his mid 70s land yachts can be setup to drive like a sports car, and considers a Mitsu. 3000GT a small, nimble sports car