Porsche Isn't Getting Rid of Manual Transmissions Yet

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Oct 11, 2018

Public outcry made Porsche reconsider its plans for the stick-shift transmission

CarPix

As the rest of the industry slowly shies away from cars fitted with manual transmissions, Porsche has made a handful of about-turns on the matter. The latest word, coming from no less than Porsche North America CEO Klaus Zemmler, is that the German automaker will be offering manual transmissions “as long as there are customers who demand” one.

Porsche North America CEO Klaus Zemmler made those comments in a conversation with Motor Authority. According to Zemmler, the Stuttgart-based automaker was actually looking into phasing out manual transmissions on its cars before public outcry forced it to reconsider. “We were actually on a path of fading out a manual transmission, and the outcry of our customers was so loud that of course we listened and with the last GT3s…we came back with a manual,” the CEO said.

Porsche’s back-and-forth on using manual transmissions dates back a few years when it launched the current-generation 911 Turbo and the track-focused 911 GT3 with glaring omissions in their respective options lists. Neither model received options for a manual transmission. That decision sent Porsche fans, specifically fans of the weapons-grade GT3, into a frenzy. Porsche eventually listened and brought back the manual transmission, even though Zemmler also admits that only 20 to 25 percent of 911 and 911 S buyers choose a manual transmission.

Still, the company knows that getting rid of the row-on-your-own gearbox will send a lot of Porsche purists into their own versions of hissy fits. Porsche admits that even though a PDK transmission is better with regards to the pursuit of speed and performance — “if you want to be the fastest, the most control of the car, using the full potential of the car, there’s nothing better than the double-clutch, the PDK. It doesn’t get any better,” Zemmler said — there are still some buyers who prefer to be in control of their own Porsches and not rely on a computer to shift gears for them.

But even then, that’s not going to stop Porsche from sacrificing the manual transmission because it already did so in the past, and it received a lot of backlash because of it.

So the manual transmission lives on in Porsche. For now, at least.

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