GT4 Pricing - PDK V Manual? - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

There was a bit of chat about the above a while ago when PDK was a bit of a novelty/not many around second hand. I wondered what peoples thoughts are now re values please? Question I guess is, on a well spec’d nearly new GT4 Will the PDK equipped car carry a premium over a manual or not?

I have been keeping an eye on the market for the past month or so with a view to buy very soon. What i have noticed are the prices decreasing across the board for all GT4's regardless of spec or PDK and Manual. My budget worked out to be a high spec manual or a low spec PDK, however with the price decreases recently this might change. The PDK's are still commanding a higher price than manuals, 1 reason is they are newer than most manuals being a 2021 car. vs 2020 cars. Recently some high spec cars with low miles have dipped under 90k, albeit not at Porsche dealers. There are a good handful of PDK cars which have had price drops to mid 90's from over 100k.

finmac said: There was a bit of chat about the above a while ago when PDK was a bit of a novelty/not many around second hand. I wondered what peoples thoughts are now re values please? Question I guess is, on a well spec’d nearly new GT4 Will the PDK equipped car carry a premium over a manual or not? There are 22 GT4’s with PDK currently for sale on Autotrader. Only 1 is under 95 grand and that’s the JZM car with comfort seats, steel brakes, side decals and 3 previous owners. Alternatively there are 56 GT4’s with manual transmission 16 of which are for sale under 90k. I think regardless of age it would appear the market for PDK is stronger.

Good question. I can give a owners reply who has actually now sold his pdk GT4. I was lucky enough to be able to test a manual 718 gt4 car against a pdk 718 gt4 car back to back on the same day. What I can tell you is the PDK made the car feel far more alive and far more a event to drive. The manual car felt lazy and slow compared to the PDK. I actually went in with my heart set on ordering a new manual 718 gt4 until the supplying dealer said you have to try the PDK 718 gt4 before you make that decision. Oh and I’ve already owned a number of new PDK cars before this one so I knew what the gearbox was about. Now onto the selling process, these cars a very spec sensitive and a the dealer who actually bought the car off me said he wouldn’t of been interested in the car as a manual! Don’t believe the hype on selling the margins the dealers want to make in these cars are huge and the private buyers offer less than trade bids! But to answer your question as a seller it was obvious at the time of selling my car a pdk commanded a lot more over a manual, 918 buckets and body colour is also a big factor.

manuals certainly command 10 to 20% more than PDK.................... in time. Not now. Fast forward 5 years from now, manual will command more.

julian987R said: manuals certainly command 10 to 20% more than PDK.................... in time. Not now. Fast forward 5 years from now, manual will command more. Agree a manual adds an extra layer , a great layer of involvement of what is essentially a WE toy .A toy to make you feel more like a driving god that has to be as far apart than your daily or the wife’s school runner SUV , what ever badge that “ auto “ SUV family hack , city barge carries be it a Hyundai or Bentley/ Aston and everything in between.

The history of values in every performance car ever is that long term manuals are worth more. Always. The PDK was released on GT4 sometime after the manual (2 years?) so they’re newer, this in the short term worth more. But longer term, definitely less as no reason they should be any different from every other variant.

Fiammetta said: julian987R said: manuals certainly command 10 to 20% more than PDK.................... in time. Not now. Fast forward 5 years from now, manual will command more. Agree a manual adds an extra layer , a great layer of involvement of what is essentially a WE toy .A toy to make you feel more like a driving god that has to be as far apart than your daily or the wife’s school runner SUV , what ever badge that “ auto “ SUV family hack , city barge carries be it a Hyundai or Bentley/ Aston and everything in between. I agree a manual adds an extra layer of involvement. However for me, a combination of the gearing compromises with the manual and how well the PDK suits the GT4, more than offsets the missing layer of involvement through shifting manually. With regards to Julian’s predication on future price differentials, why are we not seeing a 10% to 20% price gap with the 991.2 GT3? For GT3s, it’s circa 5% and that’s with a car where there is less compromise with the manual gearbox (gear ratios) compared to the GT4.

PDK will only ever account for c25% max of the GT4 718 market due to the extra length of time manual have been around. From the total cars currently on the OPC market, if you want a PDK there are 12(from 42!)... if you want a PDK with buckets there are only 5... if you want a PDK buckets and the extended leather dash, there's only 3! All of which are £107-115k. The same rough % split when you rock onto Auto trader and start filtering, there are only a handful of cars. In the past GT4's have in the main been less spec sensitive when it comes to price, and less so because they were all manual, then PDK started appearing. I remember before ordering my car last year I was watching the used market and certain cars were hanging around for ages even though they were 'cheap'. Those cars didn't have one or more PDLS+, Buckets, extended leather, Chrono etc. which are pretty much all the 'desired' options outside of the desired 'track' items (Clubsport). Add in that some of these cars are now 3 years old and have milage on them, add in private v independent v OPC, throw PDK into the mix and there are now so many levels of cars which means multiple different price brackets v availability. There will be people who will come out and say "I don't want buckets" or "not having LED's doesn't bother me", but in the main it's cars with the options above which are higher priced and they are the cars which sell quickly, also it's those cars that fly through places like Romans etc. There will always be anomalies with odd specced cars, but for me market is adapting to all the variables above and reacting accordingly, and the gap will always be there. Just like GT4RS did, I went in to order mine (c6 months after PDK first came out) with a Manual firm in my mind, but my OPC told me to try a PDK, so he arranged a back to back test drive. I was blown away, the PDK IMO brings that engine alive, it's always so eager, but that's my personal opinion. The price differences aren't however wholly made up of one being better than the other.

https://www.romansinternational.com/used-vehicle-d... 718 Spyder PDK prices going up 😳

This must be dependent on timeframe. Right now pdk GT4s are rarer and most buyers of new cars tend to prefer pdk. Since Jan 2021, 84% of new UK GT4s have been pdk. However, assuming that continues through to the end of production the proportion of pdk cars will increase from 30% currently to 40%+. Depends a bit on how long Porsche continue production, but seems likely there won’t be that many more manual cars than pdk. At that point there may still be a price gap, but it will likely be reduced and to then equalise over time. As has been pointed out above, for older GT cars (and other marques) manual’s tend to have a premium and hard to see why that would be any different for the 718 GT4. So IMO purely from a price perspective if flipping, pdk, if keeping for a few years, makes little difference, and if long term hold, manual. But then if you’re going to buy one and use it for 15 years, do you really care if it’s worth a bit more at that point. So we still end up with “buy what you want”!

shoaib said: https://www.romansinternational.com/used-vehicle-d... 718 Spyder PDK prices going up ?? If this car was PTS in a rare decent colour instead of boring black and was formerly owned by Lewis Hamilton it may sell for the ridiculous Romans International asking price of £144,000

Obviously the majority of owners have manuals so will be a louder voice than the rarer more astute PDK owners…. Just watch the market instead of asking a larger number of manual owners what will be more valuable. So far the market says PDK is more valuable, I think that will continue as the car is better suited to the PDK box as it’s f k all torque

johnycarrera said: Obviously the majority of owners have manuals so will be a louder voice than the rarer more astute PDK owners…. Just watch the market instead of asking a larger number of manual owners what will be more valuable. So far the market says PDK is more valuable, I think that will continue as the car is better suited to the PDK box as it’s f k all torque Watch the market? Well, quite. Show me a PDK Porsche that’s worth more in the longer term than a manual…?

Pdk will always sell at a premium over a manual as it suits the car much better and I don't see that ever changing in the future, it's not like the manual gearing is ever going to improve with time. Having owned both gearboxes it genuinely beats me why most people order manual, speaking with 2 OPC sales guys they both said buyers are convinced that the manual box makes it a drivers car and will be better for future values, they also told me numerous cars have been put back in as owners find the reality is they can't get away with the manual box. if you are looking for a Spyder in PDK it's more of a struggle,I check daily and average of 90% Spyders on the market are manual, currently only 1 pdk for sale on autotrader out of 18 cars, then if you trying to find one in a decent colour with a half decent spec it becomes almost impossible, they tend to be boring colours like the silvers and greys with a plastic dash.

JeffC said: Pdk will always sell at a premium over a manual as it suits the car much better and I don't see that ever changing in the future, it's not like the manual gearing is ever going to improve with time. Having owned both gearboxes it genuinely beats me why most people order manual, speaking with 2 OPC sales guys they both said buyers are convinced that the manual box makes it a drivers car and will be better for future values, they also told me numerous cars have been put back in as owners find the reality is they can't get away with the manual box. if you are looking for a Spyder in PDK it's more of a struggle,I check daily and average of 90% Spyders on the market are manual, currently only 1 pdk for sale on autotrader out of 18 cars, then if you trying to find one in a decent colour with a half decent spec it becomes almost impossible, they tend to be boring colours like the silvers and greys with a plastic dash. It appears that most gt4 owners who got a pts slot and an interesting colour are keeping hold of them because yes indeed - most for sale are boring colours……

JeffC said: Pdk will always sell at a premium over a manual as it suits the car much better and I don't see that ever changing in the future, it's not like the manual gearing is ever going to improve with time. Having owned both gearboxes it genuinely beats me why most people order manual, speaking with 2 OPC sales guys they both said buyers are convinced that the manual box makes it a drivers car and will be better for future values, they also told me numerous cars have been put back in as owners find the reality is they can't get away with the manual box. if you are looking for a Spyder in PDK it's more of a struggle,I check daily and average of 90% Spyders on the market are manual, currently only 1 pdk for sale on autotrader out of 18 cars, then if you trying to find one in a decent colour with a half decent spec it becomes almost impossible, they tend to be boring colours like the silvers and greys with a plastic dash. Most people don’t choose manual, it’s just that pdk wasn’t an option initially. Once it’s been available most people have chosen it. Performance of pdk matters now on a new car, but IMO will matter less on a 10 year old car when a base electric cayman has more performance. Then it will be more down to driving dynamics - for some the gearing makes that the pdk, for others the involvement of a manual box. Guess we’ll see where that ends up.

Waiting for my Mint Green PDK Clubsport & PCCB. Boring silver stitching, Anthracite Brushed Aluminium trim & no PDLS+. Imagine I’ll struggle to sell once I’m done with it.

I specced manual and would do again 100%. Never had a problem with the gearing on road or track. You like what you like

Twinfan said: I specced manual and would do again 100%. Never had a problem with the gearing on road or track. You like what you like 100% agree.

F8Spiderman said: Waiting for my Mint Green PDK Clubsport & PCCB. Boring silver stitching, Anthracite Brushed Aluminium trim & no PDLS+. Imagine I’ll struggle to sell once I’m done with it. You are already thinking of when you come to sell it?

donutskidmark said: It appears that most gt4 owners who got a pts slot and an interesting colour are keeping hold of them because yes indeed - most for sale are boring colours…… I was lucky enough to get a PTS slot and have a Riviera Blue PDK coming in the next month or so. It's got CCBs, buckets, club sport, etc. Pretty heavily spec'd. Was a cancellation I managed to pick up as a result of good timing. I test drove the manual but haven't driven the PDK. The manual drives well, but its not for me.

Strange thread this. Colour - no right or wrong - get whatever you like. PDK v manual - no right or wrong - get whatever you like. Back to the original question - manual will command more money long term as the market of PDK gets more saturated and manual ones being listed less frequently. Happens with every Porsche model in time. Can't see why it would be any different moving forward.

To answer that, historically the early auto Porsche gearboxes were awful and manual boxes had half decent gear ratios , I would pick a manual every time on an old Porsche absolutely no question. Fast forward a few years and the modern PDK box is up there with one of the best that certainly I’ve driven and the modern manual Porsche boxes are geared stupidly high. No right answer here for choice it’s a personal thing but I will be amazed if In 10 years time I will be craving a manual 718 and if a manual is selling it a premium I will be over the moon as will save me a few quid and I will get a bargain PDK . julian987R said: Happens with every Porsche model in time. Can't see why it would be any different moving forward.

JeffC said: To answer that, historically the early auto Porsche gearboxes were awful and manual boxes had half decent gear ratios , I would pick a manual every time on an old Porsche absolutely no question. Fast forward a few years and the modern PDK box is up there with one of the best that certainly I’ve driven and the modern manual Porsche boxes are geared stupidly high. No right answer here for choice it’s a personal thing but I will be amazed if In 10 years time I will be craving a manual 718 and if a manual is selling it a premium I will be over the moon as will save me a few quid and I will get a bargain PDK . julian987R said: Happens with every Porsche model in time. Can't see why it would be any different moving forward. Agreed totally JeffC- for example everyone wants a manual 993- not because it’s particularly a great gearbox it’s just the Tiptronic version is such utter crap. The same can not be said of PDK which all the motoring press say completely makes the gt4.

julian987R said: F8Spiderman said: Waiting for my Mint Green PDK Clubsport & PCCB. Boring silver stitching, Anthracite Brushed Aluminium trim & no PDLS+. Imagine I’ll struggle to sell once I’m done with it. You are already thinking of when you come to sell it? I was being ironic.

F8Spiderman said: I was being ironic. Looks stunning, bold and fantastic colour in my opinion. No privacy glass too! It'll be a gem once delivered.

julian987R said: Looks stunning, bold and fantastic colour in my opinion. No privacy glass too! It'll be a gem once delivered. Had a Black 981 GT4 back in 2015/16, looking forward to seeing the difference between manual & PDK. Imagine in some circumstances Track & Commuting I’ll be grateful for it, Sunday drives I’ll lament the loss of the 3rd pedal.

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F8Spiderman said: Had a Black 981 GT4 back in 2015/16, looking forward to seeing the difference between manual & PDK. Imagine in some circumstances Track & Commuting I’ll be grateful for it, Sunday drives I’ll lament the loss of the 3rd pedal. Spot on.

SpyderMatt said: F8Spiderman said: Had a Black 981 GT4 back in 2015/16, looking forward to seeing the difference between manual & PDK. Imagine in some circumstances Track & Commuting I’ll be grateful for it, Sunday drives I’ll lament the loss of the 3rd pedal. Spot on. Yeah I agree. As a manual owner Id say I’d only ever got for a PDK if I was having to commute in traffic a lot or was doing a fair amount of tracks days I might consider one.

Love threads like these! It's always the same - those wholly concerned about future values will continually fly the flag aggressively for whatever it was that they bought. And meanwhile, those of us who just bought the damn thing to get in, drive, and have fun with will simply get on with enjoying what we have and not give a rats ass! FWIW, the car market has historically shown that as time goes by, then the most analogue version of a prized make / model is the one that will become the most desirable in time. At a guess, I'd say that although each is technically better / faster than the last, that the 'desirability' hierarchy will likely become 981 > 718 Manual > 718 PDK. That said, I don't think the financial value between any of them will be huge once the model is discontinued. The PDK is commanding a premium right now simply because it's the latest evolution, the cars are the youngest, and they have the lowest miles. I don't think it's an indication of what's to come in the future. And what exactly are these 'boring colours' that folks ago on about? IMHO, flat whites / blacks, and Guards Reds all look epic on the GT4. The (apparently!?) fashionable 'crayon' colours (again IMHO) looks minging!