Porsche wannabee here. Found a 2008 911 Base Coupe with great colors and Tiptronic...

my wise-*** son, who owns a M235, says I should not buy a Tiptronic 911, only a manual or PDK. If the car drives good for me, why should I care?

Like bellybuttons, everyone has an opinion. Would you let you son (or anyone) pick your meal for you the next time you dine out? I suspect part of this may be aforementioned son imagining himself driving your car but with his choice of transmission.

Obviously, PDK is better but so is pretty much everything else in cars as they get newer. There are thousands of Tiptronic owners who love their cars and you will as well. If your son is willing to donate toward a later model with PDK then take his money and buy accordingly. Otherwise enjoy what you can afford.:cheers:

A tiptronic base car - while a great drive in itself and compared to other cars - is viewed as the least desirable of the 997.1s by many Pcar enthusiasts. It should be priced somewhat less than a manual .1, and all other things being equal (mileage, condition, options) will command less on resale in the future than any other 997.1 911. If you know this going in and don’t care, enjoy your car and don’t pay any attention to your son or anyone else.

You should care if you care about performance. The tip was considered by some as inferior in performance to the MT. Once PDK came about, those roles reversed (in terms of performance). Tip is not considered to be desirable by many.

Performance comes in many flavors. Personally, I feel the 0-60 aspect is a bit overrated as how much time do you really spend at full-throttle? Paradoxically, a slower car allows you to spend more time at full-throttle(in the case of a prior Mini Cooper I owned, almost all the time). The resale argument is something of a red herring, as you will pay less for a car that the masses don't desire(but have a chance for a good outcome at sale time if they have changed their mind, see - Porsche 964) and in the interim get to pay less taxes, insurance and registration fees. The real metric is the delta between purchase price and sales price which carries less risk the lower the initial purchase price is. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy and pay less attention to the chattering masses(including me).

Thanks - I know a little about clutch life on 997s, but it there a point (mileage) where Tiptronic needs major service? Never had any transmission issues in my Lexus / Infiniti torque converter cars that both went 140K miles when sold.

A tiptronic is a conventional torque converter automatic with a manual shift option. The PDK is a computer controlled manual gearbox that you can also shift manually via paddles or buttons. Performance wise the PDK is the hands down winner over tiptronic or manual. It’s that good due to efficiency and shift speed. From a driver interface perspective an automatic is an automatic. How you shift it, toggles, buttons or paddles, when driving in manual mode will be more noticeable on a daily basis than the performance difference. Drive them all and buy what works for you. Just keep in mind that going up in model years usually has a horsepower increase that might make the difference seem more than it might be. You’ll have to go 2009 for PDK. Edit. Sorry you apparently know the difference which wasn’t obvious in the original post.

my wise-*** son, who owns a M235, says I should not buy a Tiptronic 911, only a manual or PDK. If the car drives good for me, why should I care? -- Well this may be one instance when you'd be best served listening to your son. The 911/Tip is readily available -- often with lower miles and price than the manual version but I'd strongly recommend test-driving a manual and a PDK before committing to the Tiptronic.

Great comeback subercroc, but unfortunately, fast1 is correct.

Insofar as the paradigm espoused by fast1 overrides the love each owner has for his or her car, I must reject it. The attitude of "mine is better than yours" most often only reveals something less than admirable about the one making the statement.

Assuming I can handle the scorn of some Porsche owners on choosing a Tiptronic 977.1, are there any special maintenance issues / concerns I should have with a 2008 w/ 85K mles?

While the "issues" with a specific type are important(and they all have them) of far more importance is the condition of the individual car you are looking at. This is where a PPI done by someone familiar with the type(who can also inform you concerning the "known issues" of the type) can be your best insurance against getting a lemon.

Years ago I test drove a tiptronic equiped Porsches just for kicks. I thought it odd that Porsche would produce a sports car with a slush box transmission and mentioned that to the salesman in the seat next to me. His comment as close as I remember was: It's an abomination for Americans and their wives who can not drive a MT. He had a german accent needless to say. Much latter I drove a CS with a tiptronic and was surprised as to how responsive it was, but I passed on the car because of the transmission. Today on my second CS an 07 MT followed by a 981 CS. Anyway you pay you money and you make you choice. Your the one who has to live with it. Good Luck!

Drove the 2008 911 and not impressed with Tiptronic (the car had rattles and rode rough). Drove an 2007 Carerra 4 with manual and big difference. Going manual unless I can find a PDK 2009 or newer

Now that Tip is off the table, you'll be facing the manual or PDK dilemma. When I had a PDK Cayman and a manual 911 in the garage at the same time, i really couldn't decide which one I liked better. The manual was better in some situations, and the PDK in others.

I’ve got to say that there is a bunch of nonsense being thrown around here. I got hooked test driving a PDK Cayman S but wound up buying a tiptronic for the simple reason that I saved $10k on it. I track my inferior transmission and have a blast doing it. Is it as good? No. Does that mean you won’t enjoy it when 99% of the time you’re on public roads? Let’s not be silly. It also doesn’t restrict you one bit from tracking a base 911 tip and enjoying it that last 1% as well. A lot of things go into a purchase decision and money is a big one. If you want the more updated and have the funds, go PDK. If you want to save some cash, go tip. Let’s be honest, it’s a base 911 so driving enjoyment is clearly taking a lead over absolute performance. For that matter, perhaps a Cayman should be in your consideration set...