am722

I sent an email to Ulrike Lutz, one of Porsche's personalization customer service representatives regarding the Paint-to-Sample option, and she responded promptly with the following very helpful information:

"The paint to sample option has a leadtime of at least six months. As soon as the order has been placed your dealership has to send a colour sample (which you saw and released as the colour you would like to have) and the colour code to Porsche directly. Porsche then tests here if the colour can be painted in our production process and compares the result with the sample you sent. If everything is ok, you'll get the car in the colour you have chosen. There is no difference in this process if this is an old Porsche colour or not, all have to be tested in the same way. For your choice I would recommend to chose a colour you like and saw on a car, even if it is another supplier or brand. It's always better if you saw a colour on a big surface than e.g. on a small plate or something."

This largely echoes Dan's (Edgy01) various comments, but I thought I would share.

David A

Thanks for the info, I'm waiting to order an 09 911 Viper Green.

points

My paint to sample order was very difficult. Trying to duplicate ivory 6204 which was my 356 color involved sending samples to Porsche and in the end porsche saying they could not paint it due to lead in the paint back then. That decision took 90 days. So i ordered sand white which is a cayenne color but almost the same as ivory.When my car arrived by chance it was parked at the dealers right next to a cayenne sand white and my sand white is not the same in any way. Mine is more creamy and definetly closer to ivory than white. I wonder if my several letters to Porsche paint dept. with pics of my 356 and repeated requests to honor the past Porsche colors had them alter sand white in some way? I call my cars color ivory because it looks that way even though my paint code is sand white. So anyway that took 6 months to accomplish. 9 months to get my car.

Edgy01

Basically, I think it's worth the extra effort to get a special color (in the grand scheme of things and value). BUT, plan ahead knowing that it will add 6-9 months to your waiting period. Frankly, I was surprised that it took them 90 days to come back and say "no can do.." but I understand that they are constantly testing. Some colors ARE back on the list again.

Eric - Plug Guy

I still don't get the 6-month business. Although I know they test various materials for paint color, depth, quality (bumpers and mirror shells are different from door panels), it cannot possibly take that long to pull someone off the line and test these parts...we do it nearly every day. I think part of it is that 'mystique' thing, part of it helps to justify the insane price difference, and part of it is just Porsche.