TommyV44

I was just looking at my car the other night and wondering again for the
1,000th time; why isn't it more popular.

I've done it twice...in 2006 I did LTS and in 2010 I did PTS and it's the absolute best thing I ever did. I get this jolt of pleasure every time I look at her and I never see my color anywhere....except for Dan and Tim here!!). it only involves $5,500 (and a Porsche special color is like $3,700 right?) so it can't be the money....it must be the wait??

It puzzles me a little and some of those old colors like the recent Murano Green and Peru Red I saw at a C & C and of course Eduardo's gorgeous Crystal Blue and Bruce's beautiful Blue and I know I'm forgetting some others yet there are endless Arctic Silvers as far as the eye can see. Maybe it's the risk of really not knowing how you'll feel when you see her.

Any thoughts on this beautiful morning on the beach in South Jersey??

All the Best,

Tom

Eric - Plug Guy

To many, it's not as much about the color as it is about the car. So the vast majority, when ordering, will select one of the standards or offered colors, and it works for them

Granted, PTS is a wonderful thing, and it's great to see some of the finest examples of Porsche craftsmanship slathered in colors we don't usually get to see.

But the bottom line - yes, the bottom line, is why you don't see more of it. The $$ asked by Porsche to do a PTS option is ridiculous, as are many of the options we go for.

If PTS was a $1000 option, you would likely see much more of it.

Just my two cents. We do offer paint to sample on many of our products too.

mjsporsche

I agree with Eric's view that the $$$$ are high for a PTS. I do appreciate that $5K may not be a ton of money when we are buying $100K+ cars. Clearly not an issue of affordability when you play Porsche..... but rather wanting to spend the money on other options or just different things.

Tommy..you have a beautiful color. But I am lucky to usually find a factory color that makes me smile.

TommyV44

So you guys think it is the $$$$.....interesting!! I would've guessed it was the long wait and wondering if the color you picked was one they'd do. I guess everyone has their own definition of value.

Tom

TommyV44

Like which products Eric??

eflight

People also seem to worry about resale value in addition to the up front cost

stefang

My take on it is the wait, along with silver and black being 'in'. With the huge options list you'd think people would customize more, but I think most are bought off the lot. I don't think resale value is it either. My perception, and I have nothing to back that up, is that most are leased anyway.

Since my budget forces me into buying used, I wish there were more PTS on the market. Instead it was a struggle to get a nonsilver one.

911Dave

You're forgetting that a lot of guys have to make a huge stretch to afford these cars. So yes, it's usually about the money.

TommyV44

I think you hit it.......no patience!

Tom

TommyV44

eflight......I believe you're always going to find a buyer who's willing to pay a little more than the going rate for a cool color and no matter what color we're talking about....someone is going to think it's cool.

Tom

Marine Blue

I tried to get a PTS Spyder but was turned down for months. There is a very limited window where Porsche offers PTS and when you combine this window with a limited availability Porsche it becomes very hard to make happen.

The other issue I had was that PTS isn't truly PTS, it's more like choose from a Porsche approved list of colors so what you're really paying for is an expanded color chart, not PTS. I wanted to have my Spyder painted in a 356 metallic color and definitely would have forked over the $5500 to do it.

Having said all that I really don't regret the color I picked, Basalt is a truly stunning color when properly maintained and it draws a ton of attention considering it's a shade of black.

Tcc1999

I'm guessing here but maybe, "The Deal" is important to people. You lose a lot of bargaining power when you special order instead of buying out of inventory. If memory serves me, I've read a number of times that 10 percent off is normally doable on a car in inventory while you have to work it to get 5 to 7 percent off a special order (I'm referring to 997's here).

So the marginal utility of a good deal may be greater than a the marginal utility of a unique color.

Eric - Plug Guy

We offer our famous BumperPlugs in nearly any finish, for a price as well. If we don't stock it (we have over 1100 colors now), we can make it. But that means production setup costs are higher, material costs higher, etc. But yes, we offer custom colors all the time.

We do the same on the interior bits too - consoles and such.

And we've done a few rear bumperettes on 997's in the past few years, and some were monsters to match the finish as it was paint to sample.

Check our Facebook page - we did a 2002 996 Turbo recently for a customer who had an odd Ferrari PTS red. We tried to match it by sprayout with the factory formula and variants from Ferrari, no luck. He was the second owner and wanted the bumperettes and plugs done.

So we got him to send us a piece of the car (!) and we scanned it so we could make the color exactly as it was on his 10 year old turbo.

See for yourself: Rosso Barchetta (tweaked by BumperPlugs):





I think one of the other issues with Porsche PTS is their queasiness when they lay it down on urethane, fiberglass, and sheet metal. The color is not always the same, and therefore they will cancel one that they think won't match well (we've seen it before). Ice Blue Metallic was coming, and they even showed it on their PR and website, then cancelled it. We already produced it to spec on Bumper and Door Plugs for that finish without issue. We paint rubber and plastic all day, so for us it's all part of the process.

Beyond that, it's just paint. So yes, we can do nearly any color on any part, for a price.