Porsche’s Sonderwunsch Program Has an 8-Year Waitlist

Incredibly Popular

In recent years, Porsche has truly found a niche offering custom touches through its Exclusive Manufaktur program, which lets customers pick and choose various features for their cars, while the Paint to Sample program gives them the chance to add a unique paint color as well. However, those who truly want a one-off build or restoration can also participate in the Sonderwunsch (special request) program, which has thus far proven to be incredibly popular, it seems.

Photos: Porsche

Long Wait

Porsche will not only build a one-off creation for customers through this special program, but they can even bring an old car to the automaker and have it painted a custom color at the factory, or have it completely redone with a brand-new interior and everything else chosen by the customer. It's a pretty amazing offering, and as such, perhaps it doesn't come as a huge surprise that new customers are facing an eight-year waitlist for the Sonderwunsch program.

Photos: Porsche

Big Money

What makes this demand truly impressive is - as one might imagine - the Sonderwunsch program isn't exactly cheap. Obviously, there's big money in custom Porsches, and the automaker is taking full advantage of that fact with this and its many factory programs, working to churn out as many as possible at once.

Photos: Porsche

Cost of Doing Business

For now, Porsche is working on nine Sonderwunsch builds at once, but hopes to ramp that up to 15 in the coming months. This, in spite of the fact that customers are looking at spending around $100,000 - at a minimum - which involves essentially hiring a team to design a vehicle. However, adding things like a custom interior and paint quickly adds tens and even hundreds of thousands more to that bill.

Photos: Porsche

Major Advantages

All-in, it takes a full year to complete the design process, after which customers will be waiting another year or two for their cars to be completed and delivered to their driveway. On the flip side, these vehicles come with a full factory warranty and are subject to Porsche's durability testing, giving them a big advantage over something created by a third party.

Photos: Porsche

Classic Builds

For those that want to have an older Porsche subjected to this special treatment, Porsche Classic is here to help, and that side of the business is only currently facing a 2-3 year wait. To us at least, the idea of having Porsche build us an air-cooled 911 restomod seems pretty enticing, as one can quite literally redesign the car to their liking. 

Photos: Porsche

Sky's the Limit

Of course, Porsche will work on pretty much anything - even its electrified Taycan models - that the customer desires. There are some limitations, of course, as Porsche won't replicate obvious OEM elements, nor will it stuff some dragster motor in your build - but otherwise, the sky is quite literally the limit here, which is precisely what makes the Sonderwunsch program so popular. 

Photos: Porsche

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