nberry:
 

You make valid points. However, we are not the typical customers. Most buyers work with their salesperson and order the car. Nothing fancy or complicated. You're asking Porsche to change their entire system to accommodate very few picky customers.Smiley 

BTW, you can't compare Ferrari's system to Porsche's. Ferrari builds 10,000 cars while Porsche builds almost 200,000.Smiley

Nick,

The volume arguement doesn't hold water. Porsche builds it's cars across multiple factories so should be more flexible as a result. Sports car account for less than 25% of that total production figure and within those the number with PTS requests will be a fraction of the volume so the process should be able to cope far better than it does. Audi manages to offer it's Exclusive service much better with a far higher production volume than Porsche and actually produces printed material for their customers that explains the offerings. The only brochure I have seen for Porsche covering Exclusive options has been for the Panamera. Others may exist but the dealers I've visited don't have them which reinforces how badly the service is marketed.

The Exclusive department for the Sports cars handles much lower volume than you probably think so adapting ordering codes like things for stitching should not be the uphill struggle Porsche are making it. Somewhat crazily IMHO the cars are initially built using standard parts and are them taken to the Exclusive workshop where they are stripped of items like interior trim and the specially ordered trim is then fitted. This adds significantly to the manufacturing time and cost. Quite why the exclusive department cannot make the relevant trim pieces and then send them to the production line to meet the car in build as external suppliers do is beyond me. There may be a valid reason or it could just be a case of "that's the way we've always done it".

The main issue is paint colour choice. The GT3 RS is already a very limited run car yet the factory simply cannot cope with buyers deviating from the standard offerings in the numbers they have. That suggests Porsche marketing seriously erred in the colours that were chosen for the standard offering and that the paint process around the Exclusive PTS option simply cannot cope with high demand. Look at the launch of the Macan. A new model aimed at bringing a totally new customer base to Porsche yet launched in some of the most boring colours imaginable from Porsche's colour pallette. The biggest criticism on forums of excited new buyers was the poor range of colours offered. The paintshop manager for the Macan production boasted in Christophorus magazine that his facility could paint a Macan in any colour a customer wanted which is possibly technically true but nowhere near the reality for buyers in the first year of production. I am told that PTS is being made available on the Macan now so it will be interesting to see if that factory can cope or if dealers are better geared to advise customers that it is an option. I suspect dealers will keep quiet about it - especially in the US where you seem able to custom order a car then back out with no penalty when it arrives and you don't like it which is just crazy IMHO.

The biggest growth area for profit margins in the premium sector is personalisation as growing numbers of customers want something different and unique. If Porsche cannot adapt to meet this change by enlarging the Exclusive department's physical factory space and staffing levels then they will be left behind. On this board we are used to spending high numbers on sports cars but to most people the outlay on a Macan diesel is huge compared to what they have previously spent on a car and they want/expect far greater levels of exclusivity and service than Porsche or it's dealers are geared up for. This is the conundrum of stretching a premium brand downwards - new customers are actually more picky as they are not used to dealing with a relatively low volume manufacturer who has greater production limitations Smiley