A custom-ordered Porsche offers countless ways to spend your money!

Porsche is a manufacturer that definitely encourages you to special order one of their vehicles. The company offers a wide variety of options as you create a Porsche built to your own unique specifications.

Let’s take a closer look at the Porsche custom ordering process and the options available to make it yours. Our vehicle of choice will be the entry-level (for a 911) Porsche 911 Carrera with an MSRP of $120,100.

Picking the exterior color

Skipping past two no-charge colors (white or black), four metallic gray-scale colors ($830), and some uninteresting colors priced at $1,490 to $2,980, I arrived at the Paint to Sample colors. For an additional $14,190, you get to pick from 122 pre-existing Porsche colors, some of which you may recall from classic Porsches of bygone days.

These include Ruby Star, Gulf Orange, Irish Green, and Aubergine. If none of these satisfy, there is the $31,070 Paint to Sample Plus, which lets you select any “technically feasible solid or metallic color” that you submit a sample of. My choice for this exercise will be Paint to Sample Porsche Racing Green Metallic ($14,190).

Adding the wheels

If the standard 19”/20” wheels don’t do it for you, several sets of optional wheels are available, priced from $1,790 to $7,720. My selection was the $3,820 20”/21” Carrera Exclusive Design wheels upgraded with the $1,300 Satin Neodyme (gold) paint, which contrasts nicely with the metallic green body. The titanium wheel bolts ($1,570) are a high-tech way to burn some extra cash.

Interior choices are aplenty

There are many ways to customize the cabin of your German canyon carver. Making a major upgrade from the standard artificial leather seats (!), I chose the Club Leather interior in truffle brown ($6,310), which looks great with the metallic green exterior. This selection covers nearly every interior panel in leather and for those that aren’t, I opted for the extended leather dashboard ($1,540) and door panels ($1,900).

Next come the front seats, which get four options. I selected the 18-way Adaptive Sport Seats Plus with memory ($3,470) and ventilation ($840). Adding Porsche crests to the headrests costs an extra $300.

From the many interior trim options, I selected a Paldao wood dashboard trim inlay ($1,900), leather backrest shells with Paldao wood inlays ($2,390), heated GT sport steering wheel in leather with matte carbon fiber trim ($1,000), and aluminum PDK gear selector ($740 - there is no manual available).

I specified air vent surrounds and slats covered in leather ($1,570), inner door-sill guards in leather ($660), bespoke vehicle keys in leather (including one leather key pouch for an additional $1,040), leather sun visors ($590), bespoke logo on center console lid ($790), bespoke floor mats ($1,160), leather passenger cupholder trim ($300), a bespoke owner’s manual wallet ($840), and a fire extinguisher to protect it all (a bargain at $140). The Burmester surround-sound audio system was a must ($5,560).

Exterior options can make your 911 tasteful or over-the-top

Since this is a subtle, tasteful build, I will forego both the Aerokit (up to $7,610) with its fixed rear spoiler and the SportDesign body kit package (up to $5,590). Way too boy-racer-ish for me!

Instead, I added outside mirrors finished in body color ($660) and rear grille vertical slat inlays in body color ($710). Upgrading to the HD-Matrix LED headlights adds $1,780, while Exclusive Design taillights are $1,040 and lightweight insulated glass comes in at $1,240. An electric glass sunroof adds $2,000. Deleting the rear “911 Carrera” badge is free!

Upgrading the 911 Carrera’s performance

There are not many performance-boosting options offered, so let’s go with the Sport Chrono package with Porsche Design subsecond clock ($3,510), the sport exhaust with titanium tailpipes ($4,030), front axle lift system ($2,980), speed-sensitive power steering ($300), and extended-range 22-gallon fuel tank ($230).

Driver assistance tech costs extra for some reason

An irony of the Porsche order form is that you are charged significantly for some driver assistance features that typically come at no additional charge on affordably-priced vehicles. Adaptive cruise is $2,860 with active lane keep, remote park assist is $3,040, and night vision assist is $2,440. I added all of them.

The delivery experience can be as fun as you want

You could take delivery from your local Porsche dealer, but where’s the fun in that? Porsche offers a delivery experience in either Atlanta, Los Angeles, Leipzig, or Zuffenhausen. The U.S.-based options add $2,000 and include a tour of the Porsche Experience Center, lunch at its restaurant, a 90-minute track session with an instructor, and a private delivery session.

European delivery, a $2,500 option, takes place at Porsche's German factories in either Leipzig, where the Macan and Panamera are produced, or Zuffenhausen, the site of the original Porsche factory. Both locations offer delivery, a factory tour, lunch, and a one-night hotel stay. 

Leipzig adds a track instruction session in a similar vehicle to your new Porsche, while Zuffenhausen provides passes to the nearby Porsche Museum. I chose Leipzig for the track time, given that it should be a good warm-up for the Autobahn! When your vacation ends, shipping of your Porsche to the U.S. is included.

The bottom line shows the high price of options

My 911 Carrera started at an MSRP of $120,100 and ended up costing $201,815 after options were selected including the $1,995 delivery fee but not the European vacation. It could have gone even higher, as there were numerous option boxes left unchecked. 

Final thoughts

The appeal of making a mass-produced vehicle into something we perceive as unique has been with us for as long as personal transportation, internal combustion, or otherwise, has existed. Porsche is one of the greatest purveyors of this practice and has profited enormously from their ability to entice customers into checking so many of the boxes on the options list.

While the Porsche 911 Carrera is a spectacular sports/GT car in base form, it has nevertheless been designed to provide its customers with plenty of opportunities to build a car to their liking.

As the Porsche configurator whispers, “Your dream becomes reality.”