Eduardo, my friend....I'm so sorry I missed this thread the first time but very excited I got the chance to see it this time!

You are so knowledgeable about such a little known, little exercised and very exciting experience....ordering a PTS Porsche. That being said you have to be prepared to wait (and in my case wait and wait and wait and wait)! Your thread would have helped me a few years ago.

A quick story......when I was looking for my C4S cab in 2010 I was just coming off of a LTS experience in 2006 that was very pleasant....extended my wait by a month or so but my dealer was easy to work with and seemed to know about the LTS idea and encouraged me to do it with a "Lipstick Red" as my color choice. I had seen a Matador red in a polar silver 964 and I loved it. After I saw some swatches I liked Lipstick the best so I ordered that and now I was hooked on PTS/LTS for sure:



Then when that came off lease I was convinced that my next color would be an old one.......Champagne Yellow and I did a PTS order for that and since my lease was over in March I ordered it (per my salesman's advice) in September of 2009.



Then my PTS adventure started!!

About December of 2009 I get a call from my salesman that they can't do the color but they can do a similar color called (I can't recall the name but it looked close and now since I was grasping for straws at this point and it looked just like Champagne.....I said OK!!

Here's that color which they had just done on 3 separate 911s



Then in about March I get another sad call from my salesperson and says....bad news....they can't do the yellow since it's a light non-metallic color and it's not covering the way they want it to....in fact they had to re-do the 3 other cars. Now I'm thinking Shit....what did I do this for but I had already waited for this long so I just picked another color that i had seen on the internet owned by a guy named Dan (Edgy) in California. I loved his color combo of Turquoise Blue w/ natural brown and he had just done it 4 years before and i was confident that it wouldn't be another swing and miss......................





....and to my eyes (old as they are) it wasn't!

And still in spite of my extensive wait and Porsche turning me down twice...I'd never do anything else but PTS....NEVER!

It's guys like Eduardo and Dan that blazed the trail to a "special" 911 that is all mine and not like the 100 silver, black, white or red ones I saw yesterday and I get a little jolt of pleasure every time I look at her....hard to put a value on that but I'm thinking very cheap at $5,500.00!!!

All the best (especially to you Eduardo),

Tom

 

This is the latest 'Paint to Sample' List from PCNA issued today. It is an update to the one I last posted here on my thread in late July, dated 6/04/12 (post #1). I will compare it to that one later today to see if there are any changes. But I thought I would posted right away to give everyone a head start!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

 

Amazing thread!

 

This thread needs to be a Sticky!!

Thank you for your detailed posts.

 

Tom, that is a great story which every potential PTS client should know ahead of ordering. In the end, you got a great color but the PTS process had its ups and down! For those willing to chance it, I say 'go for it' and pick the color of your dreams! In your case it was the old 356 'Champagne Yellow'. For others wanting to do PTS but needing to hedge their bet, I recommend choosing one of the colors already pre-approved by PAG! You can't go wrong with 'Riviera Blue', or 'Pastell Orange' or 'RS Green' on your next 991...and its only $2K+ than the nice, but over utilized, 'GT Silver'!

Saludos,
Eduardo

 

As foreseen in my 7/31/12 post on this thread, PCNA has added these options this week to the 991:

1) Deviating stitching in steering wheel rim. Note: stitching available in Silver, Racing Yellow, Guards Red, Black, White, Platinum Grey, Pebble Grey, Cream, Yachting Blue, Luxor Beige, Espresso., Umber, Aqua Blue, Peridot, Amber Orange, Agate Grey, Limegold, Cognac, Carrera Red. For multifunction steering wheel (order no. 844) only available in conjunction with PDK (order no. 250)
Cost is $1,025 Option # CLU.

a) Not available on standard wheel!
b) Available only by adding 'Sport Design Wheel', Option #840 for $250',
Or Multi-Function Steering Wheel, Option #844 for $615 (but only PDK).

2) Steering column casing in leather, Option #XNS for $465.

3) This might had been there before but I had not noticed it.
Instrument surround leather, Option #XNG for $360.

4) Rear-view mirror in leather, Option #CVW for $675.
a) Must be ordered with Automatically dimming mirror, Option #276 for $420.

The other options I mentioned in my earlier post (e.g. Illuminated Sill Guards, Adaptive Cruise Control) should appear shortly! I don't expect dealers to ask PCNA to allow 'Sport Bucket Seats' in regular 991's until AFTER the gt3's are released...but that is my personal reading of what US dealers 'want/not want', but I hope I am wrong!

Saludos,
Eduardo

 

Thanks Eduardo..........you know the one most important thing I did learn from you (among many) was about this "PTS window"......I never knew that before and no salesman told me that either.

I doubt I'm ever going to get a different Porsche but if I was like I said I'd go PTS but how often do those windows open? Just for arguments sake.....what were the 2012 windows?....how many and how long were they open?

Seems like if you want PTS you have to understand about that or the potential wait could be forever!

Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

The MY2012 991 window for PTS was short...but I found it surprising that it was allowed at all! I think it was just after they open the order books in the fall and probably lasted at least a month!

The MY2013 991 PTS window appears to be still opened. I have asked specifically this exact question to my 'friendly' dealer everytime I see him or talk to him! More importantly, there doesn't seem to have been a circular email or notice yet from PCNA warning the dealers that all MY2013 PTS orders must come in by a certain date! But I assume that will all change in the Fall. If the PTS process follows what has happened in recent years, there may be a cut-off by a date certain in the Fall.

I learned quite a bit about PTS from my experience trying to get PTS on the Spyder. My dealer tried countless time to get PCNA to tell us if there would be PTS on the Spyder and if so, when they would open that window. PCNA denied it would allow PTS from early Fall of 2010 until the week it unexpectedly opened up PTS for the Spyder in March of 2011! So they were an obstacle, not a help! Same holds true for PAG in Germany. 'Porsche Exclusive' claimed they didn't know...until the window was unexpectedly opened in mid-March! That PTS window lasted only about 10 days. As a result, only one actual customer in the US managed to order PTS on his Spyder! That was a friend of mine in Texas who chose a 'Speed Yellow' Spyder. Two US dealers, both savvy in the PTS process, were able to snag one PTS Spyder 'spec' order each - a 'Riviera Blue' and 'Azure Blue'! That was it! Both sold quickly when they arrived at the dealers later that summer. We still don't know if any PTS Spyders were done for ROW!

Many PTS request for Spyders were rejected in that short PTS window because individual customers didn't understand how difficult and laborious the PTS process was in reality! In such a 'rush', the only possibility of getting your PTS approved was if PAG had ALREADY done panel testing on certain colors (e.g. for some Middle East/Gulf States customer) and those colors were already on an 'approved' list. That is how these three PTS Spyders were able to be done. The Texas customer got lucky because he wanted a color that was already approved on the Cayman R. In fact, it was n/c on that model. The two dealers got their PTS Spyders because they had inside knowledge of the list of 'Approved' PTS colors, which none of us in the forums had at the time!

One of the things I am trying to do via these threads is to 'even out the playing field' so that individual customers at forums like this have just as good a chance of getting their PTS choices approved as these two experienced Porsche dealers did in the case of the Spyders! These 'rush' PTS decisions will happen again! You will see it become pertinent when PCNA announces that the PTS window is closing for a particular model year! That is why is critical to plan your order well ahead of time AND/OR know before hand WHAT colors PCNA has already approved so you have at least a viable alternative & are not left out totally in the COLD (like we were with the PTS Spyders in 2011)!

Saludos,
Eduardo

P.S Tom, this is what I wrote about timing of PTS on my first post on this thread:

"Timing: Available for a limited time window during the model year. Opens and closes depending on series production scheduling. In the initial limited period of MY2012 991, it was open briefly then closed as MY2013 production was about to start. Now it appears to be open again for MY2013 991. Could close on the MY2013 991 sometime in the late Fall or early Winter of 2012, but apparently nothing yet has been communicated to dealers. Seems like the factory likes to bunch up PTS requests in batches and tries to do them all in a row. If you know something about the complicated process of auto painting technology, you probably will understand why! So always check that the window for PTS is open so that you are not disappointed by being shut out due to the factory 'fickle' PTS scheduling!"

 

Thanks so much Eduardo!!

Tom

 

I'll agree with the suggestion this thread needs to be a sticky.
Eduardo has provided (& I hope he continues to do so) priceless information and insight.