I recall reading some years ago that with the advent of both manufacturing robotics and automated logistics, these new technologies would allow customers the freedom to tailor a product to their own specifications. Business strategists predicted mass-produced luxury items with multiple features, all selected by the customer. Where bespoke hand-crafted items used to represent the highest standard of quality, they saw a day where product customization would become the definition of luxury itself.

When that day arrived Porsche certainly embraced this philosophy through its now famous Configerator. For better or worse, customers are allowed to create their own Porsche. Given all the bits that come together to form an automobile, the combination of choices can be staggering. Various sources crazy enough to have tried to count them, suggest there are at least 200 options available for each of the twenty-six currently available model variants of the 911. The mathematical permutations possible through the combination of these model variants and options choices pretty much assure no two 911 will be identical.

While at first blush this appears wonderful, the Configerator approach to specifications creates a significant difference between the base price of the car and a highly speced one. I was told by my sales representative that Porsche HQ likes to see at least $30,000 worth of options when you build your Carrera T. Wanting a fairly basic Carrera T, I knew that Zuffenhausen was going to be disappointed. Let’s hope Ferry is not spinning in his grave.

The options frenzy fosters a specific form of 911 snobbery where aesthetic details inside and out are viewed as essential. An army of You Tubers and Instgramers extole the virtues of leather wrapped air vents, color matched front splitters and carbon fibre roofs. We are told over and over that failing to tick those boxes leaves you with a cheap 911 which sadly results in dramatically diminished resale value. 

I would like to think that most Porsche buyers, being mature individuals who have encountered shaming sales techniques before, are more focused on the performance of the vehicle. They are likely to choose few options, select those enhancing the usability of the vehicle and look forward to the driving, not admiring the deviated stitching on their leather wrapped door cards, as author and car reviewer Doug DeMuro points out regularly when discussing Porsche culture.

Of course you should be able to spend as much money as you want on your new car and your build choices are nobody else’s business. The beauty of so many choices is that if you wish to indulge, you can. Conversely, you don’t need any of that stuff to enjoy an extraordinary car built with high quality materials. Your car is no less of a Porsche and you are no less of a Porsche enthusiast if you opt for understatement.

The real problem, though, with all these options is they don’t always pair very well together and their accumulation is designed to maximize Porsche’s profitability whether they make sense for the buyer or not. Buyer beware, our best interests are not always top of mind.

A perfect example is the Delete Option where Porsche generously holds on to something you paid for in the price of the car. That in itself is bad enough but it can get worse.  Rear seat delete, which allows the factory  to keep the seats you paid for, also excludes the seatbelts back there. If you ordered optional colored seat belts you are also paying for colored belts in the back which you don’t receive. That means you are effectively deleting an option you chose. Now that’s one way to maximize profits.

Of course, there are other Porsche Configerator oddities worth noting. Here are some that puzzle me:

1.  No speed limit display in the instrument cluster unless you order the Lane Keep Assist package. Alternatively, you can plug in Apple Car Play or Android Auto and get it for free. This just makes Porsche look greedy.

2.  The whole concept behind the Carrera T is weight savings which is how Porsche markets the car. The moment you choose that specific model, the options machine pushes you to add weight. The heavy 18way adjustable seats, for instance, have so many motors in there they add approximately forty pounds to the car. Ultimately, you have to add a lot of weight to meet that $30,000 options minimum discussed earlier and negate the T’s weight savings.

3.  No one seems to know exactly what optional Power Steering Plus does for you. It is claimed to reduce steering effort at parking speeds. From what I have read, nobody can sense the difference. The car’s steering is assisted to start off with and I can’t imagine you have to be a body builder to move that steering wheel at low speeds.

4.  The Sports Chrono Package, costing $3,400 – $3,800, is positioned as the secret sauce of 911 performance. Secret it is, and it’s composition seems to vary from model to model and type to type. I called up the Configerator for a Carrera S, where manual is an option and extimated the cost that way. While even Porsche literature on the topic is murky, I have studied multiple sources and have attempted to unearth its main features for the 911, listed in the table below. It appears to do a lot for cars equipped with PDK (automatic transmission with paddle shifting) but not as much for those fitted with a manual transmission. Let’s compare what Sports Chrono adds to the car and which of these features are included in a car with three pedals: