70 Years Ago Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen Cranked Out the First Customer Car
Amazingly, Porsche's factory delivery program is something that's been around since nearly the beginning.
Long Running Tradition
Porsche is big on history, and its fans are as well. One tradition that has endured throughout the automaker's seven-plus decades of existence is its factory delivery program, which actually began 70 years ago when the first new Porsche car was collected from the factory in Zuffenhausen by its new owner.
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Beginning of a Tradition
On May 26, 1950, Ottomar Domnick became the first person to take possession of his Porsche, a Fish Silver 356, outside Plant 1. Before driving it home, Domnick was able to take a final test run in the car with Herbert Linge, who was one of the first mechanics to be employed after Porsche returned from Gmünd in Austria at the end of 1949.
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Special Occasion
"When Domnick collected his Porsche 356, he really celebrated the occasion," Linge recalled. "But he had been coming to the factory every day anyway to see how far on we were with the work. Even Ferry Porsche briefly dropped in when the doctor was presented with his sports car."
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Unique Experience
Today, this remains a special experience for customers. "The most exciting aspect of this first encounter is that the customer has never actually seen the car before," said Tobias Donnevert, Head of Factory Collection and Sales Operations Personalization. "The customer has configured the car of his choice in the Porsche Center or together with the customer service of the Porsche Exclusive Manufacture department and has only seen the color combinations on photos or tiles. So when he collects his personal Porsche, he is seeing it for the very first time. This is a very special moment, reserved exclusively for the customer at the beginning of the handover."
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Attracting a Crowd
At the plant in Zuffenhausen, Tobias Donnevert and his team welcome around 20 customers every day who come to collect their new cars. In 2019, a total of 2,500 customers and almost 3,000 in Leipzig chose this option. Before collecting their car, customers are also invited to take a tour of the factory and see how the Porsche 911 is manufactured in Zuffenhausen and visit the Porsche Museum. In Leipzig, customers are given insight into the production of the Macan and Panamera. Customers can also take a test run in a similar Porsche on the plant’s own FIA race track.
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Historic Document
The Domnick Foundation, which manages his estate, still has the original order form from Ottomar Domnick with the commission number 5001. The order was processed by the Volkswagen Hahn dealership, as there was no sales distribution in Germany at that point. "Volkswagen" had been crossed out by hand and replaced with "Porsche-Sport" on the order form. To this day, Ottomar Domnick’s Porsche 356 represents the beginning of Porsche in Germany, and it also directly stands for the start of personal factory collections in Zuffenhausen.
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Something Special
In a world where traditions come and go, it's pretty incredible that this one has managed to stand the test of time. But there's just something undeniably special about picking up a vehicle at the place it was constructed, which is why so many still choose to do it to this day.
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