STUTTGART (August 31, 2026) – Porsche’s Sonderwunsch (“special wishes”) personalization division has confirmed that it is able to build a customer a new Panamera equipped with a manual transmission — a configuration not offered on the current production car, but achievable as a fully bespoke, one-off commission.

Asked directly whether the program could deliver a manual Panamera, Alexander Fabig, head of Porsche Sonderwunsch, responded, “Yes, yes, yes. That’s very good; I will use this as an example from now on.” Fabig has said the division’s real strength lies less in raw performance upgrades — where a customer’s creative input is limited — and more in personalization: interior design, materials, and how a car is positioned to reflect its owner. A drivetrain change of this kind, he indicated, is feasible within that same bespoke framework, with final scope governed by street-legal and regulatory requirements in the customer’s home market.

The confirmation revives a drivetrain pairing with real factory precedent. Porsche briefly offered a genuine manual gearbox on the first-generation Panamera between April 2009 and April 2013 and paired with the Panamera S’s 4.8-liter V8 producing 400 horsepower. Porsche built just 146 manual Panameras in total across V6 and V8 variants, with only 96 of those V8-equipped — making it among the rarest drivetrain configurations the model has ever offered.

One such example has recently come to market: a low-kilometer, Topaz Brown metallic first-generation Panamera S with a documented service history and less than 50,000 kilometers on the odometer, offered by L’Art de l’Automobile in Paris. Cars of this specification remain comparatively affordable given their rarity, typically trading in the $40,000–$50,000 range — a fraction of what manual-gearbox rarity commands in Porsche’s sports car lineup.

Together, the historical factory cars and Porsche’s confirmation that Sonderwunsch can revisit the idea today underscore a consistent thread in the Panamera’s history: for a small number of buyers, three pedals have never been entirely off the table.