There’s something to be said about attention to detail, and we’re all for it – especially when we’re talking about cars that venture across the six-figure barrier or even the seven-figure barrier. But, at what point to attention to detail become an OCD problem or, even worse, arrogance? Well, we’re not really here to argue that, but we are here to tell you that Porsche is so anal about its cars that the center caps in each wheel have to be aligned in a certain way. We’re not even kidding, folks. Get a load of this.

Porsche Wheel Crest Alignment – OCD or Worse?

Note: I bet this picture really pisses off someone at Porsche

Apparently, there’s a very specific way that the center car – the one with the Porsche crest – has to be aligned on each wheel. Now, this is something that we’ve never noticed and, apparently, neither has anyone else. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say that I’ve made it a point to align center caps on my own vehicle so that all sit the same, but the folks over at Porsche take it to a whole new level. A writer from Jalopnik learned just that while attending a Porsche event.

As the story goes, Justin Westbrook was snapping photos of vehicles at a recent Porsche event and decided he wanted to make the Porsche crest on the center cap of each wheel sit vertically – you know, for symmetry in photos. Well, it didn’t take very long before he found out that Porsche never does such a thing and frowns upon it so bad that a representative jumped it to not only say something but correct the position of the center cap. Seriously; Porsche took such offense that it had to be corrected immediately.

Naturally, an explanation as requested and, according to the story, Porsche always aligns the center caps in one specific way. If you don’t believe it, just take a look at a few of the pictures we’ve placed below – they all really do lineup up in exactly that fashion. Who knows how long this has really been a thing, but it really makes you wonder just how far this OCD goes. We even took a look at some photos we took at various auto shows and, sure enough, the story holds true:

2020 Porsche 911 Wheel Center Cap Alignment

2019 Porsche 718 Boxster T Wheel Center Cap Alignment

2020 Porsche Macan S Wheel Center Cap Alignment

2015 Porsche Cayenne GTS Wheel Center Cap Alignment

Final Thoughts

I had to admit that, at first, I didn’t believe something so anal-retentive could actually be true, and yet here we are – the proof is in the pudding. Well, the photos, but you get the idea. After going back to shots I took in 2014 or 2015 of the Cayenne GTS, I gave up on trying to disprove this much OCD. It really seems to be true. Now, I feel like I want to find a bunch of pictures with misaligned wheel caps and share them to Porsche's social media outlets just to drive someone crazy. Okay; I’m not that petty, but I welcome any of you to do it. The real question is whether or not this borders on the line of overall arrogance. Does Porsche believe it’s so good that it has to have everything, down to the position of the wheel cap perfect? I think it does, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it arrogance – at least not until the next auto show when I get yelled at for rotating center caps to see what kind of reaction I get.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2020 Porsche 911