Hi everyone -- newbie here: my first post, and hopefully within a couple of weeks, my first Porsche as well (build code PM4S92S2)! While I live in northern NJ, I ended up ordering my car through a dealership in Cinci. The question I have is whether to head to Cinci in person to pick the car up, or to have them ship the car to me. While the thought of a 10 hour road trip with my new "baby" would normally be a no-brainer, the factors I'm weighing include the following:
- to what extent should I expect the "full treatment" in the pandemic era when I pick the car up? Will the dealer spend as much time going over all the details as they normally would?
- do I need to worry about forgoing my own inspection if I take remote delivery (i.e. what if I notice a flaw once I get the car?)?
- knowing I will get the car at least partially PPF'd, is it wise to put 700 miles on the car to get it home before I get that done?

Appreciate any advice or input (and if anyone has a cure for the "TYD tic" that I have developed, I'd love to know that too )

 

Have the car delivered to you. Do not drive w/out PPF if you are planning on install, as the paint on the 992 is rather soft and you will get at least one rock chip. There are many "unboxing" delivery videos on the web and they all look pretty fun.

You can ask them to do a courtesy delivery at a dealer new you if you want the dealer delivery experience.

 

Ship it to you.

 

I drove out 7 hours to pick up mine. The sales rep and the tech guy spent a lot of time with me going over the car and giving me details on how things worked. They set up my phone and personal items in the PCM. I felt it was well worth it.

 

Delivered from Naples, FL -> Cleveland, OH.
Had them deliver to an empty mall parking lot (when everything was closed in early May) and basically had no interaction with any dealer setting anything up (how I like it - I'd rather figure it out myself).

I thought about flying down and driving it up but.... the thought of all those miles with no PPF made it an easy decision to have it shipped.

The "courtesy delivery" thing would be something you and both dealerships would have to have worked out. I checked with my local dealership about something similar and they basically said, "No. We can't accept delivery of your car due to us having liability for a car that is already in your name". It made sense to me.

 

I opted for delivery at my local dealer, but in your case I'd definitely ask for it to be delivered to me. There's really nothing special about having a random sales guy in Ohio go over all the aspects of the car. Especially in the time of COVID where the thought of some random dude breathing all over and touching my new car is less than appealing anyway. It's very easy to figure everything out, and there's really nothing complicated or that can't be figured out with a simple google search. Plus in my experience, a lot of sales guys don't know as much as you'd expect anyway. Once you get the car, swing by your local dealership, say hello, introduce yourself and let them know you're going to be doing your routine service with them, and most likely they'll be happy to help you with anything you need. Talk to the dealership who you bought the car from and ask about how they're handling inspections for remote deliveries. They're all doing them these days and most have protocols in place. I like the idea of trying to connect your local dealer with the selling dealer to see if a courtesy delivery could be done. My guess is that's something that could be worked out, as long as it's approached correctly. Again, my experience is that local dealerships will go out of their way to help customers who purchased from other places because they want the long-term service relationship. Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

Really appreciate the input -- looks like I will put my first road trip on hold and arrange to have the car shipped directly to me. At the very least it will be fun seeing the neighbor's reaction when the truck pulls up in front of the house...

 

Just shipped my 992 from dealer in Princeton NJ to Raleigh. Smooth process. No issues.

 

Can I ask why did you choose a dealer in Princeton NJ? Does this NJ dealer have a way better price compared to Southpoint or Leith?

 

There were only a few C2s in my surrounding area but not the color and exact options I wanted. I wanted GT Silver/black int. NJ had the closest maybe only one out there. Loving it