When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
European Delivery and or Porsche Experience CenterThis forum to ask questions and get answers about collecting your Porsche in Europe or the outstanding Porsche Experience Center.
I am beyond excited to take Euro Delivery of my new GTS the 24th of May. 7 Speed, RWD, Sunroof Delete, *Blue* Pepita Interior... but enough about the car (there will be another thread for that). This is about the planning/process/experience. A few shoutouts that are worthwhile to those who are "ED Interested":
Yana Nikolayeva at PEC Atlanta. She knows the cars, but probably knows the options even better. I can credit her with the extent of Exclusive Options and Custom Tailoring on the car. PTS/LTS can be a problem when targeting a specific delivery window, but Yana helped me design a super-personalized car within my desire to target a specific delivery date. Custom Tailoring with off-the-rack paint and leather color combinations made that work, and Yana has sourced me what might be the first GBM/GBM car with a full Blue Pepita interior in the US. All credit goes to Yana; make an appointment and visit her in Atlanta. Include a driving experience at the PEC track; It's a great day and super worthwhile.
Jamie Dillon at PEC Atlanta. She coordinates EU Delivery. A family event came up which pushed my specific delivery date forward by exactly one day, just 6 weeks before my scheduled delivery. ED slots are not easy to come by (I'd recommend planning at least 6 months in advance), but Jamie worked with my SA to make everything in the schedule come together. Credit to Jamie, my SA Eric, Porsche Cars, and PCNA for prioritizing the customer and making this a happy purchasing experience, even with 11th hour changes.
Eric Baumann at Porsche of Tampa. Not only is Eric a Porsche guy, he is an excellent salesman He understands and embodies the 3 A's: Available, Affable, and Able. By text, email, and phone, Eric has been my Point of Contact, and seems as excited to see the car as I am! Post-delivery, he is already coordinating my PPF installation in Tampa. Wherever you buy, find a Porsche passionate SA who is your purchase quarterback. I am sure most dealerships have at least one or two.
We have a ~10 day Bavarian itinerary, and I worked to find a compromise between driving and vacationing. I think this is an itinerary that most couples would enjoy. Here is my plan, night by night:
23 May Overnight Flight
24 May Stuttgart/Pickup
25 May Baden Baden
26 May Baden Baden
27 May Black Forest drive South on 500 to Freudenstadt/Schwarzwald Hochstrasse/Sasbachealden/Hohenzollern Castle arrive Neuschwanstein
28 May Neuschwanstein Castle/Oberammergau Innsbruck
29 May Munich
30 May Munich
31 May Arrive Grossglockner High Alpine Road
01 June Day to drive the Grossglockner High Alpine Road
02 June Leipzig Dropoff Via /Derestricted Autobahn A9 to A38/Dropoff, Stay Frankfurt
03 June AM Depart Leipzig/Frankfurt
Delivery day for us is a little non-standard, due to my late date change. Typically, the Stuttgart day is:
8:00AM: Arrive the Factory
8:30 AM: Take delivery of your car
10:30 AM: Private factory tour
12:00 PM: Special lunch for ED Customers and VIP Porsche clients
1:30 PM and Later: Tour the Museum (on your own)
Porsche provides one night of accommodations, as well as transportation vouchers from the airport. In Stuttgart we are assigned to the AM Schlossgarten, which looks lovely. Some of our accommodations en route were aided by the Porsche ED Travel Guide.
Currently (April 2018) there is a Delta flight discount through Porsche and a variety of options for drop-off, both attached. We are using Leipzig since it is the only location that accepts the car 24/7/365, and I want to minimize 3rd-party transportation for my new car.
I will follow-up on experiences here and in the 991 section, which will be more car-centric and less process-centric.
Look for the car in the 991 section - coming soon!
Grossglockner is great. Driven it many times. If able go early to reduce the traffic if you have the time the drive from Lienz to Grossglockner is also really nice. My wife took this photo at the top.
I'll be driving on 500 this August. Let us know what you think of it
I am sure you have the logistics sorted by now, just wonder about the last two days. Großglockner to Leipzig is 8+ hours, and then Leipzig to Frankfurt by train is another 3 hours minimum. And you should swap Großglockner with Munich, from Innsbruck to Großglockner makes most sense and avoids back and forth over the boarder. Plus trip from Munich to Leipzig shorter.
Thank you for the suggestion. Our Munich nights are timed to meet a friend; they cannot be changed.
However, the logistics have indeed been considered. We are staying at Kaprun Tauren the night before driving the Grossglocker and at Schloss Fuschl the night after the drive. We should have pretty good daylight at the end of May, so we can make the most out of the day. Do you think that is a reasonable route for seeing the High Alpine Road? As you point out, Schloss Fuschl to Leipzig is the longest drive of the trip, and Google Maps clocks it in as 6 hours. I know there is traffic, but some sections of the derestricted A9 and A38 are reported as fairly clear and I should be able to save some time off the drive while breaking in my X51 turbos.
Ok, staying in Salzburg makes sense. To Leipzig, I’d go A3/A93 passing by Passau and Regensburg and then A9. You are a bit longer on restricted Austrian Autobahn, but then A93 has very little risk of traffic jams. Salzburg to Munich is uninspiring, traffic jams around Munich, then risk of more traffic jams and a pretty uninspiring Autobahn (though often high speed if clear) between Munich and Nürnberg. You could stop for lunch in Regensburg, nice historic city centre (though arriving early in Leipzig also has its benefits, Leipzig is a pretty city).
Ok, staying in Salzburg makes sense. To Leipzig, I’d go A3/A93 passing by Passau and Regensburg and then A9. You are a bit longer on restricted Austrian Autobahn, but then A93 has very little risk of traffic jams. Salzburg to Munich is uninspiring, traffic jams around Munich, then risk of more traffic jams and a pretty uninspiring Autobahn (though often high speed if clear) between Munich and Nürnberg. You could stop for lunch in Regensburg, nice historic city centre (though arriving early in Leipzig also has its benefits, Leipzig is a pretty city).
Thank you! I appreciate your direction. I like the idea of taking A3 north after crossing the border and avoiding the Munich autobahn and associated traffic. However, this is my day for de-restricted running - it's a Saturday and my longest autobahn drive. Do you think that I could take the A3 all the way through Neumarkt towards Nuremberg to join the A9 and get a good de-restricted run North from that junction to Leipzig? Or should I take A3 to A93, and join A9 via A72 up at Hof to do the de-restricted run? That seems like an awfully short run on the A9 if I join North at Hof.
I’d stay on the A93 and join the A9 north of Hof. A93 has more curves than A9 but also more speed limits. So if you want to have more straight parts, take the A3 from Regensburg and then A9 towards Leipzig. All Autobahn is unrestricted, unless there are permanent or temporary signs / restrictions. Weekday, you can be lucky on the A93, I’d expect more traffic and more trucks on the A9. And even Hof to Leipzig is 90 miles on the A9. By the way, Sundays is no trucks on German Autobahn.
Looking at your itinerary, the best chances of a high speed run are indeed on that day. But sometimes traffic is so heavy I wouldn’t go more than 100mph, other days you see no car up to the horizon and you can go 180mph+.
While my personal high high speed is 188mph (302km/h), that was actually on a way to a trackday, we lost two hours in a road block due to an accident and the got hungry and wanted to arrive for dinner in time. First time in years I had the chance to go top speed, more often you experience traffic and need to moderate your speed. Your Black Forrest and Alps roads will be much more fun.
Just take it easy and don’t force it. Two lane Autobahn and many trucks who overtake at ridiculously low speeds is not a good opportunities for a high speed run. Just be prepared - at all times - for people doing stupid moves, many don’t check their rear mirrors and / or underestimate the speed differential, great opportunity to test your brakes...
My car hit V300 on Thursday 17 May, 6 days before pickup. My (excellent) SA assured me that the car would be ready, and kept it in touch with PCNA and PAG. I understand there were probably some delays with completion due to my CXX “Special Wishes” Pepita interior and multiple Exclusive options. I understand from elsewhere on this board that deviating stitching has delayed cars recently. I am thrilled my car is ready on-time! I’ve got renewed admiration for German manufacturing.
We have arrived back in the US from a fantastic ED, detailed here (https://rennlist.com/forums/991/1070...-delivery.html). There are two important process pieces I wanted to post away from the play-by-play trip thread:
(1) Pickup in Zuffenhausen, what Porsche calls Hand-Over in Germany, was lovely. We had a unique schedule due to a family event, and this necessitated a change a few short weeks before our pickup. Typically, Zuffenhausen factory delivery stars around 8 AM. We arrived at 1 PM for a scheduled Hand-Over that afternoon. The Factory Delivery Center was a bit confused at our late arrival, but they were quite gracious about everything. They shuttled us off to our lunch and had the car ready at 3 PM. I was impressed with the front desk's ability to think on their feet and make us welcome and happy.
(1b) The car had a problem at delivery, which is that the PCM would not communicate with the key and none of the information stored in the dash was permanent. That includes the wheel position, mirror positions, radio stations, individual settings, units, preferences, and the clock. When we returned the day after Hand-Over for our factory tour, I was met by a most helpful individual named Tobias Pohl in the Facotry Delivery Center department. He made an earnest effort with some technical staff to fix the problem, but it could not be repaired on-site. The car's drivability is unaffected by the dash, so we went on to have a fabulous experience with ~1000 miles of lovely driving; I just re-set the mirrors, wheel, and units frequently. Tobias promptly emailed PCNA's ED coordinator Jamie Dillon and I looped in my SA Eric Baumann (both listed above). He also corresponded with Leipzig - where planned drop-off was going to be - to see if they could fix it. Well done, Tobias and Zuffenhausen Factory Delivery Center - you get an A for effort and concern.
(2) Dropoff in Leipzig was selected for 2nd June, since Leipzig is the only drop-off option that is available on weekends, and we wanted to get a good Autobahn day plus fly out of Frankfurt. Leipzig is technically available 24/7/365 for drop-off. We arrived at ~4:30 PM on a Saturday. The guard gate helped us through, even with very limited translation. The Leipzig factory was running some track experiences while we were there, so there was staff in the building. It was clear they were not expecting us, which I was surprised to hear, but they were helpful and efficient in finding staff to facilitate drop-off. It's clearly a routine place for drop-off; once staff was assigned to us it was quite efficient. We worked with Olaf Ischner, who seems to be a driving instructor perhaps, to drop off the car. He was eager to help, proud if his facility and the brand, gave us a quick tour of the Leipzig are for European delivery (which had 3 lovely GT3T's for Monday Hand-Over), got us coffee and a snack, and called a cab to get us to the Leipzig train station. Another A+ Porsche employee, and someone I can recognize and recommend working with. I wouldn't recommend showing up at midnight trying to drop off a car at Leipzig, but it's certainly a good option for reasonable non-business hour returns.
Overall, everyone we encountered at PAG's facilities in Germany was enthusiastic, proud of the brand, and eager to help. I think there was some weakness in communication, but that was more than made up for the the ambition to make us happy and get the job done. That makes me a happy Porsche customer.
I will post an update when the car arrives Stateside.
04-25-2018, 09:43 PM
Recognition + Process + Itinerary May 2018
