toph4242

I was talking to Joey Yesterday and asked him about the whole "Which location should I drop at to get back to the USA as fast as possible". He told me any of the 3 major drop points in Germany: Sindelfingen, Munich, or Leipzig. He mentioned that for the purposes of shipping, Sindelfingen is the "closest" to Emden Port logistically for Porsche to get it in the queue. Anyone that has done Euro before and had different drop off locations, does it make sense seem right that this would be the best/quickest option and best way to end the driving portion of my trip?
I have no set schedule, so I can make my route/end point anywhere at any time.

dub

I am literally only driving my car for one day down to Stuttgart to drop it at Sindelfingen! Will rent from museum and enjoy our tour without worry.

toph4242

Yea not a terrible idea. I wanted to do Leipzig so I could get the track day in... and I wanted to drive my car on autobahn and through the Stelvio Pass.. I might just make a 3 day trip out of my car, go through southern Germany and northern Italy (stelvio) and then head to Stuttgart to drop off and rent from the Porsche drive program. I'd love to get a couple days in my car there, and then get it headed back on a ship so I can explore some more of Europe too.

Angryinch

Joey called me back, nice fella. He gave me the contact info for the Canadian ED manager, which I sent off an email to. We shall see what happens.

toph4242

Great guy... Sorry was just about to PM you saying he doesnt handle Canada. But he beat me to it.

GTTROIS

Ok, on the surface of it… this makes NO sense to me, so please do educate me as to your rationale. Otherwise, it sure looks like you are taking an ED spot from someone who could have truly enjoyed the experience.

bobert75

Unfortunately, that may not be the case - many passes are not yet open in early June. It really depends on how much snow they get this winter and the rate of melting this coming spring. For instance, we were in Switzerland in early June 2019 and Gotthard/Furka/Grimsel/Susten were all still closed (though Grossglockner in Austria & Klausen elsewhere in Switzerland were open). Went down to Lake Como for three days and only Gotthard had opened while we were in Italy (but it was pouring rain - and after dark - when we came back and went through Gotthard at a snail's pace). I tracked the status of the Swiss passes upon our return to the US in mid-June and the fourth & final one of this particular group didn't open until after the 20th of June that year (I don't recall the exact date - twentysomething!).

Angryinch

x 100000. Let us guys go that want to actually enjoy our cars in Europe and drive them around... Seems like a massive waste.

bobert75

I've only done Euro Delivery for a BMW before - hope to get my Leipzig delivery date w/in the next week or two (should be Aug at worst, not Sept, but I hope to get an earlier date so we can do a Zuffenhausen factory tour) - but I heard that Sindelfingen & Leipzig are allegedly the quickest options as far as trying to get the car back to the US ASAP. Not sure about Munich, which would be convenient for us as I plan to fly in & out of Munich and the Munich dropoff is the same place I dropped off my M2 over five years ago. But I'm planning to drop my 911 T off at Sindelfingen since it's free and Munich costs a few hundred euros (some old thread on here from 2018 has a PDF that says it was 420 euros for Munich dropoff - again, in 2018). I'm guessing Munich involves more logistics for Porsche (unlike BMW, for fairly obvious reasons with BMW Welt & a factory in Munich), which is presumably why there's a charge, and is therefore possibly not as fast as going with the other two drop spots you mention. We plan to take the train back to Munich from Sindelfingen (stopping at Motorworld along the walk to the train station). At any rate, the drop off point surely doesn't matter in a number of cases, as some folks have reported their car being stuck at the port for days or even weeks - seems like luck is likely a bigger factor than where we drop off but I figure we may was well do whatever we can to try to facilitate a quick return (in addition to avoiding a dropoff fee).

toph4242

Makes perfect sense.. I know that luck will be a big part, but like you said, I wanted to ask the question in case there was something I could do to shorten the time by even just a few days. I plan to drive around for about a week... so whether I go south first and then West to Stuttgart, or some other route, it doesnt matter... but from Joey's perspective, he thought the stuttgart/sindelfingen was best!
I just cant wait to have the T on some curvy mountain/farm roads

toph4242

Good to know! I will certainly keep my radar on this. I have plans to drive for about a week, leave Leipzig and end up in Stuttgart 5-7 days later.. I was going to aim for the passes/all of eastern and southern Germany.. but maybe ill just explore more north, and head south to Stuttgart from the western side of the country instead... Luckily I have a little over 4 months to plan this before my June 6th pick up date

bobert75

If you're going to drive down to Italy for Stelvio (as I did in Oct 2017) - which, in fairness, is not the most enjoyable pass when it comes to actual driving - you may want to consider a bunch of other passes in the region. They are numerous - I have 8 other passes in Italy on my itinerary which you could consider doing if you hop over to the Dolomites (I'm currently up to 24 total passes, including 13 in Switzerland & 2 in Austria). While I haven't been to these - yet - many folks have cited the "Sella group" as being more fun to drive (Sella, Gardena, Campolongo, Pordoi, as well as Valparola, Falzarego, & Giau). I'm not saying don't do Stelvio - for sure it was memorable (such as when I had a bus come in the opposite direction (below) & when I had to briefly reverse once cz a corner was so tight - not to mention blind) - but if you're in the area why limit yourself? Also, I added Umbrail pass to my list just a few days ago - that one starts in Switzerland and connects directly to Stelvio shortly after it crosses the border into Italy.

toph4242

WOW beautiful pic...
So in 2019, I rented a 992 Carrera S from the Porsche factory and drove to Lake Como... I did the Julier pass (last week of May). This is the only pass I did, there was some snow on the mountains, but roads were clear. I didnt even know at the time that others were likely closed as you said in previous post.

Julier was beautiful, and as far as going into Lake Como, it was a stunning way to get there... but its a much smaller pass

I think I will keep Stelvio just because... well... its Stelvio. But I will absolutely look into the others you have mentioned. My trip in 2019 was pretty rushed, so it was me just picking a pass and going for it from Stuttgart to Como in one trip. This time its going to be in my own 992T (Rubystar with Manual Gearbox)... and its all about roads and driving with no agenda.... although having said that, 5 days after my Leipzig delivery date is 24hr of Le Mans, so I was thinking 5 days would be the perfect amount of time with my car, get to Stuttgart, leave it for shipping home and then either train it or fly over to Le Mans.

bobert75

I can tell you my only regret from my M2 European Delivery was not using all the days of free registration & insurance! I don't recall exactly how many days BMW offered at the time but I'm planning on using every one of the 16 days Porsche is offering (I actually had to cut a day or two of driving from my itinerary once I found out they give you "only" 16 days).

bobert75

Cool - have not done Julier before but it is indeed one of the 13 I plan to do in Switzerland. I def encourage you to do Stelvio - I would not miss it - it's the first one I ever did and it got me hooked on driving Alpine passes. While Lake Como was beautiful, I hated driving in Italy (apart from in the mountains) - Italian drivers are, um, aggressive. And of course I wasted a day & a half of our three days at Lake Como cz I was grumpy about four out of five Swiss passes being closed (literally the only reason I had taken us to Switzerland).

I am with you on Le Mans - since I'm afraid of closed Alpine passes (and it'd be too much for one trip), I decided to do Le Mans next year (expecting a few more manufacturers to join next year, so 2024 might be the peak of the new "golden era").