Treffen Tour of Germany report
06-26-2005, 02:22 PM
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Treffen Tour of Germany report
Just returned from the PCA sanctioned Treffen (tour) trip to Germany organized by Fast Lane Travel.
Ours was a 3 ˝ day tour that was jam packed with activities and driving in Germany. Our base was Porsches headquarters city of Stuttgart and the Steigenberger Hotel Graf Zeppelin. The hotel was excellent, service superb, downtown location in the shopping district. Transportation to and from events (when we weren’t driving) was provided by very nice deluxe buses.
We found the Germans to be great hosts, very friendly - most in the service businesses speak English, so language was never a problem.
Our tour group included 10 couples and two single guys. All were Americans from a variety of locations around the U.S. – all were Porsche owners and enthusiasts.
Day 1 - afternoon Mercedes Museum tour – Nice museum, great history. They have a new much larger museum under construction and planned for completion in 2006. Unbelievable factoid – the Germans smoke everywhere, including inside the museum, so smoky my eyes were watering.
Dinner at a nice local restaurant.
Day 2 – a very busy, long day – bused to the Porsche factory, toured the very small 20 car museum (Porsche is planning a new museum), then tour of the factory (no photos allowed), lunch at the factory dining hall.
Bus to Weissach, hot laps with pro drivers in a 996 Turbo, 996 Cab and a Boxster S – fun and fast! We had to sign non disclosure agreements to get into Weissach. There were signs of the LMP2 race car unveiling was happening the same day but they wouldn’t let us in that area.
Bus back to the Zuffenhausen factory for a tour of Werks #1, the original Porsche factory, now the location of their vintage restoration facilities. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed here either. Saw at least five 959’s, two 73 RS’s, a 904 and a factory museum restoration of the very rare 718 8-cylinder RS Spyder (one of two made). There was a Cayman partially covered in the parking lot but they wouldn’t let us get a close look.
Bus back to the hotel with just about an hour to get ready for dinner at the hotel. Advertised as hosted by Hans Riedel VP of Sales and Marketing for Porsche AG – he was a no show! Nice dinner, but a very long, hot and exhausting day! Many of the wives commented that it would have been nice to have a shopping excursion side trip as an option for the day.
Day 3 driving tour – Meet early in the hotel lobby to go pick-up our new Porsches for a two day Autobahn and mountain driving tour of Southern Germany. 10 Minutes before the bus is to leave we are told by the travel company representative (tour guide) that many of us would not get the cars we had ordered!!! This was the first sign of trouble… no actually the second after the VP was a no show.
Fast Lane Travel advertises that attendees will be driving “new” Porsches from the factory. They gave us a choice of several different models, my wife and I had selected a 997 Coupe. But that morning, just as we were leaving to pick up the cars we’re told that they hadn’t been able to work out the new cars from Porsche and had sourced cars “from other contacts”, but they weren’t able to get the 997’s!
When we started to protest and express frustration, the tour guide got really short, she actually snapped at my wife, “you’ll get what you get” when my wife asked what we’d be driving.
As it turned out the “sourced” cars were via a small back alley car broker located some 45 minutes from the hotel. All told it took us well over 2 hours to go pick up the cars, do the inspections, sign the German language waivers and rental agreements (who knows what we signed??) and get on the road.
Of the 11 cars NONE of them were new and only 5 or 6 of the people got the model they were promised. Four of us that wanted 997’s got 996 C4S’s. The tour guide and rental agent had a rather glib attitude that, “gee this is the way it goes in Germany sometimes”. All of the tour attendees were very frustrated. Interestingly our C4S had an Avis rental car key chain, but we didn’t rent through an Avis agency.
The car broker told us he had sourced two 997’s (but they weren’t yet available) and he would deliver them to our group later in the day and exchange them for two of the C4S’s. When the cars showed up everyone groaned in frustration – the two 997’s were the Tech Art demo cars! Tech Art is a German after market tuner – these 997’s had more after market bling that you can imagine – lowered, stiff ride, metallic graphics, loud exhaust, 20” wheels, chip, etc. They drove and rode like crap! Why do this to a 997 when you can buy a GT3 or GT3 RS??
The four of us that had C4S’s decided to switch back and forth between the two C4S’s and the two Tech Art 997’s. My wife and I spent the whole 4th day in one of the 997’s and it was a miserable ride on the Autobahn.
The good news? Bavaria and Southern Germany are beautiful, the roads are great and despite the summer vacation crowds we hit some good speeds on the autobahn. Cruising at 100 mph is common and on some open stretches we were close to 150 mph (230+ kmph). Even at speed we felt very safe as the German’s are very disciplined about their driving – ONLY pass on the left and move back to the right and ALWAYS use your turn signal to change lanes.
We spent the 3rd night at the beautiful waterfront Hotel Bad Schachen Lake Constance on the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Again, due to the late start and many activities, no down time, dinner right after hotel arrival.
Day 4 – more driving & sightseeing trough southern Germany – very nice.
In the late afternoon we get back to the back alley car brokers place to turn in the cars. I want the guy to sign off on my rental agreement that I have returned the 997 Tech Art car in good shape – he refuses saying that Tech Art wants to put all of their cars up on a lift and inspect the undercarriage before they release liability!
You can only imagine, after having my brain rattled for eight hours in this lowered, stiff, bastardized piece of fine German engineering, that I was in no mood to screw around – I was pissed! I made it pretty clear to the guy that no one was going anywhere until he signed off on my rental agreement – he finally did.
To wrap up this long report – Germany is great and I hope to go back. But, I would never do it with Fast Lane Travel and I don’t think PCA should be endorsing their tours. In addition to the big fatal flaw of the cars noted above, our tour guide was extremely difficult to work with, she was consistently rude and short with guests. I could spend another 500 words detailing many, many examples of the poor service and poor attention to detail, but just take my word for it – find another way to tour Germany, you will be glad you did.
My opinions are mine, but all of the other tour guest I spoke with felt the same way about the service.
Ours was a 3 ˝ day tour that was jam packed with activities and driving in Germany. Our base was Porsches headquarters city of Stuttgart and the Steigenberger Hotel Graf Zeppelin. The hotel was excellent, service superb, downtown location in the shopping district. Transportation to and from events (when we weren’t driving) was provided by very nice deluxe buses.
We found the Germans to be great hosts, very friendly - most in the service businesses speak English, so language was never a problem.
Our tour group included 10 couples and two single guys. All were Americans from a variety of locations around the U.S. – all were Porsche owners and enthusiasts.
Day 1 - afternoon Mercedes Museum tour – Nice museum, great history. They have a new much larger museum under construction and planned for completion in 2006. Unbelievable factoid – the Germans smoke everywhere, including inside the museum, so smoky my eyes were watering.
Dinner at a nice local restaurant.
Day 2 – a very busy, long day – bused to the Porsche factory, toured the very small 20 car museum (Porsche is planning a new museum), then tour of the factory (no photos allowed), lunch at the factory dining hall.
Bus to Weissach, hot laps with pro drivers in a 996 Turbo, 996 Cab and a Boxster S – fun and fast! We had to sign non disclosure agreements to get into Weissach. There were signs of the LMP2 race car unveiling was happening the same day but they wouldn’t let us in that area.
Bus back to the Zuffenhausen factory for a tour of Werks #1, the original Porsche factory, now the location of their vintage restoration facilities. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed here either. Saw at least five 959’s, two 73 RS’s, a 904 and a factory museum restoration of the very rare 718 8-cylinder RS Spyder (one of two made). There was a Cayman partially covered in the parking lot but they wouldn’t let us get a close look.
Bus back to the hotel with just about an hour to get ready for dinner at the hotel. Advertised as hosted by Hans Riedel VP of Sales and Marketing for Porsche AG – he was a no show! Nice dinner, but a very long, hot and exhausting day! Many of the wives commented that it would have been nice to have a shopping excursion side trip as an option for the day.
Day 3 driving tour – Meet early in the hotel lobby to go pick-up our new Porsches for a two day Autobahn and mountain driving tour of Southern Germany. 10 Minutes before the bus is to leave we are told by the travel company representative (tour guide) that many of us would not get the cars we had ordered!!! This was the first sign of trouble… no actually the second after the VP was a no show.
Fast Lane Travel advertises that attendees will be driving “new” Porsches from the factory. They gave us a choice of several different models, my wife and I had selected a 997 Coupe. But that morning, just as we were leaving to pick up the cars we’re told that they hadn’t been able to work out the new cars from Porsche and had sourced cars “from other contacts”, but they weren’t able to get the 997’s!
When we started to protest and express frustration, the tour guide got really short, she actually snapped at my wife, “you’ll get what you get” when my wife asked what we’d be driving.
As it turned out the “sourced” cars were via a small back alley car broker located some 45 minutes from the hotel. All told it took us well over 2 hours to go pick up the cars, do the inspections, sign the German language waivers and rental agreements (who knows what we signed??) and get on the road.
Of the 11 cars NONE of them were new and only 5 or 6 of the people got the model they were promised. Four of us that wanted 997’s got 996 C4S’s. The tour guide and rental agent had a rather glib attitude that, “gee this is the way it goes in Germany sometimes”. All of the tour attendees were very frustrated. Interestingly our C4S had an Avis rental car key chain, but we didn’t rent through an Avis agency.
The car broker told us he had sourced two 997’s (but they weren’t yet available) and he would deliver them to our group later in the day and exchange them for two of the C4S’s. When the cars showed up everyone groaned in frustration – the two 997’s were the Tech Art demo cars! Tech Art is a German after market tuner – these 997’s had more after market bling that you can imagine – lowered, stiff ride, metallic graphics, loud exhaust, 20” wheels, chip, etc. They drove and rode like crap! Why do this to a 997 when you can buy a GT3 or GT3 RS??
The four of us that had C4S’s decided to switch back and forth between the two C4S’s and the two Tech Art 997’s. My wife and I spent the whole 4th day in one of the 997’s and it was a miserable ride on the Autobahn.
The good news? Bavaria and Southern Germany are beautiful, the roads are great and despite the summer vacation crowds we hit some good speeds on the autobahn. Cruising at 100 mph is common and on some open stretches we were close to 150 mph (230+ kmph). Even at speed we felt very safe as the German’s are very disciplined about their driving – ONLY pass on the left and move back to the right and ALWAYS use your turn signal to change lanes.
We spent the 3rd night at the beautiful waterfront Hotel Bad Schachen Lake Constance on the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Again, due to the late start and many activities, no down time, dinner right after hotel arrival.
Day 4 – more driving & sightseeing trough southern Germany – very nice.
In the late afternoon we get back to the back alley car brokers place to turn in the cars. I want the guy to sign off on my rental agreement that I have returned the 997 Tech Art car in good shape – he refuses saying that Tech Art wants to put all of their cars up on a lift and inspect the undercarriage before they release liability!
You can only imagine, after having my brain rattled for eight hours in this lowered, stiff, bastardized piece of fine German engineering, that I was in no mood to screw around – I was pissed! I made it pretty clear to the guy that no one was going anywhere until he signed off on my rental agreement – he finally did.
To wrap up this long report – Germany is great and I hope to go back. But, I would never do it with Fast Lane Travel and I don’t think PCA should be endorsing their tours. In addition to the big fatal flaw of the cars noted above, our tour guide was extremely difficult to work with, she was consistently rude and short with guests. I could spend another 500 words detailing many, many examples of the poor service and poor attention to detail, but just take my word for it – find another way to tour Germany, you will be glad you did.
My opinions are mine, but all of the other tour guest I spoke with felt the same way about the service.
Last edited by MarkPcar; 06-26-2005 at 03:41 PM.
06-27-2005, 02:36 AM
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I'm actually very surprised that the Germans dropped the ball. This is very very strange...In my professional dealings with Germans they are always 100%. So something went really wrong with the initial arrangements... It must have been frustruting as hell, but I commend you on your positive attitude and at least trying to enjoy the trip.
Thanks for the report..I hope the agency does something about your frustrution...
Thanks for the report..I hope the agency does something about your frustrution...
06-27-2005, 09:53 AM
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I don't think it was the Germans, I think it was the tour company that didn't make the proper arrangements for the cars and our tour guide was an American employee of Fast Lane Travel.
