Whoopsy

In addition to that metal one from Thermal Club, I also have a crystal one. Actually 2, 1st one didn't survive UPS and someone hand carried a replacement from Toronto to me.

I just got off the phone with Porsche. Official word is that there is no delay, my car is still scheduled to start production this month, but it won't be finished till May. Seems taking a long time to make a car but seems like availability of parts is the limiting factor.

Since my car is part of the initial batch, it will be air freighted to me. But later productions will travel by boat.

Z356

Isn't that wonderful! As has been made clear to us several times in your recent post, they obviously consider you a pretty 'special' kind of guy & a great prospect!

re: Your 'Availability of parts is the limiting factor'

I don't think so. This slow, methodical scaling up of production was communicated to each & every 918 Spyder customer in December. It said ''delivery will commence from mid-March 2014, after production has been very carefully scaled up'. My friend's 918 is one of the early cars scheduled to be built in Zuffenhausen and it will be delivered to him stateside in May too! Doesn't make sense to start speculation about 'availability of parts is the limiting factor' when you have no basis for making that statement!

Again, you are 'special'. But I have news for you. As long as the destination charge for a 918 Spyder remains US$2,975 and PAG retains some business savvy in its financial affairs, I bet each & every one of the 918 Spyders sold in North America will be air-freighted to the selling dealership! Not only is each customer helping cover the cost of air-freight via the unusually high US$2,975 'Destination Charge' (normally it's only US$995), but Porsche & PCNA benefits from getting the balance of the amount due (only $200K is being held as a deposit presently) on this large ticket item that much quicker! Facilitating cash flow...that is what this air freight service on the 918 Spyder is all about!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel
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Whoopsy

What I posted is what was communicated to me this morning from Porsche over the phone.

Exact wording for the freight part is "your car is part of the initial batch so it will be air shipped to you, we might be doing surface shipment for the rest of the order after the initial batch"

As for the parts part, I asked straight up why does it takes over 2 months to build a car, the exact reply is "parts availability is the limiting factor."

Is your friend considering scheduling a factory visit to see the car on the production floor?

Z356

Whoopsy: The only one worth talking to there, as you should know, is Daniel Eastman (918 Client Relationship Manager) in the 918 Spyder Concierge office at 980 Hammond Drive. I don't think Daniel would say that it's taking two months to build because of 'parts availability'. That makes PAG look 'weak' and 'disorganized'. This is a hand-build car and they need to get it 'perfect' as the team learns to put it together. I don't see any issue with taking their time in the early builds before they ramp up production on the rest of the 918 units they will produce in total! And that is what they communicated to my friend in December and it seems a perfectly prudent approach to take.

I have recommended to my friend European delivery of his 918 in Leipzig so that he could have access to the track uninterrupted (for his 'exclusive disposal') for 3 hours, along with a personal factory driver as his instructor! Then he can take it up & down the autobahn at speeds he will never experience on public roads here in America. It should be the ED experience of a lifetime! Let's see if he does that. I also recommended he switch from base to 'Weissach Package'. That is where I see the most collector value for this model! He decided against that based on costs. I hope that doesn't proved to be a big mistake in the long run for him. I recommended he choose an exciting PTS color ('Acid Green', 'Gulf Orange', 'Signal Yellow', 'Voodoo Blue') to paint this historic vehicle! He chose the pedestrian 'Rhodium Silver' instead. So, thus far, I a batting zero! But it's his money, not mine!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel
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Whoopsy

I deal with Porsche Car Canada, at times PCNA, and Melissa the 918 specialist, not the other 918 personal.

The factory delivery is not available. Melissa told me it's off the table as Porsche changed their mind after pricing the price list.

At first I was going to do the Weissach pack, but since I buy the car to enjoy for myself, not saving it for the next person or worry about 'future' resale value, I skipped it. It's worthless to me anyway as I all the stuff it deletes I will add back on and the carbon winglets out back is just begging to be vandalized, carbon exterior bits are also going to be invisible as I will be painting my car black.

Rhodium Silver is still a fantastic colour though. I personally hates any shades of silver/grey yet it's the only one I like.

heynow

hmm... European delivery is still definitely an option. PCNA was more than happy to let me do it...

maomao911

heynow, which dealership did you order the car from?

Whoopsy

Good to know and I retract my earlier statement about it then. When I put in my order last May they deleted the factory delivery option from my order.

Leipzig or Zuffenhausen?

heynow

@maomao911 Carlsen Porsche

Z356

As previously reported in this forum, we now have video proof that 918 production has started at Zuffenhausen. Take a look at this video...while you can. I don't think it will be allowed to linger too long in the internet. But that is a different story.


Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

tripleblack

Thanks Eduardo. Great post as usual. The brakes look really interesting. The surface of the disc looks different, the hats like modified and better looking MovIts (no disrespect, the price point is a lot higher on the 918), and the caliper bridge beefier than anything we've seen before from Porsche.

swb3

Greetings, I have been lurking for a bit and finally decided to join. Since it seems relevant to this post I thought I would share that I just got off the phone with Daniel about my car. He stated that they monitor the forums and was not aware people were concerned with production slipping and in fact they anticipate having 96 cars in the US by the end of July. Unfortunately mine is a July build with August delivery, but as of now they are not projecting any delays and in fact he stated that they aim to "under promise and over deliver". His production demonstrator car just hit the US this week I believe he stated and is going to Amelia Island. He told me this is the first production vehicle to hit the US.

tripleblack

Welcome. Great first post :-)

Z356

fyi as posted tonight on the 991 Forum:

http://onlineathens.com/breaking-new...s-georgia-port

Next stop tomorrow, Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance!

https://www.ameliaconcours.org

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

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