The following are the experiences of our own Porsche Brand Ambassador Stephen Woolley and his customer Carl's - from ordering his dream 911 through to a day-by-day account of Carl's Porsche European Delivery vacation.
The beginning...
I spoke with Carl initially last summer as a sales call to our dealership. He hadn’t had a good experience with another local dealer so as we do with all of our clients the red carpet was rolled out and we agreed to meet to discuss a possible 911 purchase.
Carl had dreamed of 911 ownership since he was a small child and had the wall posters to prove it, like many of us did!
I met with Carl and started to help him design his dream 911 Carrera 4S Coupe. We selected a series of carefully thought out options from the enormous list provided by Porsche in Germany, but to make his experience even more special it was decided that Carl would collect the car directly from the factory in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen and utilize the “Porsche European Delivery” service. This involves the customer flying themselves to Germany where the dealer pays for a nights luxury hotel accommodation followed by a factory tour and a visit to the world famous Porsche museum. They then have a detailed explanation of their own vehicle followed by a VIP lunch. Customers are then free to use their very own car fully insured by Porsche in Europe for up to 16 days. This service doesn’t cost the customer anything other than air fares and accommodation as they drive through Europe.
The order was placed in late summer last year and the Euro collection experience booked with Porsche Cars Canada, now the long wait starts! We experienced one of the worst winters in living memory but thankfully for Carl the thought of collecting his lifelong dream helped him through!
In June 2018 as temperatures started to climb for our beautiful Ontarian summer the reality of Carl’s trip became very real. We met to go through the customized Euro Delivery package provided by Porsche Canada.
On the 3rd July Carl and his wife flew to Stuttgart to start their dream vacation around beautiful mainland Europe.
Steve Woolley is a Globally Certified Brand Ambassador working with Downtown Porsche in Toronto. Steve has over 15 years’ experience with the brand in various roles. Steve is excited to assist and advise existing and future clients about the Porsche European Delivery service. Call him on 416 603 9988 or email swoolley@dfcauto.com
Date Posted: July 9, 2018
Hey Stephen, sorry for the delay, we have been busy!
Factory experience was fantastic, friendly knowledgeable experienced staff, the tour was unbelievable wow! I meet with three other people picking up their cars......all GT3/RSs! Again all friendly and welcomed up to the ‘family’.
Day one drove 650 kms to Vienna, wow, cruised at 160, just so smooth and responsive, need more time obviously to get used to the features.
Today we drive from Vienna to Piber to Auffach ending up in Innsbruck.........Stelvio tomorrow!!
Over all.......just wow!
Hi Stephen, yesterday we drove from Vienna to innsbruck , approx 750 kms on a mixture of highway some autobahn (peeked at 191!) and Austrian mountain roads with switchbacks, the car in sport was fantastic on switchbacks, very rewarding and the noise was lovely! People have waved at us and commented on a nice car.
It’s still all sinking in!
Carl
Hi Stephen,
You wanted a blog! ...
Yesterday we drove from Innsbruck to Monaco, around 750 kms via the Stelvio pass. Today we hang out and walk around Monte Carlo.
Some great views and the switch backs as ever demonstrated the cars performanceespecially in sport mode. The tunnel with the exhaust on was also fun!!
Monaco car museum is a must and the GT2/RS I suppose shouldn’t be a surprise at out hotel in Monaco! An MC12 drove past, I only have a rear shot, but wow. The Camo la Ferrari will have to do!!
Carl
Hey Stephen.
Today was our longest journey, from Monaco to Reims via nice, around 970 kms!
The car performed flawlessly , all day in normal mode , cruising at 135kms, average 9 litres / 100 kms.
On the way we stopped for gas and some food in one of France’s excellent rest stops and met another euro delivery couple on the their journey, they were just as excited about the experience.
We arrived in Reims 10 minutes before the city erupted in celebration following French reaching the soccer World Cup final. Wow!
Tomorrow we head to England where they also play for their chance in final tomorrow since 1966!
Cheers
Carl
Hi Stephen,
Today we made our way from Reims to the UK. Covering another 450 kms and using the Eurotunnel.
The car continues to perform superbly and turns heads along the way. It needs a clean though, a task for tomorrow!
Carl
Hi Stephen,
So after a few days visiting family around England we made it to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The weather was perfect, the whole day was great, they say a picture can speak a thousand words...here are a few!...
Carl
Hey Stephen,
This morning we dropped the car off to the shipping agent, all went smoothly and I get to keep the front plate that was attached with Velcro to the front bumper. The paper work issued at time of delivery is important so keep handy! The agent was very helpful.
Yesterday we drove from Belgium back into Germany using the wonderful autobahn network. On the way we visited the Nurburgring where with my wife and luggage onboard we completed a lap of the famous Nordschleife track which was just awesome with the car in sport plus mode, the performance was just fantastic. I look forward to reviewing the go pro footage.
So our final distance was 5932 kms, the experience is one I hope to repeat. Just an unbelievable experience.
In summary, booking all the hotels and transportation in advance was great. If I did the trip again I would chose a shorter daily driving time around 5 hours, this would avoid getting to destinations late and not being able to fully explore before the next leg. For this trip though I had a number of objectives which again I would reduce.
Thank to you everyone at Porsche for arranging this, it was an experience we will never forget.
Carl