Having given up on actually seeing my car on the production line (after ~ 50 communications with everyone in every aspect of Porsche short of the cleaning ladies), I would love to follow its progress from Stuttgart to delivery time in Long Beach. I'm sure Porsche knows exactly where all of their inventory is, until the marks go to Deutchebank! Any ideas about how I might pick up its trail?
Your dealer can tell you when it's "born" ... That's when it gets a VIN. It takes about a week to get to the port at Emden via rail. Once it gets on the ship, they can tell you the name of the ship. There's several sources for tracking ships like marinetraffic.com and you can find the ships schedule also on bumperplugs.com site. Once it's at the port it goes by car hauler so it's however long it takes by road. Dealer can tell you that too.
We just took delivery of a 2011 911TT .. We are East Coast and it took about 1 month 2 days from "born" to delivered. I'd expect about an additional 7 - 12 days if you are West Coast. Those ocean going ferries aren't very fast, about 19knots and slower around traffic. Also depends on how many stops along the way and how crappy the weather is.
Enjoy!
--Ed
Congratulations on your new Porsche, and I really appreciate your detailed explanation of the journey to the U.S. Did they complete your car on the day they said they would? Mine, complete with the order number,is slated for completion on January 12, 2011, 2 days after the factory returns from its winter vacation.
You stated 911TT, from the delivery date, was it a Turbo S? I have a special order midnight blue coming.
Thanks again. That's exactly what I was after.
Tinkll1, from this I assume you made an attempt to see your car getting built. I would like to hear the story of how things did not work out. Was it poor timing or was Porsche uncooperative in the process?
An "attempt" is really not the right word. From November 30, 2010 until what I take to be the last straw, December 29, 2010, I was obsessed with getting to station 61 to take a photograph of the "marriage" of body and engine. I started with Porsche Cars North America and went through Christian Hoenniger, Ulrike Lutz of Porsche Factory Tours, and Customer Satisfaction, sent $75 worth of USPS/Fed-Ex Global Express 3 day ackages to the 6 members of the Supervisory Board, including both Porsches and Piech, Matthias Muller, Uwe Hueck, and Porsche's newly appointed Marketing Director, Dr. Kjell Gruner.
Of course, sending letters, and having them read by their intended recipient, are two entirely different accomplishments, and Porsche's filters and hurdles resemble the earthworks of a Teutonic castle, or so I imagine.
Porsche prefers to have PCNA keep those in the colonies happy, and they are kind, correct, humorless, efficient and relentless in enforcing the rules that are apparently passed on from Stuttgart. No amount of pleading, cajoling, embarrassing or begging created the slightest ***** in their armor. The task was impossible because of bad timing, for one. Winter vacation extends from Christmas to January 10th. The build date is January 12th. No one would be free to take me on a factory tour, which is scheduled to begin on January 26th. A simple photograph runs into the obstacle that photographs are never to be taken of the assembly process, at least by those outside the organization.
They would allow me to see their museum, and they would show me their special private collection. I suspect that this was truly a sacrifice on their part, in tribute to this being my 7th Porsche.
I'll try to send you a copy of the final kiss-off, correct, polite and unyielding, via e mail.
Tinkll1: Ours was a regular turbo, special ordered to our spec. They missed the completed on date by 2 days so not bad there. The ship was actually a couple days ahead of schedule.
Congrats on the new ride, I know you'll love it! The dealer can help you along every step of the way, and they will call you on status change if you tell them to.
--Ed
