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Final Thoughts - The GTS Chronicles Euro Delivery Adventure

Well, folks, you've made it to the end. The page that sums up the entire experience: pre, during, post. Three-and-a-half long years with more ups and downs than I can count.

In deference to the straight-shootin' Mark and Jack at Savage Geese, I've called this page "Final Thoughts". Hopefully I can come across as clearly and as fairly as they do.
On balance, this long journey was overwhelmingly positive. The shared triumphs and tribulations of the lead-up were character-building, friendship-building, and - at times - a whole lot of fun. There's something about geeking out to a shared passion that inspires and drives your mind to stretch, learn, and experience - pretty much like nothing else. The people we met along the way: Dave Renner, Bernd Stadler, Valentino Alberoni, Pascale Kral, Misha Charoudin, and on and on.... they added vibrance and color and support and friendliness and perspective, all beyond our wildest dreams. The landscapes, the roads, the foods, the monuments.... Again, all amazing and varied. It is said that it is often hard to know that you are experiencing something of a lifetime while you are experiencing it, and that you only do so in hindsight. I do think we managed to at times feel this specialness in the moment, while on our trip. But there is truth to the saying, and the memories of our dual Euro Delivery trip still deliver new little nuggets of remembered joy, even to this day, years later.

Let me further organize my thoughts about this great journey. In fact, I think I'd like to break them down into categories, into a kind of FAQ-like structure. Let's go:

  • Thanks: I have to prioritize thanks. I thank Luke, my since-university car buddy. Luke, you agreed to come on this journey with me - at considerable expense - and have largely tolerated my whims, my changes of direction, my timelines, and my directorial commandments. All of that did not go unnoticed and I am deeply grateful. It is extremely difficult to find someone who is enthusiastically willing to undertake driving adventures of the scope and nature that we have gone on - including this latest and largest one. I thank our dealership - Porsche Centre London - for granting us our dual allocations. I thank the tireless advocacy work done by Dave Renner on our behalf - so above and beyond what could ever be expected. I thank Porsche, and all of its employees who work together to assemble these finest of motorsport automobiles. The attention given to the enthusiast by you is not unnoticed. And thanks to all of our home-brew crewmembers: Chris, Jenn, Brian, and Andy. You took a lot of time out of your lives to help us out, pro bono. Thank you!

  • How did this journey make me feel? All over the map, really. At the beginning, the tiny spark of hope, the possibility that something so wildly enjoyable could even come to pass; the thrill at each milestone where we advanced - the test drives, the initial orders, the allocations, the builds, and of course, the delivery in Leipzig; but also very frequently, unpleasant emotions: exasperation, anxiousness, impatience, doubt, frustration. Those occurred more often than I would have thought. But I'll state it clearly and unequivocally: the joyful and exhilarating highs far outweighed the lows.

  • Could I have done things better? Yeah, of course. Often you don't know what you don't know about a thing until you go through that thing. For the journey of The GTS Chronicles, there are many things we could have done better. Chief among them was not really understanding the nature of the Porsche car-buying market, the dealerships, the order-allocation-delivery pipeline. In retrospect, we should have given more weight to staying with a local dealership. We also should have paid keen and close attention to the personality, the work ethic, the general disposition of the sales professionals we were dealing with. That greatly impacts one's satisfaction with the purchase process. The problem is... it's hard to suss that out. It's hard, over the course of a few meetings, to really size up a businesses' character. The other big takeaway: Carpe Diem. Seize the moment. When Luke and I had received our twin 718 S allocations in the winter of 2021, we should not have given them away. Even with the risk around Covid travel. In retrospect, we could have received those cars, enjoyed them for a bit, sold them at no loss, *and* subsequently ordered GTS 4.0s, done a Euro Delivery trip (or a second Euro Delivery trip, if we'd managed to complete the first one), and we would probably still be sitting today, in early 2025, with two 718 GTS 4.0s, and a few more dollars in our pocket to boot.

    On the gear and recording front, there were many misses. We didn't use the gimbal enough. I didn't fly the drone enough. There were a lot of B-roll footage type shots I neglected to capture. There were many cases of some spicy bit of dialog or footage uncaptured because we weren't focused enough on capturing the "bumps in the road", so to speak. My mic'ing (sound) was not very good. Often I didn't bother due to lack of thinking or time and we captured poor audio as a result. Several instances of camera mount solutions turned out to have excessive vibrations - a result of not having tested in advance enough. So many failures on the technical front!

  • How do I feel about the cars? The Porsche 718 GTS 4.0 is simultaneously amazing and pedestrian. There's so much about it that is just efficient and solid and user-friendly. The ergonomics are impeccable and exactly to my taste: analog gauges, tactile switchgear, solid, perfectly-weighted steering, pedals, gearshift. And then the passionate part: flowing lines, both inside and out. Styling that is not flashy but yet still has a simple, sinuous, timeless beauty. Road manners that are - once again - docile in everyday driving, firm but eminently comfortable, and then when you push it, it just... does what you ask. Corners harder. Then harder. Brakes harder, then harder again. Sets in corners and remains unflappable. The torquey motor is always there to pull instantly, at any rpm. The effect of that healthy torque is lessened by the long-ish choice of gear ratios, but it is still very good. Our cars never put a foot wrong on our delivery or afterwards (save maybe for Luke's greasy experience on a wet Nordschleife lap, but we'll blame the tires for that). They are - in short - everything you would expect from a company that has the reputation of delivering sportscar excellence.

  • How do I feel about Porsche? This one is a little different. It's essentially a description of my changing feelings about.... about a big corporation. One that was initially shrouded in a kind of reverential mystery (which had been the case for most of my life), and then, as I placed my order, was immersed in the lore, met people, encountered the business processes, and ultimately, was shepherded through a slice of its operations, that shroud was gradually lifted and replaced with more concrete impressions.

    We all want to idolize and glamorize our heroes. For two car enthusiasts, especially ones like Luke and I, who tend more towards the lightweight / high-revving / agility side of the spectrum (rather than the big / powerful / muscle / heavy side of the spectrum), Porsche and other high-end European and Japanese marques and models had always danced around in our heads. The reality of it is, of course, that Porsche is a company running a business that is geared to generating a profit. Which is completely reasonable. That inevitably means that many decisions will be driven not by a passion for driving, but by the realities of shareholder value and profits. Again, completely reasonable. And we encountered the realities of that time and again on our journey, like for example when we tried and tried to engage in media collaboration. It never really happened, and in all likelihood it was because there were business priorities, requirements, necessities, or a basic lack of time or resources, that prevented it from ever coming to fruition. But still, at some level, Porsche manages to carve out just that little bit of space for the dreamers, the enthusiasts, the passionate, and as a result, is able to churn out vehicles and experiences that satisfy this segment - who consist of folks like us. And for that little slice, I am grateful. Not all companies manage to do this.

  • How do I feel about our Porsche Dealership? This one is interesting. It's kind of a follow-on to the "How do I feel about Porsche?", in the sense that many of the observations are the same. Our dealership - Porsche Centre London, Ontario, Canada - is a business. It needs to make a profit. It needs to pay its bills, pay its employees, manage expenses. And, during our tenure with them, they became a member of the AutoCanada group, and then likely had obligations there as well.

    I am not so convinced that Porsche Centre London successfully carves out that same bit of space for its customers - especially their enthusiast customers - that Porsche AG does. I mean, everyone *says* that they put the customer first, but I'm simply not convinced that this is the case here. Certainly Porsche Centre London did the required basics for us: they were friendly with us. They accepted our orders. They interacted with Porsche AG on our behalf. They managed to arrange dual European Delivery allocations for Luke and I. And they received and prepped our cars for us once they arrived Canada-side. But there were also many instances where we encountered what we felt to be resistance, defensiveness, and apathy. We perceived very little of that sense of doing a little extra to give customers that sense of specialness, a sense of working for you, rather than simply for the bottom line. The examples of this sort of thing are scattered throughout the pre-trip and post-trip sections of this story, so I won't repeat them here. Suffice it to say that Luke and I came away from our experience at Porsche Centre London with a sense of frustration and disappointment. And I don't really think you could objectively say that was because we asked for unreasonable things and were petulant. I can't say what other customers' experiences were, as each experience is personal. I'm positive there are other customers who would crow to high heaven about an excellent experience from them.

    We can in the end say this: our dealership passed the basic bar, in that they successfully arranged for us to receive two cars together via European Delivery. And for that, we are thankful. But make no mistake - for us, this was no ten-out-of-ten experience.

  • How do I feel about car dealers in general? Another interesting one. You might think that I would simply be jaded: "ah, all dealers are bad. All salespeople are the same. Everyone's out to make a buck and always looking to put one over on you. No one *really* cares about the cars - it's all fake". But no, I don't think that universally. I do think it is the rule, however, rather than the exception.

    I suppose I did have the naïve sense that an upper-echelon brand such as Porsche would suffer less from a sole focus on business-benefit, infusing perhaps a bit more of a sense of above-and-beyond customer focus. But I suppose, like in all areas of experience in our world, humans are humans. And therefore humans will do what humans will do, which is generally to take the easiest, lowest-energy path to whatever benefits them personally the most, regardless of the "fanciness" of who they work for.

    I also learned that there are outliers out there; once in a while, you *do* find a dealership that has *true* enthusiasts. And if combined with an honorable personality, you can get a bit of magic: a person who works at a car dealership that actually will voluntarily go the extra mile, who actually cares about whether or not your needs are being met. And will happily work with or give you time, *even if it clearly will not net them a red cent*. I think specifically of Dave Renner at Porsche Motor City in Detroit; or Dylan and Marc at Jack Daniels Porsche in New Jersey.

    So my feeling about car dealerships in general? The special ones are out there. They are hard to spot, and initial smiles and promises of excellent service mean nothing. I have no guidance on the best way to find those special people working at those special dealerships. Maybe the word of a trusted contact or friend. Other than that, It's mostly luck.

  • Would I do it again? I would. Many things bothered me about the way our Euro Delivery adventure went down. And yet, absolutely I would do it again. The positives are so positive that they outweigh ten of the negatives. The anticipation. The magic of the Porsche facilities in Germany. The wonderful highways and byways of Europe, the amazing, endless, fantastic roads, the culture and the history and the architecture and the food and.... well, you get the idea. I love road trips, and there's no road trip like a Porsche European Delivery roadtrip. For that, I will endure a lot of annoyance and irritation. So yes, I would (do it again). Heck, I think I would even settle for being the camera guy for someone else's Euro Delivery trip!

  • What would I do differently? I'd probably stay local with regards to my choice of dealership. Or at least within a couple of hours. There's nothing like being able to present your case in person, face-to-face, and working with a local dealership makes that a lot easier. It didn't help that during various crucial moments, our dealership had communications infrastructure problems that hindered rapid contact. Especially in those situations, nothing beats face-to-face communication. And your dealership probably likes you being local, since it increases the chance you'll come back to do service and maybe to buy from them again.

    Before signing or ordering anything, I'd grill the heck out of the dealership about what their process is for orders and allocations. They may not be truthful, they may be evasive, but any scrap of information you can glean will give you some guidance and peace of mind when (or at least if) your dealership has leverage over you while waiting for allocations. Solicit input on line. While one bad review might be from an entitled complainer, a bunch of bad reviews that all correlate is probably indicative of some underlying problem. Remember: dealers are under no obligation to be truthful or transparent about their order and allocation process, and I would say that you have the most chance of extracting information before you sign on that dotted line. And if you don't like what you hear, or you get no concrete information at all, then just go somewhere else.

    For me personally, I was always strapped for time on the media capture and generation front. As a result, I was always wishing for more time. I think if I was doing European Delivery again with two cars (which may be very unlikely, but if I was), I would advocate for at least four weeks. And I would reduce my planned travel distances. Capturing pictures, audio and video for two cars - especially when you are one of the drivers of the two cars - is hard, and takes lots of time. I'm very glad we had crewmembers, but if I was to do it again, I'd consider having the crewmembers in their own car. That would add a lot of logistical flexibility.

    On the flipside, if I was doing this again, maybe I'd go in a different direction, and simply chill out. As in, do way less trip planning, way less media capture, just run the trip as a normal person would - with a phone and no other gear and just enjoy the driving. Maybe I go to far.

  • Would I recommend European Delivery to others? It depends on what type of car buyer you are. Are you really interested in exploration and great roads and don't mind long drives, early get-ups, uncertain accommodations, and just plain love wandering, all in your own personal custom-specified sportscar? Then yes. Absolutely I would recommend it. If you aren't that in to cars and you are instead more interested in sightseeing and relaxing, rather than driving, then maybe I'd suggest instead to take advantage of Porsche's own drive rental program. Although pricey, it is still less than the expense of doing full European Delivery. Maybe that's more suited to you.

  • Did I have any regrets? This is a tricky one. Of course I have some regrets. Totally normal. Some of my regrets are obvious, understandable. Some I've already enumerated in the "Could I have done things better" section above. However, there are parts of my regret that are a bit sensitive. Let me try to explain further.

    I can be a pushy person. I can come up with a grandiose idea or plan and I fear that at times I might, for lack of a better term, browbeat someone into going along with that idea. A small part of me constantly wonders if whether or not I pushed too hard with the idea that Luke buy a Porsche alongside me himself, rather than simply inviting him on another excellent single-car Euro Delivery adventure. That's a lot of cost and effort. If I had not suggested or pushed for this, perhaps he would have simply bought my extremely fine Long Beach Blue M2, and at a very reasonable price.

    And then, during the long course of the wait for allocations, I pushed again, and again, and eventually Luke ended up going from a base Boxster to a highly-optioned Boxster GTS 4.0. Another major jump in cost.

    Now I know that each of us is responsible for our own choices, and ultimately, Luke decided of his own free will to buy a Porsche Boxster, and eventually, a more expensive model of Boxster. And I know that he loves his car and is happy that he has it. I still feel some minor regret at my level of pushiness, though. If I could rewind the clock and do it all over again, would I choose to bring up the idea of purchasing two cars and doing dual Euro Delivery? I.... don't know. I don't. Maybe I should have sketched out my own plan, and then if Luke had volunteered to pair up with me, I could have then said yes (which I would have, of course).

    Another example is the very existence of the GTS Chronicles Pitch / media initiative thing. When we started to get the silent treatment from our dealership back in the spring of 2022, when we started to really worry about whether we'd ever get allocations, when we started searching for ways to raise our profile and occupy our time and maybe transcend the difficulties, I pushed hard. The grand ideas about collaborating with Porsche. All of the Instagram work. All of the outreach to Porsche AG (helped greatly by Dave R, many thanks again). I think Luke found that initially interesting, but then I wonder, did I go too far? I felt strongly about the idea behind The GTS Chronicles - about the uniqueness of the buddy-buddy two-Porsches almost-the-same-but-not-quite cool different grassroots enthusiast idea. I felt then (and actually still do) that it could be a really fun ongoing enterprise. But that's not what Luke signed up for. He signed up to get a car alongside me and do European Delivery. That's it. Doing an ongoing media schtick about two Porsche guys on driving adventures was not. Luke has a life outside of cars, a family, friends. I believe I intruded upon that life, put pressures upon his priorities, and in fact, expected a certain level of involvement. Furthermore, I think this started to bother me. I kind of got into the mindset of "well, why wouldn't you want to devote lots of energy to this super cool idea". But Luke isn't me. Like each and every one of us, he has his own priorities, and I failed to put my thoughts into the other person's shoes, and as a result, I failed to respect that. I think that is my biggest regret of this whole enterprise. Too much pushing. And in the extreme "alternative timeline" case... if less pushing would have resulted in only a 'single car' Euro Delivery trip, that would not have been the end of the world. It would have been a great experience as well.

Wow, those were a lot of thoughts. I probably needed to get them written out on paper (digital paper) for my own benefit, as much as I think you might find have found them interesting to read. But let's get back to the core take-away as I wrap this up and say goodbye: This was an amazing journey, an amazing trip, and amazing life event, and I don't regret that we undertook it. Not one bit. I'll say adios here, folks, and leave the final final final thoughts to Luke:

Luke's Thoughts
[wrapping up with some final thoughts...]
What an epic adventure, and I'm not using that (rather overused these days) word trivially. This trip had it all, and after so many YEARS of waiting (37 months in all), it lived up to every bit of its billing.

The exact same can be said for the car.

I'd pored over every review out there. Watched every video. Studied photos from every angle, to the point that I felt I really knew all there is to know about the GTS save for the feeling of actually driving it. What that (somewhat obsessive at times) studying of the car virtually didn't convey was just how I would feel in it. I mean, it couldn't really, could it?

I had very, very high expectations, obviously, as 99.9% all of the punditry out there extolled the virtues of every facet of the car. The seats, the steering, the engine note, the power, the refinement, the quality. All of it. I headed across the Atlantic with all those elements in mind, and with the expectations bar set up there thanks to all that media consumption.

But I wasn't prepared for just how it exceeded those expectations in every way. It's one thing to read stuff. See stuff. Even hear stuff. But plonking your butt down into that Racetex(tm) seat, cranking the key, and bringing the whole thing to life under your fingertips and feet? Well, it defies description as to how it all felt. How the printed page is a tough place to capture the sensations. How a YouTube(tm) video sounds thin and looks pale in comparison to the reality. How it takes a better writer than me to put the feelings into words.

It's like turning the focus ring on a lens and suddenly having the subject come into tack-sharp focus. Like everything up to that point on July 19, and all the days following, suddenly crystallized those now-distant, 'fuzzy' words and images, and made them irrelevant really. Like next-level clarity.

Anyone fortunate enough to experience cars like this will know what I'm talking about. I can't wait to share it with my friends and family. Seeing and feeling it in person, some of them will 'get it' right away. Like me, now. They'll just know.

I always thought it was a rather cliché tagline, but it definitely sounds way less so now than before. It's got some real credibility in my mind.

PORSCHE. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE.

I couldn't be happier.

(to read more of Luke's final thoughts, check out his blog post)


Luke's Housewarming Gift to me: a commemorative picture of he and I during our 2023 GTS Chronicles Euro Delivery Adventure.
Thanks for reading! There are several supplemental sections to this trip report that you might also be interested in examing, and I'll list them here (they are also listed in the main table of contents and in the sidebar):

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