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I'm planning on taking delivery of my new 2018 C2 in the next few weeks and had a question about delivery:
I wasn't able to find an allocation in the Denver area for whatever reason so I took it upon myself to research some dealers out of state. Fortunately, the Porsche Exchange in Chicago was able to offer up a great deal and an allocation straight away. Now here lies the question:
Option A:
Drive the car back from Chicago to Denver towards the end of February. This option *could* be dicey weather-wise. On the plus side, it will save me about $1500 and allow for me to get acquainted with the car pretty quickly.
Option B:
Utilize an enclosed carrier. It will add a week or so to the overall wait time, plus additional cost. However, the car will be safe and sound until it finds it's way to Denver.
With Option A, I'm slightly concerned about the potential for hitting poor weather, but I am excited about being able to spend some seriously time with the car right off the bat. However, is that sort of drive (about 1400 miles) even advisable? I know there are varying opinions around break-in...
Thoughts? Oh, and the build is attached, just because that's really the most important thing.
The drive is more like 1000 miles. You can easily do it in a day. But you would have to make conscious effort to vary your engine rpm for break-in purposes. Driving 15 hours at a steady 2000 rpm or so is not what a new engine wants. But you could drive in your upper four gears, shifting every 15 minutes or so, and still maintain 70-80 mph, though your mileage will suffer.
Your weather worries are real. At that time of the year, even if the roads are clear, the temperature will almost certainly be lower than what is recommended for your summer tires. And if you hit any snow, you will crash on summer tires.
If you want to do the drive, I'd mount a set of winter tires. You'll need them in Denver in any case, if you drive your car in the winter. I have a 991.2 C2 as my daily driver in Golden and the car works pretty well in the snow with Pirelli Sottozeros.
Also, I second the suggestion of getting the PPF on your car. I did the entire front of my car and in Colorado, such protection is a necessity. As it is, I still have a small stone chip at the leading edge of my roof.
Absolutely do the drive. The 911 is a great foul weather car. And you will quickly learn how the car behaves. Yes, you will need to be a bit more careful with summer tires but it's not a big deal. I've driven 911's with standard tires in some pretty miserable storms over the years and my experience has been that as long as you are reasonably careful, you won't have a problem. Plus its easy enough to get accurate weather forecasts and plot your route accordingly.
Go for it!!
If you cannot push the date of delivery back into warmer weather, I would play it safe, bite the bullet and have it transported. The weather around the Midwest is totally unpredictable that time of year and if there is more than a dusting of snow on the ground, I can guarantee you will not make it out of Chicagoland on those summer tires. If you do decide to drive it back, have a "contingency plan" where you can stow the car around the pickup site if it snows until the roads clear.
(1) Arrange for front Clearbra (Xpel/3M) in Chicgao (~$2K)
(2) Buy winter wheels/tires (slotzeros) (~$4K)
(3) Ship summer wheels/tires back UPS Ground (~$300).
(4) Have a super memorable break-in drive with your new car ( $ priceless )
Whatever you decide, just be sure to give it lots of hard accel/decel the first 20 miles or so. After 100 or so you can do whatever you want, it will no longer matter.
Having done this drive a few times I think your chance of ending up in the ditch along I80 is very real. You will besick if you wreck your car before getting home.. ship it and avoid the problems.
I certainly understand wanting to drive it home! An option if you really want to that is to at least get some of the temporary track PPF Xpel sells to protect the forward-facing surfaces until you can get a proper clear bra on. If you do this, consider putting it on the lower few inches below the door and in front of the hips too to protect from the rocks thrown up by the tires until you can get the good stuff on.
If you don't want the sketchy look of track PPF temporarily on your new car, you can take Porsche_nut's recommendation and get the dealer to take it to a top-of-the-line PPF shop there and let it cure a few days before you come pick it up.
If you could see a side-by-side comparison of the front of the last 997 I had with no PPF and the 991 I just traded with PPF you'd be impressed with the big difference it makes. My new car is in the shop getting full SunTek Ultra as we speak.
The bottom line question you need to ask yourself is how bad is it going to make you feel if the car gets chipped up on the way home. Also, don't do it if the car has summer tires and the temps are below the mid 40s.
Like many other snow tire threads on this forum, it depends on your level of risk tolerance. There's no way in hell I'd attempt the drive if there was any chance I'd encounter snow along the way. I bought wheels and snow tires for my C4 from the Exchange. If you're going to buy them in Denver anyways, I'd just buy them at the Exchange and ship the summers, as someone already suggested. The Exchange stocks Victor wheels in addition to the more expensive Porsche OEMs.
Easy decision for me: Truck it. I've had two brand new cars fail within 50 miles of the dealer. Both of them serious enough that the cars had to be towed back to the dealer. Also, that's one of the most boring drives you could take in any car. Truck it.
After some thought and re-reading this thread a dozen times... I’m going to go forgo the cannonball run back to Denver and truck it. I’ll also plan on having The Exchange instax some PPF.
Have it shipped, it's a boring drive between those two locations. I had a similar debate getting mine from Toronto to Calgary and ended up having it shipped to save my sanity.
If it were a shorter distance on enjoyable roads I think it would be worth it!
SUPER boring drive between Chicago and Denver. I wouldn't want to put a quick 1,000 miles on the car like that. Not to mention highway miles are the worst from a rock chip standpoint. Ship the car. We've got all the best roads in the world out here.... why waste your time on i70 or i80 of all places?
(1) Arrange for front Clearbra (Xpel/3M) in Chicgao (~$2K)
(2) Buy winter wheels/tires (slotzeros) (~$4K)
(3) Ship summer wheels/tires back UPS Ground (~$300).
(4) Have a super memorable break-in drive with your new car ( $ priceless )
cheers!
Agee with this option but I think you can get away with the summer tires on the car if you transport it back to Denver. You should be okay if weather holds up and remember you're gonna be keeping the RPMs and the speed down so you shouldn't have much of problem with the summer tires just to get home. If not then hey you can alway have the dealer ship them and throw on winter wheels as you'll likely need them in Denver anyway for Oct-Mar driving right? Dealer can clear bra the front end before you get there and hell have them throw it into the delivery deal. I've had my last two cars Xpel'd and dealer offered either to do it at discounted cost at delivery or I've negotiated it as part of the deal. Easy to do. Also gents shipping cost have increased due to the EDL laws that just went into effect 31 Dec 2017! Now all transporters/trucks must utilize some from of electronic driving log (EDL) that interface with the OBDs and log actually driving time and distances....seems like before they had to use them but paper was the primary means of recording them so if stopped by DOT agent or officer there was obviously some "fudging" on how long and how far a driver had been driving. No more...not with these new EDLs my transporter says about 40% of the costs have increased and been passed on to the consumer as drivers now can not drive as much/long without violation and incuring fines for themselves and/or their companies. Tried to transport a used Audi TT for my daugher back here to the midwest and it was going to cost me $1500 easy for one way uncovered! That's crazy when I had a Range Rover Sport transported last April from Cali to AZ for only $400! So transport cost can get expensive!
As for driving...should be fun and the weather isn't really as bad as you guys are making it. Yes it is winter in the Midwest now and storms can be nasty and temps a bit frigid but if you plan a bit you can make it without much hastle. All you really need is a 48hr window to get the car shifted 1000miles to the West really so just watch the forecasts and match up best weather forecasted along with your schedule and delivery date. The Weather Channel and Accuweather are good ones that can give you a reasonable 10 day forecast out with some certainty. Otherwise use the aviation sites that are a bit more detailed and give more fidelity. Then plan accordingly! I just picked up used Audi TT for my 16 y/o daughter to learn to drive and start driving last week from a dealer outside of Lancaster PA and drove it myself back to the midwest...1300miles in two days back to Nebraska. Other than swaping out the OEM radio in a parking lot of their local AutoZone for an Aftermarket Pioneer unit (needed iphone/ipod and BT connectivity for the long drive and my sanity); I had no issues with weather other than a bout of rain for a few hours going thru West VA and Ohio last Sat night. I did plan accordingly and made sure my driving window had no forecasted snow or significant weather fronts coming thru and actually was the warmest part of the 10 day forecast. Car had All season tires but otherwise did well..no problems other than me finding stopping points to sleep in between that made sense. Had fun otherwise and got to know the car pretty well! So try to drive it back yourself...will save you quite a bit!
02-03-2018, 03:49 PM
Delivery / Drive: Chicago to Denver?
