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I ordered my Boxster early last November. I waited impatiently with delivery in April a seeming eternity away. Then the order was locked and a short time later it went into production. Then it was sitting at the port of Emden waiting for a ship. It was loaded on the Siem-Cicero after a seemingly long period of time and I followed it across the Atlantic to its first destination port at Davisville, Rhode Island. Then I followed the ship south along the east coast and my Carmine Red 2019 Boxster was ashore at the port of Jacksonville. Then Porsche applied the brakes and the excitement turned to disappointment as the schedule was put on indefinite hold for an undefined delay to remedy the front structural issue. Somehow, the unknown delay got resolved in only a few days and an email arrived with a firm date for the presentation at the Atlanta PEC. Shortly after that a FedEx package with a large leather zippered folder arrived from the PEC containing our security badges, a Monroney, instruction about what to bring, an itinerary, and a lot of other useful and not so useful information. Last Tuesday night we flew to Atlanta and Porsche presented the car to us Wednesday afternoon in really grand style.
The PEC experience was incredible. Porsche has the fine art of kissing the customers ass, making him feel very special, and just giving him an incredibly good time nailed. Is it necessary? No. Is it a really fun enjoyable experience with great memories? Yes to an extreme! 90 minutes of track time with a very good instructor with excellent people skills in one of their cars that is exactly the same model as the one being presented. An outstanding lunch in a truly excellent restaurant overlooking the track. A personal tour of the museum and restoration shop. And then the tour de force: the presentation of your car with pomp and circumstance that could put a huge smile on a corpse. The car is presented in a private room with a silk cover over it. The large TVs on the wall are personalized with your name (as was the menu in the restaurant). Finally the drape is pulled off the car with video cameras rolling. A very detailed explanation of the car, its instruments, features, etc. follow. We, of course, could have then driven the car to the hotel and parked in the hotel valet only parking lot that night. The PEC, with no prompting, offered to keep the car in their garage overnight. At 6:00 AM the following morning I found the car parked in the garage in an area painted with glossy white paint and, of course Porsche logos, and great lighting, just like it was on display at a car show.
Taking delivery at the PEC is a $400 option when the car is purchased. Although Porsche does not cover hotel, air travel, food, etc. costs, $400 is nothing compared to the off-scale high fun memorable experience having the Porsche PEC present your new car to you. They will only do this if the car is custom ordered and the PEC delivery is included as an option. Interestingly, relatively speaking, they do not present that many cars and our Boxster is only the 798th car presented since they opened over four years ago (they placed a small label on the lower corner of the windshield with this number). There is a very nice hotel on the Porsche property that is just a short walk essentially across the street. The hotel, the Kimpton Overland, is very nice and the food/service in their restaurant is excellent. However, it appears to have been designed much more to European standards and the rooms are surprising small. If your asked if you want two beds or one, dont say two thinking you will use one Queen bed for bags etc. and sleep in the other. You will get two single beds which, in my mind, is very strange considering how many couples are likely to check in. It was a weird throwback to 1950s Ozzie and Harriet TV. They were gracious immediately moving us to a room with a king bed. Wednesday morning we had time to kill so we started to order breakfast to the room when we realized there was no place, except the bed, to set a room service tray on. I would definitely, instead, recommend the Renaissance Marriott, directly overlooking the runways on the north edge of the airport, and only a $7.00 quick Uber ride away from the PEC.
The PEC experience was incredible. Porsche has the fine art of kissing the customers ass, making him feel very special, and just giving him an incredibly good time nailed. Is it necessary? No. Is it a really fun enjoyable experience with great memories? Yes to an extreme! 90 minutes of track time with a very good instructor with excellent people skills in one of their cars that is exactly the same model as the one being presented. An outstanding lunch in a truly excellent restaurant overlooking the track. A personal tour of the museum and restoration shop. And then the tour de force: the presentation of your car with pomp and circumstance that could put a huge smile on a corpse. The car is presented in a private room with a silk cover over it. The large TVs on the wall are personalized with your name (as was the menu in the restaurant). Finally the drape is pulled off the car with video cameras rolling. A very detailed explanation of the car, its instruments, features, etc. follow. We, of course, could have then driven the car to the hotel and parked in the hotel valet only parking lot that night. The PEC, with no prompting, offered to keep the car in their garage overnight. At 6:00 AM the following morning I found the car parked in the garage in an area painted with glossy white paint and, of course Porsche logos, and great lighting, just like it was on display at a car show.
Taking delivery at the PEC is a $400 option when the car is purchased. Although Porsche does not cover hotel, air travel, food, etc. costs, $400 is nothing compared to the off-scale high fun memorable experience having the Porsche PEC present your new car to you. They will only do this if the car is custom ordered and the PEC delivery is included as an option. Interestingly, relatively speaking, they do not present that many cars and our Boxster is only the 798th car presented since they opened over four years ago (they placed a small label on the lower corner of the windshield with this number). There is a very nice hotel on the Porsche property that is just a short walk essentially across the street. The hotel, the Kimpton Overland, is very nice and the food/service in their restaurant is excellent. However, it appears to have been designed much more to European standards and the rooms are surprising small. If your asked if you want two beds or one, dont say two thinking you will use one Queen bed for bags etc. and sleep in the other. You will get two single beds which, in my mind, is very strange considering how many couples are likely to check in. It was a weird throwback to 1950s Ozzie and Harriet TV. They were gracious immediately moving us to a room with a king bed. Wednesday morning we had time to kill so we started to order breakfast to the room when we realized there was no place, except the bed, to set a room service tray on. I would definitely, instead, recommend the Renaissance Marriott, directly overlooking the runways on the north edge of the airport, and only a $7.00 quick Uber ride away from the PEC.
