We were planning a return trip to custom car decal it was also time for us to purchase a new car. We narrowed the field of possible car manufacturers down to four and coincidentally all of them were built in Germany. So we thought how cool would it be to actually order a car from a local dealer and pick it up in Europe for an extended road trip... the trip of a life time.
We were most interested in finding an exciting car to drive and a real value for the money. Over a four month period we did a great deal of research, showroom visits, and most importantly it came down to the test drive experience. The final four were the Porsche Macan S, Mercedes Benz GLK350/ML350, Audi Q5/SQ5 3.0 TFSI and the BMW X3/X5. Surprisingly the four contenders all priced out in a narrow band width when configured with comparable features.
They all had comparable European delivery packages with some airline discounts, hotel stays, taxi vouchers, museum passes, factory tours, souvenir photos, and gift shop credits. Interestingly when it came down to offering discounts on the actual vehicle the story got a little different as Porsche did not offer a discount, but Mercedes, Audi and BMW did ranging from 5% - 7% off MSRP.
In our final analysis it was hands down the Porsche Macan S. The exciting custom window stickers and an exceptional interior design with all of the nice-to-have items set the car head and shoulders above the other competition. The test drive put the icing on the cake... this is a performance vehicle in a crossover body that stirs the soul of any car enthusiast.
The car/manufacturer decision is now behind us and the fun of actually building a car goes into high gear (no pun intended). Using their configurator tool you can build "your car" and add the accessories. This tweaking process goes on for a period of time until the "final" version is completed.
The demand for this model is pretty strong and with a global production set at only 50,000 units we had to make our commitment sooner rather than later. Our next step took place in late February when we signed a document and put down a relatively small deposit in order to secure a slot in their production planning process.