Ben Przekop
Mercer Island, WA @benjaminprzekop
Model 992 CARRERA S Year 2022 Acquired DECEMBER 2021
Back in the autumn of 2020, a serious health scare finally convinced me to start making long-overdue plans to retire in 2021. Those plans included some lifestyle adjustments, including reducing my ‘Porsche fleet’ to a single
‘do everything’ sports car, and neither my 2004 911 Anniversary Edition nor my 2016 GT4 really fit that bill, so the search was on for a new Carrera S. Since there were virtually no new or used 992s available anywhere, I started to look at 991s. However, whenever I did find one that was reasonably priced, it would be missing at least a couple ‘must-have’ features, or the colour was not acceptable. Then in December I actually got to test drive a low-mileage, pre-owned 992 with a great set of options. I was blown away by the performance and the styling, especially the new interior, and the price was inviting. But after thinking about it further, we just couldn’t get comfortable with the unusual colour (Aventurine green metallic). But at least I now knew that a 992 was the car I really wanted, if only I could find one!
After several more months of frustrating dead-end searches, Her Ladyship asked me an interesting question: “Why don’t you order a new
911 with exactly the colours and options you want? This might be your last new car, so you should get what you really want,” she added with a smile, reminding me yet again that the events of the past year should have convinced me that tomorrow is indeed promised to no one! Okay, I thought, I’m in, but what about the long and expensive waiting lists we kept hearing about, and even longer delivery times? What was realistically possible?
So, in April of 2021 we took a drive to talk with our trusted sales advisor at Porsche Bellingham, Daria Parks, along with her general manager Travis Graddon. “I’ll be honest with you,” he said, “we can put you on a waiting list now and you’ll be fifth on the list, but based on what we know about how many allocations for 911s we might get this year, you should set your expectations realistically on getting a car sometime in the spring of 2022.” Ouch, we thought, that’s a year away! So we put down a deposit (as a repeat customer it was a very reasonable $1k) and mentally settled in for what was likely to be a long wait.
But only one month later we got a delightful surprise when Daria called and said we could lock in a planned September 2021 build with a November 2021 delivery, but we needed to lock in our configuration asap. I had already spent many, many hours with the Porsche Configurator, and had developed a nearfinal build sheet that I was able to review quickly one final time with my wife, to be absolutely sure our ‘dream car’ was going to have everything we wanted. After we placed the firm order, Porsche sent us an email with a link to a special ‘Track Your Dream’ application where you can see every step of the production and delivery process, which totally helps with the anxiety of waiting all these months!
It is scheduled to arrive at my Porsche Centre on 3 December. What an incredible journey this has been, and of course, the best is yet to come!