Summer's End

"If you're wavering in your commitment to living the manual transmission life, there is perhaps no better car with which to renew your vows."

It's a grey day today. The temperature has dropped noticeably, somehow fitting for the end of summer and the beginning of school. The distinctive yellow school buses are on the roads and I navigate them in my little Hyundai as a new morning routine takes shape. Sadly, not in a new 718 this year.

It's the right weather for the current Porsche feelings, which are rather grey themselves. We're heading into fall/winter with no insight into allocations from Porsche. Our dealership doesn't know anything (or they aren’t saying) and so we are continuing in the holding pattern. From the forum scans, it appears that nothing has changed - there aren't a raft of allocations flooding in yet, although there are several new 'order demanders' signing up in the hopes of securing new 718s before the end of this model run.

There's enough promise out there to keep the dream alive though - rumours of an extra shift at the factory in Zuffenhausen, plus the revamped additional factory coming online in the spring in Osnabrück. Also the projected end of this model run seems to be extending out, as battery tech is still not there yet for trying to keep the weight down in Porsche's littlest sports car. Rumours of e-Macan delays for software bolster our beliefs that the e-718 is still a ways off.

So we keep the faith (don't have an alternative really, do we???) and continue The GTS Chronicles efforts. A little more video work this weekend to create some 'detailing porn' for the Instagram, and a reach out to our Detroit contact to see if we can further the conversation with Porsche themselves.

Perhaps another visit to our dealer soon too. Gotta keep the fire burning. I remain optimistic, if somewhat subdued. But grant me an allocation for anytime (Xmas???) and I'll light up like a Christmas tree!

Still a question of 'when' not 'if'…

~ Luke