Porsche reinvents watching the mailbox with its Track Your Dreams app for 911 buyers

Ordering any new car from a dealer is pretty cool. It doesn’t matter what the vehicle is, just knowing it’s to your exact specifications is a good feeling. What isn’t a good feeling is the wait for it to be built and shipped, since that process can still be pretty arcane and has you relying on your dealer’s communication.

Porsche thinks it’s sorted out a way to improve that process for its customers who choose to order a 911. It’s called Porsche Track Your Dreams, and it’s an app Porsche announced today that helps you track your car’s journey from order sheet to delivery through 14 milestone events.

How does it work? Well, once your dealer places the order for your shiny new 911
, you are sent a unique link that will prompt you to download the Track Your Dreams app. You’re then alerted when your car hits important parts of its build process like order creation, the freeze point for vehicle changes, production updates, the transport vessel’s departure from Germany and port entry into the US. 

“Buying a Porsche is a special moment, and one that should be as personal as possible, recognizing that placing the order and awaiting its delivery is part of the experience as anticipation builds,” Klaus Zellmer, president and CEO of Porsche Cars North America, said in a statement. “This service gives future owners a convenient way of staying up to date before they see their car for the first time here in the U.S.”

As your car gets ever closer to your driveway, Porsche updates the app with an estimated date for delivery and the number of miles the car has to go until it gets to you. If that sounds cool, it is, but it also — to me, at least — sounds like a recipe for obsessively checking my phone to see where in the process the car is. I suppose that’s better than bothering dealership salespeople, though, which is likely part of the reason for the genesis of this whole thing anyway.