[vojak]

Originally Posted by Horsey

This whole tracking thing is mumbo jumbo ...

I have just been told that my car has gone to 9610 (In Transit).

I am told this means my car is in Southampton and is awaiting transfer to the BMW Distribution Centre at Thorne.

According to the production logs, my car has a production date of 1/05/2012.

The next available WW ship to the UK near that date was GRAND MERCURY which left on the 8/05/2012 and which arrives in Southampton on 27/05/2012.

The previous ship, DON JUAN, left on 29/04/2012 and arrived in the UK on 13/05/2012.

The only way I can see that my car can be in the UK is if it was on the DON JUAN, in which case how could it have a production date of 1/05/2012.

I really hope it is here ... although the dealer is still saying June delivery!

Nothing makes sense any more ... I am VERY confused.

Either the production date is misleading or the dealer is wrong about my car being in the UK ...

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain (maybe)

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by swfrom07

Congratulations Horsey, it is on UK shores !!

Well thats a fine thing!

Originally Posted by swfrom07

it might be that BMW now use a different carrier to transport vehicles and hence we cannot trace the vehicle on the WW Global website?

That is probably the most sensible posibility ...

Originally Posted by swfrom07

My dealer has also said they will not wait for the car to be transported to the BMW distribution centre but they will have it collected directly from the port and transported to their dealership.
Something you might want to ask your dealer too?

Sadly my dealer does not have the facility to prep the vehicle ... which is peculiar if you knew who they were ... anyway, I have been told it is going to Thorne ...

Of course, now I know its in the UK, I can nag them twice a day!

[swfrom07]

Originally Posted by Horsey

Of course, now I know its in the UK, I can nag them twice a day!

I would expect hourly updates mate

Oh its exciting news it seems my car is on the ship ! Delivery expected week 22 thats w/c 28th May!

[Horsey]

I have updated the pretty pictures on the stats on the previous page.

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by swfrom07

Oh its exciting news it seems my car is on the ship ! Delivery expected week 22 thats w/c 28th May!

Err ... mine's off the ship in port and I am currently on week 22 ...

[Horsey]

Some stats on M-Sport

[Yeltzer]

Originally Posted by Horsey

Looks like Carbon Black owners all go for M-Sport ...

Isn't Carbon Black an M-Sport only colour?

[vojak]

Originally Posted by Horsey

Some stats on M-Sport

Looks like Carbon Black owners all go for M-Sport ...

I dont think its an option on non M Sport models....

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by Yeltzer

Isn't Carbon Black an M-Sport only colour?

Good point.

Well thats a useful checksum ... glad I don't have any non M-Sport ones in the results!

[Yeltzer]

Originally Posted by Horsey

Good point.

Well thats a useful checksum ... glad I don't have any non M-Sport ones in the results!

And the ones with zero M Sport models are only available on the SE. Not that you'd want to see a Sparkling Bronze M-Sport it would seriously hurt your retinas!

Interestingly, of all the X3's I see on the roads around here, they are all SE's. I have not yet seen an M-Sport on the public roads.

[QTPie]

One interesting stat, if you have time/enthusiasm Horsey, would be how many M Sports (and by colour ) opt for external aluminium trim instead of shadow line (although I guess that it can be broken into trim and roof rails seperately...).

QT

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by QTPie

One interesting stat, if you have time/enthusiasm Horsey, would be how many M Sports (and by colour ) opt for external aluminium trim instead of shadow line (although I guess that it can be broken into trim and roof rails seperately...).QT

Here is a pivot table for you to play with ...

[Horsey]

Here is an interesting graph ...

It shows the breakdown of option spend by each engine category.

As you can see, ignoring base price, 20D owners spend less than 30D owners who spend less than 35D owners on options.

Note: M-Sport is considered an option.

[QTPie]

Originally Posted by Horsey

Here is a pivot table for you to play with ...

Thank you Horsey - will have a look when I get to my PC.

Great statistics - all really interesting. Thank you

[Horsey]

Some more stats ...

[tank531]

Horsey - very interesting, I can't help but ask, do you work for the ONS?

[dnw]

Horsey, are you my long lost twin? if I had checked this thread earlier and wasn't so tired I would have been doing exactly the same OCD analysis of the data

On another point from the previous pages - delivery charge is included in the list price of the vehicle but itemised separately on the invoice, so you are not really paying any more than you thought for it. I assume its some sort of VAT/tax accounting trick.

Lastly, the Thorne/Bremmerhaven issue - don't know the answer to this for sure but the fact that one posters dealer is saying the vehicle comes direct from the port and another is claiming it goes to Thorne is very odd... there are two different types of prep- the post shipment pre-delivery to dealer prep and the last bit that the dealer does. I really doubt that process can vary by dealer, it must be the same for all.

At the end of the day the dealer only wants to sell you a car. They are not incentivised to be knowledgeable about much else.

[dnw]

Originally Posted by Horsey

Some more stats ...

Interesting that 1 in 4 M Sport owners go for M Sport Suspension Delete. Confirms what I saw as a growing trend in approved used / autotrader.

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by tank531

Horsey - very interesting, I can't help but ask, do you work for the ONS?

Nope

Software engineer / IT Incubator type thing ...

Just can't help myself seeing how far I can go with something.

Completely failed to track my car, probably because they aren't sent via WW any more ... but found an interesting source of data ...

... and there it began.

Now I have a nice set of data I am seeing what I can do with it ...

Once I get my car I can get back to focusing on the tangible!

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by dnw

Horsey, are you my long lost twin? if I had checked this thread earlier and wasn't so tired I would have been doing exactly the same OCD analysis of the data

I don't know ... are you devilishly handsome, frightening intelligent and witty to boot?

... if so, probably not.

Originally Posted by dnw

On another point from the previous pages - delivery charge is included in the list price of the vehicle but itemised separately on the invoice, so you are not really paying any more than you thought for it. I assume its some sort of VAT/tax accounting trick.

That's hard for me to tell right now ... on my invoice the basic 35D MSport is listed as £41,580 ... and now on the web site it's £52,525.

It obviously could include the £700 delivery charge, but its hard to say as I don't know what the price rise for 2013 was (I got the 2012 price). In the summary on the configurator it doesn't mention delivery in the breakdown.

Originally Posted by dnw

Lastly, the Thorne/Bremmerhaven issue - don't know the answer to this for sure but the fact that one posters dealer is saying the vehicle comes direct from the port and another is claiming it goes to Thorne is very odd... there are two different types of prep- the post shipment pre-delivery to dealer prep and the last bit that the dealer does. I really doubt that process can vary by dealer, it must be the same for all.

At the end of the day the dealer only wants to sell you a car. They are not incentivised to be knowledgeable about much else.

I have come to the following conclusions:

According to the WW schedule it is impossible for my car to be in the UK now unless the production date and status updates were at least a week out.

This and the fact that we can't track our cars on WW leads me to now believe they don't use WW for the cars going to the UK.

I am also aware that many dealers arrange for the cars to be sent direct from Southampton to the dealership for prep, however, my dealer has told me that they are too busy to prep the cars themselves and so prefer to have Thorne prep them. This of course works against me as some dealers are able to do a quick turn around. Sadly for me, I have a long wait ahead ...

My choice of dealer was sort if ill informed, and has no doubt worked against me in a couple of fronts ... however, I hope that in others it may work in my favour, but I am having my doubts.

... at the end of the day I have learnt a lot during the journey, sadly much of it after the event!

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by dnw

Interesting that 1 in 4 M Sport owners go for M Sport Suspension Delete. Confirms what I saw as a growing trend in approved used / autotrader.

Any other stats summaries you would like to see?

I am trying to see what clever things I can do with the data ...

... I am trying to work out if I can calculate an "average" build.

But first I think that would involve working out how to visualise data in 123 dimensions! (although some of them are mutually exclusive)

[Yeltzer]

Well, just spoken to the dealer and my car is scheduled for production this week!! Woo hoo

So subject to timings of boats etc should be with me mid to end of June.