[00pj]

Hi all,

My car has been 'In Transit' for 2 weeks now. Car was promised to be delivered by 4/4 (I'm in Northern California). In anticipation, I sold my car since I owed registration and new brakes/tires and trusted my dealer too much. I'm now renting on Turo and its starting to add up .

Was curious who has had long timeline deliveries within the US? I am trying to set expectations so I can figure out how much rentals could cost me. I'm thinking I can only last 2 more weeks before bailing on this order if anything goes awry.

I know we are in unusual times and everything is taking too long but am hoping my shipment is not problematic. Guess I was too optimistic for a smooth process.

Thanks!!

[M Z]

Mine took about two weeks or so, because there was a shortage of trucks and I'm in Oklahoma so not too many BMW's are being sold regularly here.

I highly recommend calling BMW Genius (bmwgenius@bmwusa.com) and/or your SA to see why the long wait? They should be able to give you an insight.

[andrec10]

I would say at the latest next week.

[sbt007]

This seems normal. It takes 2 weeks on the train to California. Add another week for unloading, shipping to dealer etc. I don't know who promised you otherwise. don't be confused by posts that are not in the west coast talking about 2 day truck deliveries.

If you want, you can ask your dealer rep to send you the AWB / bill of lading number for train shipping. There are threads here that will tell you how to track it. But they should be able to tell you the current status as well (whether still on train, etc.). Depending on that you can make a good estimate on when you will get it.

[abg]

It took 18 days for my X3 to travel from SC to Richmond, CA last fall. It then took another 9 days to get to the dealer (in Santa Clara). There are lots of places where delay can occur. The rail trip to CA actually switches trains in St Louis, IIRC, from Norfolk Southern to another railroad and my car sat there for a day waiting to switch between railroad companies. It also sat in Barstow, CA for 2 days for unknown reasons. Maybe the car carrier it was in was waiting for a northbound train to connect to. As for being stuck in Richmond, the problem was apparently an inability for the dealer to find a truck to bring it 50 miles south.

I had a lot of fun tracking the voyage with the Norfolk Southern phone tracking service. One of my sisters made a faux wanted poster for my vehicle as it was taking so long to show up. It also turns out that there are a lot of places that have names only because of some obscure RR depot or other structure and those names often don't exist on normal maps (or Google maps).

Hopefully yours will get here soon.
Enjoy!

[sbt007]

Originally Posted by abg

It took 18 days for my X3 to travel from SC to Richmond, CA last fall. It then took another 9 days to get to the dealer (in Santa Clara). There are lots of places where delay can occur. The rail trip to CA actually switches trains in St Louis, IIRC, from Norfolk Southern to another railroad and my car sat there for a day waiting to switch between railroad companies. It also sat in Barstow, CA for 2 days for unknown reasons. Maybe the car carrier it was in was waiting for a northbound train to connect to. As for being stuck in Richmond, the problem was apparently an inability for the dealer to find a truck to bring it 50 miles south.

I had a lot of fun tracking the voyage with the Norfolk Southern phone tracking service. One of my sisters made a faux wanted poster for my vehicle as it was taking so long to show up. It also turns out that there are a lot of places that have names only because of some obscure RR depot or other structure and those names often don't exist on normal maps (or Google maps).

Hopefully yours will get here soon.
Enjoy!

Couldn't have written it better. Mine was the same experience. Sat in Kansas City for 2 days to change trains. The target of the trip appeared to be to visit as many states as possible. It was fun tracking all the weird railway stops.

In my case it is only took a few days from Richmond VPC to the dealer (Stevens Creek BMW). But this was September 2020 and the problems had not started.

[00pj]

Thanks for the replies, helps me not worry I have an unusual case and to stay patient .

How does one track the rail cars? I have no details other than whats in MyBMW. Will Genius give me this info?

[sbt007]

Originally Posted by 00pj

Thanks for the replies, helps me not worry I have an unusual case and to stay patient .

How does one track the rail cars? I have no details other than whats in MyBMW. Will Genius give me this info?

I personally used instructions from the X5 forum (which I reposted somewhere in this forum)

Sincer then someone also created a nice post in this X3 forum:
https://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1864533

You will need the Bill of lading number from your sales rep.

[abg]

Originally Posted by 00pj

Thanks for the replies, helps me not worry I have an unusual case and to stay patient .

How does one track the rail cars? I have no details other than whats in MyBMW. Will Genius give me this info?

I was able to get the bill of lading info from the Genius I talked to. They might not be familiar with the term; I just described it as an alphanumeric string about 20 characters long and the Genius said "oh, this must be it. You actually want this?". YYMV, of course, but you could always call back later and ask another one.

Good luck!

[sbt007]

It was very simple for my dealer contact to pull it up. Something like this.
Or the status could show vehicle is already at Richmond VPC.
VPC is vehicle processing center - basically the terminal port where it is unloaded from train.

[XL_Mini]

Our X7 left BMW Spartanburg on 3/14, arrived Kansas City on 3/19. Left Kansas City the same day (Fast turn-around) and arrived in Barstow, CA on 3/26. The Norfolk Southern rail car tracking kept telling me it was in Barstow the entire week of 3/28. On 4/3 the tracking said "Back from Maintenance". Has had that status since. Has not moved from Barstow since 3/26. Was suppose to arrive in Richmond on 3/28 according to CA. Have called both Genius line and CA at dealership. Everyone says that there is nothing they can do. Over three weeks in one location is a bit concerning. I asked both the CA and the Genius line at what point do they begin to be concerned about inventory not moving? It seems like someone at BMW should be concerned when an entire rail car full of BMW's has been sitting for over three weeks!

For those that may be in the same boat - or rail car, as the case may be - the rail car tracking number is TTGX-980832.

[sbt007]

Originally Posted by XL_Mini

Our X7 left BMW Spartanburg on 3/14, arrived Kansas City on 3/19. Left Kansas City the same day (Fast turn-around) and arrived in Barstow, CA on 3/26. The Norfolk Southern rail car tracking kept telling me it was in Barstow the entire week of 3/28. On 4/3 the tracking said "Back from Maintenance". Has had that status since. Has not moved from Barstow since 3/26. Was suppose to arrive in Richmond on 3/28 according to CA. Have called both Genius line and CA at dealership. Everyone says that there is nothing they can do. Over three weeks in one location is a bit concerning. I asked both the CA and the Genius line at what point do they begin to be concerned about inventory not moving? It seems like someone at BMW should be concerned when an entire rail car full of BMW's has been sitting for over three weeks!

For those that may be in the same boat - or rail car, as the case may be - the rail car tracking number is TTGX-980832.

Typically at Kansas City, the car is moved to a different carrier. In my case it was BNSF. But the new carrier usually shares tracking information with Norfolk Southern, so we can keep getting information. I don't remember my train car stopping at Barstow for long, at that point it should be at Richmond VPC in a couple of days. I'm thinking they might have had an issue, and transferred the car to another carrier that is not sharing info with Norfolk Southern. Alternatively, I wonder if it is really stuck at Barstow because of an issue with the railcar itself. That seems a little strange though.

Have you asked your dealer to pull the status like my screenshot above? what are they seeing?

[Sulley22]

My x3 m40i arrived at my dealer on 3/19. It is still there due to a stop sale - no ETA on when I can take delivery. Sounds like your x7 might have been built during the same timeline. They should be able to tell you if there is a stop sale or something based on the vin.

[XL_Mini]

Originally Posted by sbt007

Typically at Kansas City, the car is moved to a different carrier. In my case it was BNSF. But the new carrier usually shares tracking information with Norfolk Southern, so we can keep getting information. I don't remember my train car stopping at Barstow for long, at that point it should be at Richmond VPC in a couple of days. I'm thinking they might have had an issue, and transferred the car to another carrier that is not sharing info with Norfolk Southern. Alternatively, I wonder if it is really stuck at Barstow because of an issue with the railcar itself. That seems a little strange though.

Have you asked your dealer to pull the status like my screenshot above? what are they seeing?

Yes. Spoke with our dealer and they pulled the info as you had in your screenshot post. The car was moved to BNSF in Kansas City. The dealer confirmed that the last scan for the railcar was Barstow.

Just called the Norfolk Southern tracking phone line and the railcar is moving again! Left Barstow this morning. Yea!! Finally!

[sbt007]

Originally Posted by XL_Mini

Yes. Spoke with our dealer and they pulled the info as you had in your screenshot post. The car was moved to BNSF in Kansas City. The dealer confirmed that the last scan for the railcar was Barstow.

Just called the Norfolk Southern tracking phone line and the railcar is moving again! Left Barstow this morning. Yea!! Finally!

Great news! Maybe this thread was the lucky charm. I wonder if OP and some other folks here have their vehicles on the same railcar.