[comber]

Yep, that's fast...mine ordered 4th April was on 193 status last week, so looking forward to my dealer's call

[comber]

It arrived already, I posted some pics in the Spain deliveries thread https://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=42

[swestland85]

So based on the information from comber it looks like his car was shipped on the vessel "FREEDOM" which arrived into Antwerp on 29th of July, arriving at his dealership in Spain on Saturday 4th of august. That would mean in-land transport takes only 1 week. Yesterday I saw a truck of new X1s and X3s on-route to Holland coming from Belgium but those would be from the same ship unless BMW uses another carrier besides ARCShipping. For my car that would mean ship arrival on August 23rd, delivery to dealer around August 30th, a pickup the week after should be possible in that case .

I'm going on holiday on September 7th by car to South of France so would be very cool to have the new car instead of driving 3500km with my old car:P

[snakehips]

Well, after a tense 3.5 month wait, my car is ready for production next week (code 5055). I now have something called a VIN Prefix WBATS32080 and a chassis number but I cannot work out what that VIN Prefix means, despite many searches. Can anyone advise if this even means anything at this stage?

[MarkyM]

Glad things are moving for you now

You just put those 2 numbers together and you have your 17 digit VIN number that appears on car and registration document

[snakehips]

Originally Posted by MarkyM

Glad things are moving for you now

You just put those 2 numbers together and you have your 17 digit VIN number that appears on car and registration document

Thanks. I did consider this was the case but online advice on how to "read" a VIN didn't seem to account for any VIN beginning WBAT. But now I will try a full VIN decode and see what they think I have ordered.

[MarkyM]

Originally Posted by snakehips

Thanks. I did consider this was the case but online advice on how to "read" a VIN didn't seem to account for any VIN beginning WBAT. But now I will try a full VIN decode and see what they think I have ordered.

Last 7 digits are the one to use to read the spec, you can use a site such as mdecoder

You can also download a user manual via the BMW drivers guide app which would be specific to your build and you need the full 17 digit VIN for that, it maybe that the start part is regional?

[kitzune]

Originally Posted by snakehips

Thanks. I did consider this was the case but online advice on how to "read" a VIN didn't seem to account for any VIN beginning WBAT. But now I will try a full VIN decode and see what they think I have ordered.

WBA is code for BMW AG. Next 4 symbols are for car model (for ex. TX31 for 20d). 11th symbol is for plant (L for Spartanburg). Characters 12 – 17 are the Sequential Production Numbers of the vehicle.

[snakehips]

Originally Posted by kitzune

WBA is code for BMW AG. Next 4 symbols are for car model (for ex. TX31 for 20d). 11th symbol is for plant (L for Spartanburg). Characters 12 – 17 are the Sequential Production Numbers of the vehicle.

Interesting mine is still being built in Spartanburg. I thought all UK/RHD builds had been shifted to SA. Or is it still a mixture?

[MarkyM]

Originally Posted by snakehips

Interesting mine is still being built in Spartanburg. I thought all UK/RHD builds had been shifted to SA. Or is it still a mixture?

As far as I'm aware M40i is only going to be built at Spartanburg

Don't know if there is any reason for that though or if it will change, maybe it is more of a niche model outside of North America?

Still not seen another M40i on my travels in UK and Europe

[Hairysteve]

Why do US orders going into production weeks earlier than European ones?

[MarkyM]

Originally Posted by Hairysteve

Why do US orders going into production weeks earlier than European ones?

I think it's down to a different way of buying, US dealers will have cars on order which are amended to suit when orders come in, if they haven't sold them before they are built they just put them into stock

Dealers in Europe, UK certainly, typically wait for firm customer orders before submitting and then you have to wait for allocation and it then joins the back of the build queue, you may find some with customisable build slots but rare especially if it's a popular model

That's of course without adding in the 6 week shipping time

[Hairysteve]

Thanks for the explanation

[swestland85]

Originally Posted by swestland85

Based on the information I got from the dealer I was able to find the most probable vessel schedule.
According to the information I received it tells me the production week is 30, this means that the vehicle will be ready in that week. It takes about 1 day to transfer to port. Delivery to the dealer is estimated 1st week of september, which would fit into this timeline.

Based several information on forums BMW uses ARCShipping for the shipping of their cars, schedules for this shipping line is as follows:
Vessel name: INTEGRITY
Commercial Voyage: UB817
Military Voyage: A4871 / G2792
PORT ETA
BRUNSWICK 20-Jul
GALVESTON 24-Jul
CHARLESTON - CST 29-Jul
BALTIMORE - DMT 31-Jul
WILMINGTON NC 02-Aug
CASABLANCA 13-Aug
ANTWERP 19-Aug

Or the next sailing would be:
Vessel name: INDEP. II
Commercial Voyage: UB818
Military Voyage: A2763 / G2182
PORT ETA
BRUNSWICK 01-Aug
GALVESTON 06-Aug
CHARLESTON - CST 11-Aug
BALTIMORE - DMT 13-Aug
ANTWERP 27-Aug


Check https://www.arcshipping.com/schedule...d-us-to-europe for the scheduled sailings in case you want to look for yourself.
In my case I guess it be the first sailing, as that leaves enough time to clear customs and transport to dealer etc.

So I got the call yesterday that my car was unloaded in Germany on 20/08. This doesn't match my own research and I don't know what ship it was on. It would not make sense to me to ship cars to Germany if you can unload them in Antwerp if they are designated for Holland, but anyway don't know if info from the Sales guy is correct or BMW just does stuff differently. I still believe it was unloaded in Antwerp as that would still fit the above research. But it doesn't matter how, the car will be delivered to the dealer on Friday or Monday and I can pick it up end of next week!

So my time line looks as follows:
July 9th, confirmed order.
July 12th, order status 150.
July 25th, production completed according to VIN.
August 20th, delivery to BMW AG Germany.
August 27th, on transport to dealer in Holland.
August 29th, delivery to dealer.
September 5th, pick up date

Total time 8 weeks , pretty fast if you ask me. I guess I was lucky that the dealer found an available production slot which he could still adapt to my order. As the initial estimated date of delivery was somewhere in august. But as I really wanted the sensatech dash he kept on looking for a possibility.

I will be going on Holiday to south of France on Saturday so it will be perfect to break the car in.

[titomi]

My dealer also mentioned unloading in Bremerhaven, so probably true and that's the way the BMW does it. Sure they have some reason for it.

[swestland85]

Originally Posted by titomi

My dealer also mentioned unloading in Bremerhaven, so probably true and that's the way the BMW does it. Sure they have some reason for it.

Hmm OK so he probably is right then, the INTEGRITY vessel did call on Bremerhaven on 25th so that would be matching my dealer's story but for unloading on 20/08 I couldn't find any carriers that loaded in Charleston after 25/07. So maybe he was just reading the wrong date. They might have there own import department in Bremerhaven as also the South African builds are unloaded there.

[swestland85]

First pictures from the dealer

[comber]

Originally Posted by swestland85

First pictures from the dealer

Nice wheels It's one of the things I like the most in my X3...

[Hairysteve]

Only 3 months to go before my M40i arrives

[kitzune]

Originally Posted by swestland85

First pictures from the dealer

Do they drill license plate holes at leadership or there are "factory holes" for European cars?

[titomi]

Originally Posted by swestland85

First pictures from the dealer

So it's already at the dealer. faster than you mentioned before (Friday/Monday). So it was 9 days till it reached Netherlands from Bremerhaven after unloading, if I'm counting right.

[MarkyM]

Originally Posted by swestland85

First pictures from the dealer

Glad it arrived in time, that's a great looking car, nice to see the silver window trim, really suits the black