[jjclyde]

I did a little digging around on the WWL site to get lists of M2s on boats and used bimmer.work to determine actual production dates of those M2s. Maybe this will help some of you 37ers rationalize which boats your cars get on ....

Looking at 2 recent Port Hueneme-bound WWL boats - Torino and Fedora.

Torino departed Bremerhaven on Aug 24
Earliest production date M2: Aug 8 (wk 32, day 4 - tue)
Latest production date M2: Aug 19 (wk 34, day 1 - sat)

Fedora departed Bremerhaven on Sep 1
Earliest production date M2: Aug 15 (wk 33, day 4 - tue)
Latest production date M2: Aug 25 (wk 35, day 7 - fri)

I was motivated to do this little bit of cross research because I recently saw a post that implied a week 35 car got on Torino. That seemed impossible, and the data bears that out. I imagine said car is indeed on Torino - it just probably isn't a week 35 car - the poster was apparently mistaken about the build week. Now that I think about it - Torino left during week 34 - so it's pretty obvious it couldn't have a week 35 car on board. But the cross researching fed nicely my OCD, so don't judge.

My car completed production on 8/18 (wk 33), but didn't get to port until Aug 24 - just missing, it seems, getting on Torino. It is frustrating that there were week 34 cars (only 2, prod complete 8/19), that somehow got to Bremerhaven ahead of mine and in time to get on board Torino, but - hey - so be it. I got delayed 10 days having to wait a week for Fedora (and Fedora took 3 days longer to get to Port Hueneme).

Happy OCDing all ...

[vp]

Although I didn?t order a M2, my 4 series completed production on 9/13 and today the status changed to in transit. I know the status updates are delayed by a day or two, and my VIN doesn?t show up on the WW tracker which could mean it?s on another company?s vessel. Will call my advisor today to get the ship name.

[Nezil]

Thalatta has left Bremerhaven, but we probably won't know for a few days if our cars got on the boat unfortunately.

[Nezil]

As has Marguerite Ace actually, the other vessel bound for Port Hueneme due to leave today. The next ones headed for the west coast are:

27-Sep --- 21-Oct --- Equuleus Leader --- 096 --- NYK
29-Sep --- 26-Oct --- Tortugas --- CD739-TOR --- WWL
30-Sep --- 27-Oct --- Clover Ace --- 0062A --- MOL

[///cbrash]

My car finished production 9/5 (week 36 build). Arrived at the port 9/8 and is still sitting there. Its been over two weeks! I wonder why it didnt get on the ship leaving on the 18th.

[jjclyde]

Originally Posted by Nezil

Thalatta has left Bremerhaven, but we probably won't know for a few days if our cars got on the boat unfortunately.

I noticed last night a single car got "Loaded On Vessel" on Thalatta. VIN ending in 527. Prod Date 7/14/17. LBB, DCT, Moonroof. Probably an ED car - hoyasaxa's maybe? I figured out earlier that ED cars go through an independent booking process - which seems to result in WWL reporting them earlier.

But you're right - all the "normal" production cars won't show up on the WWL site for a day or 2. In my case, the data showed up after my boat had already been to and left Zeebrugge.

[Tag]

This is literally the 5th BMW that I've purchased over the years. Every other car took on average 4~5 weeks to build, ship and be delivered to the dealer. I've even had a car arrive in 3.5 weeks once. Seems like that's all changed, there are way too many delays. The reoccurring theme I've seen across different BMW models is that you may breeze through one part of the process while stalling at another.

[Nezil]

Genius says my car is still at the port... Not sure if that's true or if they just haven't had any updates yet.

[Tag]

Originally Posted by Nezil

Genius says my car is still at the port... Not sure if that's true or if they just haven't had any updates yet.

Looking at the WWL ship manifest, the only cars I see as "LOADED ON VESSEL" have a production date of 9/11 or earlier. I also see M2's with higher VIN numbers than my car that are already loaded. They all completed production before my car which has a lower VIN number. As far as I can tell there is no way to discern what the process is around when cars leave the factory, how long they sit at port and when they are loaded onto a ship.

What's interesting is that I spoke to a Genius today for an update, and although I've been told all along that my car completed production on the 12th the Genius today said it completed on the 20th. Don't know what to make of that. Did production begin a week later than scheduled and the system wasn't updated? Did they need additional parts to fully complete production? He also told me on average a car waits at port for a week before being assigned and loaded onto a ship which is consistent with what another Genius told me yesterday.

[jjclyde]

Originally Posted by Tag

What's interesting is that I spoke to a Genius today for an update, and although I've been told all along that my car completed production on the 12th the Genius today said it completed on the 20th. Don't know what to make of that. Did production begin a week later than scheduled and the system wasn't updated? Did they need additional parts to fully complete production?

Go plug your VIN into bimmer.work. That will give you the "in-the-database" production date - which I take to be is real (as officially reported to outside agencies) end of production.

[Tag]

Originally Posted by jjclyde

Go plug your VIN into bimmer.work. That will give you the "in-the-database" production date - which I take to be is real (as officially reported to outside agencies) end of production.

It reports the production date as 9/11 which was the original EOP date before it was revised and pushed out to the 12th and before the delay.

[jjclyde]

Originally Posted by Tag

It reports the production date as 9/11 which was the original EOP date before it was revised and pushed out to the 12th and before the delay.

Ok - I believe your car was production complete on 9/11. If you manage to get on a boat before 9/25, your car will have gotten on a boat more quickly than did mine. If your car was at port on or before 9/21, I'd say there's a good chance you're on Thalatta.

[Stu2k2]

From the WW schedule website:
Thallata leaves Bremerhaven 9/22 and arrives Baltimore 10/6
That's the boat that most 9/11 and earlier are on

Figaro leaves Bremerhaven 9/22 and arrives Baltimore 10/5. Nothing loaded on this ship yet.

I'm a few VIN's from the last car currently aboard Thallata per the website and hoping that I end up actually getting to Baltimore first

Car will end up in Syracuse, NY, so guessing Baltimore since there's no departures to NY until 10/1...

[Nezil]

Stu2k2, there is only 1 car listed on the WWL tracker that's on the Thalatta. We think, though it's not yet been confirmed, that it's hoyasaxa's car. He did ED and dropped off in Paris I believe, and the theory is that because ED shipments are booked separately from regulary production shipments, that's why his is showing up already.

We'll probably have to wait until Monday (the next working day) to see the other M2s on the Thalatta. I'm hopeful that mine will be one of them; maybe yours too...

[Stu2k2]

My apologies. I didn't notice that though the status date was 9/22, it was for an action completed several days prior...

Still learning this game and checking the tracking website way too often!

[bimmer4life24]

Originally Posted by Stu2k2

From the WW schedule website:
Thallata leaves Bremerhaven 9/22 and arrives Baltimore 10/6
That's the boat that most 9/11 and earlier are on

Figaro leaves Bremerhaven 9/22 and arrives Baltimore 10/5. Nothing loaded on this ship yet.

I'm a few VIN's from the last car currently aboard Thallata per the website and hoping that I end up actually getting to Baltimore first

Car will end up in Syracuse, NY, so guessing Baltimore since there's no departures to NY until 10/1...

Figaro leaves 9/23 actually, not 9/22. I'm hoping to be on Figaro rather than Thallata, as it arrives at Baltimore one day before Thallata.

[Tag]

Got tired of manually getting info with the automated system so I created a speed dial on my iPhone. So far it's worked every time, now I can really hyperstalk my cars progress.

1-800-831-1117,,,,,2,,,1234567,,1

Just create a contact with the number above and change 1234567 to your production number. I don't know if the above will work with Android, may need to be tweaked.

[ZPrime]

Where does Bimmer.work get that production date info from?

[jjclyde]

Originally Posted by ZPrime

Where does Bimmer.work get that production date info from?

That's a good question - I don't know. But they deliver more information than can be discerned from just what is encoded in the VIN itself- so they are clearly accessing a BMW provided / hosted database somehow.

Bimmer.work is not the only site with access to this info - bmwvin.com, for example, has the same info. So, again, I assume that BMW must be providing public (or perhaps "industry") access to certain car-data based on VIN.

But I'd like to understand better myself where these sites are getting the info - anybody know?

[Nezil]

I'm on a business trip currently in Korea (South of course) and have been sat in the conference most of the day checking the WWL tracking site for my car.

It didn't show up all day, then when I was at dinner this evening - bam, there it is, on the Thalatta.

There are 57 new M2s on the WWL system as of today, all on Thalatta. Some are going to Port Hueneme, and some are going to Baltimore. It's a large number of M2s on a single vessel; I wonder if it's a record?

That's the good news; the bad news is the scheduled date to Port Hueneme has slipped to 10/22.

Still, I'm happy, my car is on its way!

[Nezil]

The latest VIN sequentially was build 09/15, which is Friday of W37. I don't think there are any W38 cars on this vessel, and those that were delayed for whatever reason may also have missed this boat unfortunately.

[soco352]

Originally Posted by Nezil

The latest VIN sequentially was build 09/15, which is Friday of W37. I don't think there are any W38 cars on this vessel, and those that were delayed for whatever reason may also have missed this boat unfortunately.

Thanks for posting this. I just checked, I'm on the Thalatta!!