metta

Okay, so this may be a stupid question, but for those of you who have ordered a car built to your specs before, is there a way to find out which ship your car gets loaded on and then track that ship's journey to the port where it will be loaded onto a truck or other carrier for transport to the dealer?

Thanks.

big residual

Yes. Your salesperson at the dealership can look it up for you and then you can go track the ship online. Search around, there are a few different threads.

I think this one has what you need:

Traking your New Audi from Germany

idale

The first post just talks about tracking via WWL, but PWL sailing from Emden is what most Audis will be coming via.

Direct link to the current schedule PDF: http://www.pwl.de/misc/filePush.php?...e=Schedule.pdf

You can also get there by going to the PWL site and on the right under "Liner Schedules" choosing "West- and East Coast USA, US Gulf" and "Volkswagen Logistics Ro/Ro". That'll cause the PDF download to start unless your browser ends up blocking the script for some reason.

Within the schedule, you can try and guess at which ship you'll be on based on the dates in the schedule vs. the dates you've been given by Audi via your dealer on when your car should arrive at the German port and arrive in the US/Canada.

From there, you'll be able to use any of the ship tracking sites (MarineTraffic, etc.) to try and track that ship's journey. Keep in mind the giant dead zone that is the Atlantic: most sites will require a subscription to get satellite data, or you can just wait for it to come out (usually takes around a week IIRC from leaving the UK/Ireland space to being picked up off Nova Scotia).

metta

Thanks very much, guys. Great detailed info, idale!

Never done this before and have always just bought off the lot so this is all a new (and fun) experience for me.

ex-quattro PETE

Somewhat of a related question on this: if my dealer told me the car will be ready for pickup the week of Oct 20th, does that mean the car will arrive on "Kentucky Highway"?

How long does it typically take from the ship's arrival to the car showing up at the dealer?

metta

@ex-quattro PETE: My car is also supposed to arrive at the dealer the week of October 20. FWIW, here is the information they gave me:

Released for Production: 8/1/2014
Ship Loaded: 9/14/2014
Port Arrived: 10/8/2014
Release to Carrier: 10/13/2014
Dealer Delivered: Week of 10/20/2014

I contacted my salesperson for additional information on the ship, the carrier, at which port it will arrive, and also asked if the VIN has been assigned and if so, what it is. I wish they were more proactive about providing this information to people who have placed orders, but it seems I have to ask for everything with my dealer.

idale

It can vary how long it takes, based on things like how far from port you are, but I think around a week is usually about the estimate between port arrival and dealer arrival? I took delivery of mine on 10-25 after it hit Houston 10-21; typically it'll be able to get out of customs within a day, then travel time, then prep time at the dealer prior to delivery.

If they're quoting you taking delivery the week of the 20th and the Kentucky Highway is supposed to arrive in Davisville on the 20th (assuming that's your port), that feels a little quick for an estimate to me and it may be scheduled for one of the two previous ships. Or it is aligned with the Kentucky Highway and they just figure that it'll just take a couple of days and so by that Saturday it should be ready for you.

If you can get the full ETA list from your dealer (from Audi's system), it'll give you a little more to go on since Audi gives ETAs including when it should hit Emden and when it should hit the destination port. While knowing when it should be in Emden doesn't mean it'll be on the next ship after that day (took several ships for mine to actually be loaded), it's at least something to use to compare to Emden departure dates, and having the ETA on hitting the US will help with comparing with PWL's ETAs for its ships.

ex-quattro PETE

Yeah, I don't even know if that's my port. I'm in Michigan, so I thought Davisville might be the closest, but maybe it does not work that way?

idale

It probably is your port, since the others are Brunswick, GA; Houston, TX; and San Diego, CA.

metta's ETAs do seem about right, with Audi estimating the better part of a week on waiting for clearing customs and being picked up (normally happens within a day or so, though), and then being available at the dealer about a week later (could take just a couple days, too).

Backing off from there, it'd most likely be on one of the two ships arriving around the 9th-11th, but the exact one would be impossible to tell even with the full ETA list. But generally even if you track the wrong ship, you're still tracking general progress as if your "real" ship was a couple of days behind, then when the tracked ship hits port yours should just be a couple of days later, still within the ETA window. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, though every day closer seems to drag on longer and longer.

ex-quattro PETE

Uhh... so now the dealer tells me the car is showing a production week of 9/29/14. If that's the case, then somehow I doubt that it's going to be ready for pickup the week of Oct 20th...