visuar

So jealous you got 4 weeks with your car, I barely got 1, but at least it's on the boat home now.

Where did you drop off Jim?

jimdolian

Zurich. How long did it take from drop-off to receipt of the e-mail with shipping info?

visuar

I emailed them myself, as the BLG tracking site is a joke. And even then I didn't even know when they picked up my car or dropped it off in Emden. Having said that, I do know when the boat left with it on it.

Drop off at Nice: 9/4 (end of the day, so it did not get into BLG's system until Monday 9/7)

Boat left Emden: 9/28

ETA in San Diego: 10/23

Here are the boat schedules:
The PWL Group
Schedules - NYK RORO

jimdolian

I have heard nothing since I dropped off the car in Zurich on 9/28. I was told that the car would be on its way to Emden that day or the next. Should I just sit tight and wait for an e-mail or take the initiative and contact someone to determine the location of the car? If so, whom do I contact? Thanks!

visuar

I was contacting people left and right. Need to know what's going on

If you have your BLG contract ID you can try to see if there's anything on their tracker:
JCars Portal

If you don't have that, I would start with emailing the drop off place (email address is listed in the paperwork you got from Audi), they'll likely copy someone from BLG and you can keep emailing them directly then. Other than that I would email Audi ED department in Germany & US.

Once your car gets on the boat someone from IFF should be reaching out and give you details to log in to their tracking site for customs clearance.

To clarify, BLG is organizing the pickup and drop off at Emden. NYK will be the shipping line your car will be on (and you can track the boat, takes about a month to get to San Diego). IFF is handling the customs side and Pasha will be doing all the port work in San Diego.

If you can't get the answers PM me and I can shoot you over some BLG email addresses

superswiss

It took several weeks for my car to reach a boat in Emden from Zurich. There won't be an update on the BLG tracking site until the car is assigned to a boat and loaded. If I remember correctly it took 3-4 weeks before the car was actually on the boat. During that time, I emailed European Delivery and they gave me an update on the car. Once you now the boat, you can track it and then when it lands state side you can contact your dealer to find out where it is. It took 10 weeks total for me to be reunited with my car at the west coast.

jimdolian

Thanks for the info. I just checked the BLG tracking site, and it shows no change since I dropped the car off on 9/28. With the wisdom of hindsight, I probably should have dropped it off in Munich, but was flying out of Milan so Zurich saved some back-tracking. Fortunately I have a Carrera S to drive in the meantime so the wait won't be too painful unless we get an early snow here at Lake Tahoe in which case it will be time to fire up the Expedition. What is interesting is that I was told by the Gonderand folks that they already had several cars to be picked up and they expected my car to leave Zurich later that day or the next. So unless the the Gonderand folks were "blowing smoke" or the BLG tracking site is out-of-date, the car is still sitting in Zurich almost two weeks later. Time will tell I guess.

superswiss

The BLG tracking site is a joke. It will say the car is sitting in Zurich until it is assigned to a vessel in Emden. For the whole journey from Zurich to the Bay Area there were exactly two entries on the BLG tracking site. One when it was dropped off in Zurich and one when it was loaded in Emden. That's it.

The day I dropped it off for its 10 week journey after 4 weeks and 4000 miles in Europe...fond memories:

Q5forWife

Try contacting IFF. Two years ago, IFF contacted me 11 days after the dropoff in Nice, with ship name, departure date, and ETA San Diego.

At the time, the person at IFF that contacted me was Sandra Cartledge of their ED Program. If she is still with IFF, her email is sandra.cartledge at iffusa.com.

jimdolian

Decided to send an e-mail to Peter at Gonderand with whom I had previously
corresponded to set up the drop-off and asked him if the car has left his office and, if so, when was it picked up.