BMW i4 Reservation Tracker: Add Yours Here!

First time, soon to be, BMW Owner who has a Quick question!

1494 Views 46 Replies 16 Participants Last post by stryker, 3 d ago

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · 8 d ago (Edited)

** EDIT 5/25/2023: I received a call yesterday, 5/24, saying that my car will be ready for pick-up today afternoon, 5/25!
Thank you ALL for your insight, patience, support! **

Hi there~
My car was officially onboard vessel Leo Leader. ETA to Port Hueneme was originally 5/19/2023, Fri.
It arrived at Port Hueneme 5/20/2023, Sat.

Since tracking the vessel, it is already on it's way to Japan, so it's safe to say that for sure, 100%, that all the cars on that ship made their way off the ship, onto Port Hueneme grounds, over the weekend even when all business hours say they're closed weekends, correct?
I understand Sat-Sun the BMW center is closed, so I hope, starting yesterday, 5/22 Monday, that they're either transporting the cars from the port to their BMW center down the street, OR, that was all done over the weekend, and now the vehicles are physically on BMW VDC property and 1-by-1, being inspected and processed?

Mygarage BMW says my specific vehicle is only "At the port", so I'm a first-time soon-to-be bmw owner, so I'm taking this verbage literally and taking the phrase as-is, the car is literally still hanging out on the dock/port, waiting to be further moved.

I understand this is a long, unsure, waiting process, but man, this wait time is just ... atrocious.
Fingers crossed I'll get my i4 within the next 3 weeks or I'm hanging it up.

Anyone able to let me know what the average, destination port -> arrive on dealership lot, wait time is? Thank you~

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 47 Posts

takrdown

· #2 · 8 d ago

I can't speak for the west coast, but as a frame of reference my car was at the port (NYC/NJ) and 6 days later was at the dealership 2 hours away by truck.

Reactions: 1

Bluehighways

· #3 · 8 d ago

Well, your car is at the Port. How long it takes to get to your dealer can vary. However, your dealer will get a notice several days before it’s to be delivered to them. So stay in touch with your dealer at this point.

Reactions: 1

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #4 · 8 d ago

takrdown said:
I can't speak for the west coast, but as a frame of reference my car was at the port (NYC/NJ) and 6 days later was at the dealership 2 hours away by truck.

Wow! That's amazing
I wish in a perfect world, that we could do in-store pick-up's, as this port is roughly 2 hours away from me + my dealer!
Thank you for your insight

Reactions: 1

takrdown

· #5 · 8 d ago

@Bluehighways was right though: the dealership should have an estimated delivery date. My original date reported to the dealer was last Friday but it ended up slipping to Monday.

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #6 · 8 d ago

Bluehighways said:
Well, your car is at the Port. How long it takes to get to your dealer can vary. However, your dealer will get a notice several days before it’s to be delivered to them. So stay in touch with your dealer at this point.

Thank you so much, I will do that, contacted him right now via email actually thanks to you!

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #7 · 8 d ago

takrdown said:
@Bluehighways was right though: the dealership should have an estimated delivery date. My original date reported to the dealer was last Friday but it ended up slipping to Monday.

Thank you, emailed him right now actually.
I did get a little anxious because up until 2 days before the cargo ship arrived at port, the car listing for my specific VIN was live on the dealer's site.
Now that i check their site today, the listing is GONE.
They did not contact me saying they sold this VIN, it is to note that I did pay a refundable $1,500 to "lock-in" this vehicle, as they urged me to do so.
So I paid $,1500 to "hold" this VIN on April 29, 2023.

I understand that this still is NOT my vehicle, but what i'm trying to ask is- the dealer has a right to sell any vehicle they have, so, if they DID sell this VIN, they SHOULD be notifying me + refunding me $1,500, correct?

i4eD40

· #8 · 8 d ago

In CA, a deposit with a dealer is 100% refundable by law. So no need to worry about the deposit.

Reactions: 2

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #9 · 8 d ago

i4eD40 said:
In CA, a deposit with a dealer is 100% refundable by law. So no need to worry about the deposit.

Thank you for that insight!
I'm moreso worried about the entire "will the salesman lmk he just sold this vehicle to someone else without telling me", because again, the listing has now disappeared off of their site, and he hasn't been keeping in-touch with me as "frequently" as when I first paid $1,500 ~3 weeks ago.
So i guess the innocence/naiveness in me is wondering whether or not dealers DO sell cars that HAVE been locked-in by a person(s) who put down $$$, and DO sell this particular car to an entirely different person, and proceed to refund deposits to the original first deposit person, such bad grammar right now sorry

takrdown

· #10 · 8 d ago

I don’t think a solid dealership would do that. At least I hope they wouldn’t. My car never went onto the dealerships website so it’s just a clerical thing. My CA was impossible to get a hold of at certain points of the process. Namely the time in between in transit and at the dealership.

Reactions: 3

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #11 · 8 d ago

takrdown said:
I don’t think a solid dealership would do that. At least I hope they wouldn’t. My car never went onto the dealerships website so it’s just a clerical thing. My CA was impossible to get a hold of at certain points of the process. Namely the time in between in transit and at the dealership.

Got it, now i know i'm not experiencing something outlandish/absolutely odd, I feel much better knowing that this sort of does happen to most folks.
Fingers crossed that all is good for me and that the vehicle does end up in my hands, or, i've spent all this time not looking for a back-up car!

ˈJo͞onyər

· #12 · 8 d ago

I'm SoCal as well. As someone else said, time at the port can vary, and I'm not sure how much had changed since last year. For me:

On a Ship --> From Port Bremerhaven to Port Hueneme: 05 Oct 2022 - 04 Nov 2022 - 30 days

Truck Assigned (VPC to dealership): 09 or 10 Nov 2022 (so about 5 days after arrival)

Car delivered at Dealership (BMW of San Diego): night of 11 Nov or morning of 12 Nov 2022

Reactions: 1

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #13 · 8 d ago

ˈJo͞onyər said:
I'm SoCal as well. As someone else said, time at the port can vary, and I'm not sure how much had changed since last year. For me:

On a Ship --> From Port Bremerhaven to Port Hueneme: 05 Oct 2022 - 04 Nov 2022 - 30 days

Truck Assigned (VPC to dealership): 09 or 10 Nov 2022 (so about 5 days after arrival)

Car delivered at Dealership (BMW of San Diego): night of 11 Nov or morning of 12 Nov 2022

I love the breakdown with the dates, this is great. I hope that realistically, my timeline will follow yours as well, I'm giving it a week (7 business days) for it to clear from port to in transit, then 5 business days for it to clear from in transit to dealer, because I am literally less than 2 hours away from Port Hueneme.
Again, wish there were in-store pick-up options 😂

Reactions: 1

cruzer666

· #14 · 8 d ago

socalpeach said:
I love the breakdown with the dates, this is great. I hope that realistically, my timeline will follow yours as well, I'm giving it a week (7 business days) for it to clear from port to in transit, then 5 business days for it to clear from in transit to dealer, because I am literally less than 2 hours away from Port Hueneme.
Again, wish there were in-store pick-up options 😂

You can call BMW genius and they'll let you know ETA to the dealer. They know who the "last-mile" or "port-to-dealership" carrier and the scheduled pickup/dropoff date.

Once the car gets to the dealer, it can take 1 day (2 days the maximum worst case scenario) for the dealer to do PDI (pre delivery inspection)

The car will show delivered at the dealer in your My Garage fairly quickly and once it does, you can get in touch with your SA.

Good luck and congrats!

Reactions: 1

rollermonkey

· #15 · 8 d ago

My car had a stop sale and took 15 days to get from the VDC at Port Hueneme to my dealership in Bellevue, WA.

Reactions: 1

all41a

· #16 · 8 d ago

socalpeach said:
Hi there~
My car was officially onboard vessel Leo Leader. ETA to Port Hueneme was originally 5/19/2023, Fri.
It arrived at Port Hueneme 5/20/2023, Sat.

Since tracking the vessel, it is already on it's way to Japan, so it's safe to say that for sure, 100%, that all the cars on that ship made their way off the ship, onto Port Hueneme grounds, over the weekend even when all business hours say they're closed weekends, correct?
I understand Sat-Sun the BMW center is closed, so I hope, starting yesterday, 5/22 Monday, that they're either transporting the cars from the port to their BMW center down the street, OR, that was all done over the weekend, and now the vehicles are physically on BMW VDC property and 1-by-1, being inspected and processed?

Mygarage BMW says my specific vehicle is only "At the port", so I'm a first-time soon-to-be bmw owner, so I'm taking this verbage literally and taking the phrase as-is, the car is literally still hanging out on the dock/port, waiting to be further moved.

I understand this is a long, unsure, waiting process, but man, this wait time is just ... atrocious.
Fingers crossed I'll get my i4 within the next 3 weeks or I'm hanging it up.

Anyone able to let me know what the average, destination port -> arrive on dealership lot, wait time is? Thank you~

I think that my car was also on that ship, and when i called the genius line on monday, they confirmed that my car is at the VDC and will be at the dealership (in Riverside, CA) by the 27th of this month. (but also said that these dates can be subject to. change)

Reactions: 1

gsbaker

· #17 · 8 d ago

There are many stories of mysterious delays, and yours are not
hing unusual.

Mine was held in Bremerhaven for a month before they shipped it, because of a software update. Then it sailed up and down the East Coast before they offloaded it.

then it was held another week for another software update. Then they lost the car for ten days at the vpc, 75 miles from me and the dealer, so they hadn't ordered it shipped out.

I finally called the dealer that I would go to the vpc and get it myself.

the dealer got the car next day.

All these delays became forgotten the moment I saw my car. The few weeks of senseless delays count for nothing compared with the years of pleasure the car will give you.

If you decide to give it up at this point and hand it over to some other lucky buyer, you may come to count that as one of your significant regrets.
😉

See less See more

Reactions: 1

SGinAZ

· #18 · 8 d ago

My latest experience was last week with Heritage Leader. The ship arrived in Port Hueneme on 5/17. Car was in transit (truck) on 5/19 and arrived in Sacramento Saturday morning 5/20.

Reactions: 1

kkw8357

· #19 · 8 d ago

cruzer666 said:
You can call BMW genius and they'll let you know ETA to the dealer. They know who the "last-mile" or "port-to-dealership" carrier and the scheduled pickup/dropoff date.

Once the car gets to the dealer, it can take 1 day (2 days the maximum worst case scenario) for the dealer to do PDI (pre delivery inspection)

The car will show delivered at the dealer in your My Garage fairly quickly and once it does, you can get in touch with your SA.

Good luck and congrats!

How accurate is BMW genius?

My dealer said my vehicle was supposed to arrive tomorrow morning but changed it to Wednesday afternoon.

So I called BMW genius and they said the earliest is Sunday.

socalpeach

Discussion Starter · #20 · 7 d ago

cruzer666 said:
You can call BMW genius and they'll let you know ETA to the dealer. They know who the "last-mile" or "port-to-dealership" carrier and the scheduled pickup/dropoff date.

Once the car gets to the dealer, it can take 1 day (2 days the maximum worst case scenario) for the dealer to do PDI (pre delivery inspection)

The car will show delivered at the dealer in your My Garage fairly quickly and once it does, you can get in touch with your SA.

Good luck and congrats!

THANK YOU!!!! The person on the other end was simple and to the point, he forgot to mention "subject to change/not guaranteed", but i'm just happy to hear substantial numbers.
He said apparently, the car will be in transit 5/24, and arrive at the dealer by 5/27, he did not specify which time of day.
I am now hoping for the best as myself + the dealer are less than 2 hours away from Port Hueneme/BMW VDC.

Reactions: 1

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