9elf S

I was informed that the C350 I ordered at the end of December went into production yesterday. Any idea how long it will take to make it to the LA area? It's a Germany build. Apparently, cars built in South Africa are being shipped from SA to Germany and then to the states.

jrct9454

To Los Angeles, it could be anywhere from 3 weeks to 7 weeks....much more like the latter.

Depends entirely on when the next West Coast ship is leaving when your car hits the port.

-A couple of days to finish assembly and QC
-Up to a week to get trucked to the German port
-An unknown amount of time waiting for the next ship - one day to 3 weeks
-Two weeks in transit
-2-10 days from arrival through San Pedro to the local dealer and PDI

You get the idea - there's no schedule, just a case of when the next bus happens to come by....

djf1

Mine is built in January, not sure when, but got it today. So about a month or so.

uhear

I am told your build date will depend on your build slot. When I ordered mine my build slot was 2 weeks out which meant I could make changes if I liked - this is when I changed my mind and upgraded to a C350. Once that time passed I was locked in and it took about a month to build. Following build shipping to the East coast and transport to Ohio took about 3 weeks.

Krytech

My guess would be 4-6 weeks. My car sat in post-production for quite a while though which slowed it down.

Baron Samedi

You've GOT to be kidding. Where did you hear this? Why in the world would they do that? Mine was built 1/22 in SA and two weeks later it was still sitting on their dock. How much QC does it need? Hope it wasn't damaged and that they're just waiting for a ship to fill.

itcrashed

I placed an order on 11/2/07 for a build date of 12/15/07.
On 12/15/07 my build date was rescheduled for 1/15/08.
Went into build on 1/15/08 at the SA plant.
Confirmed complete and waiting at port on 1/25/08 for ship assignment.
Ship assigned on 2/5/08 - which doesn't even mean it's on the water yet.

I'm still waiting to hear on an actual ETA to Northern CA.

I hope the Netstar reports are behind...then I'd guess I'd be getting my car in the next few weeks...otherwise, if all the info is accurate, it might not be here until the end of March!

ColoradoDriver

Our car should arrive at our dealership (Colorado) the first half of March. It is being built in Germany (start date 15 Feb; end date 22 Feb). Our dealer says he has been receiving the German cars in about two to three week after end of build period. Don't know about LA-bound vehicles.

9elf S

You've GOT to be kidding. Where did you hear this? Why in the world would they do that? Mine was built 1/22 in SA and two weeks later it was still sitting on their dock. How much QC does it need? Hope it wasn't damaged and that they're just waiting for a ship to fill.

I was told by the salesman. Agree that it seems incredibly inefficient to send to Germany first.

jrct9454

Sorry, I don't believe these cars from SA are transhipped to Germany. It would eat up most of the cost production advantage they have from producing the cars in South Africa in the first place.

I've said it before....your delivery date depends on "catching the ship" more than any single factor, and that is strictly the luck of the draw. If your production date and "port available" date just happened to be close to a scheduled departure.....voila, you get the shorter time frame. If not.....

Baron Samedi

Just heard from my dealer rep today.

My car was built in SA on 1/22 and has a Baltimore ETA of 3/11.

I'm psyched, but dismayed that this whole process took so long. Didn't happen like this when I ordered my E320 back in 99. Doubt I'll put up with this kind of wait in the future.

itcrashed

I think your car is on the same boat as mine!

I was told by my rep that the ship assigned to my car was the Grand Orion. I did some googling and found this info...

http://www.cargoinfo.co.za/ss/voyage.asp?id=22022

With a Baltimore port date of 3/11, it's got to be the same boat. According to logs, it should have left Durban on 2/2, which is just north of East London.

My rep told me that I would get the car around 3/26 which makes sense since it would have to be freighted over from the east coast to the west coast (which is probably cheaper than crossing the Panama canal.)

...god I have too much free time lol

Baron Samedi

I just talked to my Sales Rep and confirmed that my car IS on the Grand Orion. He was amazed that I knew. I guess that's a demonstration of the power of the Internet. He also told me that the new ETA in Baltimore is 3/10. One day earlier They must have a tailwind from SA!