Gang,

If you have a VIN you should be able to track your car through the shipping line.

Assumption 1 - there's only 1 shipping line that MB uses. If there are others, clearly this won't help.

Procedure:
Go to the Wallenius website - they're a big cargo shipper. BMW uses them as does MB. This is the link to their cargo tracking system: http://www.2wglobal.com/WEP/Toolbox/...goTracking.htm

Select "track by cargo -- AUTO"

Enter car's VIN under 'Cargo ID' and click TRACK.

You'll see the handling path for your vehicle in reverse chronological order - this is the *shipping* company's view. So the bottom entry will be the car being booked for passage, then 'received' by the shipping company, then 'loaded' aboard a vessel.

At the top of the screen you'll see the destination for this VIN (baltimore, jacksonville, etc), and the vessel's name and voyage number.

The voyage number is a link to the sailing schedule. This is the *schedule*, it doesn't necessarily reflect actual sailing.

In my case, my car shows loaded aboard ship on the 8th December, and the sailing schedule shows the ship was scheduled to leave Bremerhaven for Zebrugge on the 7th. So either the VIN status is wrong (vehicle *not* loaded aboard ship) or the sailing info is just a *schedule*.

At the bottom of the voyage-specific data, it shows a red-test "vessel has sailed". Today is the 11th and the ship was scheduled to sail from Southampton, UK, on the 10th, but given my earlier observation I can't tell if its sailed from the UK or from Belgium - you can't quite tell which ports it is transiting.

Also on Netscape 4.7x/win2k, the reports show big black blocks of color over the text - just control-A/select-all and that will highlight the actual words

Ah..in InternetExplorer it is much happier. The sailing schedule colors in each port in red, so the ship has left Southampton :-)

 

Great source of info for anyone waiting for thier car. Wish it had been posted when I was waiting.

ED

 

..there we no MB's on that boat that sank in the English channel yesterday. I understand it was full of luxury cars, mainly BMW, Audi, Volvo.

Michael

 

Well, the Wallenius line is the one that Mercedes uses to ship their cars, so there's a good chance that there are Benzes sleeping with the fishes.

bbc coverage story 1

bbc story 2

bbc story 3

and to add insult to injury, the sunken Wallenius ship was rammed around midnight local time by yet another freighter, which stuck on it like a reef til it was pulled off when the tide came in.

car-transporter struck again after sinking

 

Great info for someone waiting for their car! I ordered mine back in October (E320, black/stone) and I've been following this forum ever since. My car was built on 12/6 and I checked the cargo site everyday to see if anything came up. Finally on 12/16, the info was posted. The car was loaded on 12/13, the boat left Germany for a stop in the UK on 12/14. Left the UK on 12/16 and is due in Baltimore on 12/26 (I was surprised it took 10 days to get across the "pond"). I'll pick up the car just in time not to have to pay the luxury tax, probably on 1/3! Next step this morning, use the info I learned on this forum to order the chrome headlight rings from Germany! Great forum, great information... Thanks to all!

 

Yes, this was absolutely great information, I really appreciated knowing where my car was and that it had been loaded, etc.

Thanks.

 

I got my VIN number from my dealer this week and he said when he checks up on the computer, it says "Produced not Shipped" and according to him, the car should be here between Jan 10-Jan 20. We booked the car in October, so I'm getting pretty restless now. The car is for my mom, but I'll be driving it a lot..the production has been delayed a bit, but since the car has not been shipped out, I can't track it on the website yet.

In the meanwhile, I get more anxious everyday...

 

I think 'produced not shipped' means not yet at the port....ie sitting in the lot outside the factory waiting to load on a truck/train/mule to Bremerhaven.

I got some different feedback from my dealer when the car was 'at the port', waiting for a boat assignment.

I was in limbo for a while after building. Order 18 October, built 15 November, no info on the boat til around 11 Dec (when a coworker showed me the Wallenius link which he used to track is M3 this spring).

On the bright side, since I didn't have the phone or anything, my boat arrived in Baltimore 21 Dec (saturday) and was offloaded sun/mon, and then by Tues 'ready to ship to dealer' ('processed').

Timeline:
18 Oct 02 - ordered at dealer
15 Nov 02 - built
05 Dec 02 - booked on a ship
06 Dec 02 - handed over to shipping co.
07 Dec 02 - loaded on boat
08 Dec 02 - boat sails, making a few stops in Belgium and UK
21 Dec 02 - boat arrives Baltimore
23 Dec 02 - car handed over to MBUSA
24 Dec 02 - car processed by VPC, ready to ship to dealer

So you're looking at 2-3 months from order to delivery.

 

My dealer hasn't been very specific on the details of the car, so this website will be of a huge help to me.

 

Does anyone know how long it takes the ship to reach Baltimore once it has left Germany? I think my car has just left port and Im curious when I might get the car since my dealer is very vague about the issue.. (I live in NJ)

-KD

 

ifyou have your vin or netstar PO just go on the site and see for yourself when its scheduled in to baltimore.

10 days from the UK, add a day or 2 depending on how many stops the ship makes en route

 

re-read the post...

click on the voyage number, that will take you to the sailing schedule for that ship.

also note the 'bill number' in the top right on your search-by-vin output. It should be like DE12345 or something...if you search on that youc ans ee *all* the MBs that are being delivered to baltimore :-)

 

Does anyone have the same type of info (web site) on the trucking company MB uses to get the cars from Baltimore to the dealer? My car was off the boat on 12/28 (originally scheduled for 12/26) but hasn't arrived at the dealership yet. Thanks.

 

your dealer can see if the car is "processed - ready to ship", meaning its waiting for a truck, or 'shipped', en route from the VPC to the dealer

if you dont have any vpc-installed stuff (like the ludicrously overpriced telephone) then it will probably be at the dealer this weekend. Then give them a few days for the certificate of origin to arrive (it apparently ships separately from the vehicle) so they can title it, do the unwrapping, inspection etc and deliver it to ya.

 

Wow, takes longer than I thought. Thanks for the info.

 

there was another thread on delivery experience that indicated the port was closed all week, a year-end holiday of sorts I suppose.

the last mile is always the worst part :-)

 

Dealer told me Friday that car was still in line at VPC to get the phone (I know you are not a fan!) installed (never mentioned port not being open). Said delivery is likely Monday or Tuesday, I'm planning on Wed or Thur so I don't get my hopes up again. But that is ok since I won't be able to Zaino until the weekend anyway!

 

This is no surprise to me I am paying $130,000 for my SL55 and my dealer know d**k all. . . How is that for customer service?

Go figure. . .

 

1) Has anybody ever met a salesman that knew really anything about the car? I've dealt with several MB dealers and you either get the young salesman who is way too interested in fixing his tie and flirting with the showroom receptionist, or the old guy who is distant until you drop some coin and then will laugh at anything semi-humorous you say but won't budge.

2) Has anyone ever had a car you couldn't track on W&W? My dealer insists my C32 is on its merry way to B'more, but I can't track it at all. I've tried using the PO and the VIN (as well as taking portions of each of those numbers, to see if the W&W site would let me wildcard a search).

I'm not particularly concerned, as one of the earliest caveats raised was that MB could use other carriers, and with the sinking of the W&W boat last month I wouldn't be surprised if somebody else stepped in to help out on a temporary basis.

So, anybody else in the position of waiting on a car that should arrive 1/8 in B'more but can't track? Or wasn't able to track their car?

 

My car was built on 12/18 and is still not showing up on W+W tracking. I am calling my dealer today to find out if he has any info. I don't know if it shows as being shipped on his info. It is 3 weeks since being built so I would assume it should have been shipped, so who knows.

 

I'd be surprised if it hadn't shipped. I know from reading other forums here that cars built on 12/17 were on boats headed to California already, and were supposed to be out of VPC at end of next week or the week of the 20th.

 

I spoke to my dealer today. It definately has shipped. It is due on January 25. It does not show on the W+W website so I think this confirms that MB uses more than one shipping line.