How long from on the boat to at the dealer?

[curtis]

After 388 days I have just found out my Black/Silver/Leather Passion has finally hit the water. It will be arriving at the Baltimore port and my dealer is in Milwaukee, anyone know how long I should expect to wait now?

[dbwill]

I live in Kansas City. ship discharged car on March 25(Tuesday), it arrived at the dealer on April 4(Friday). I had two days of 3rd party options added, took delivery on April 9th(Wednesday).

[curtis]

thanks DB, I just checked and looks like the boat is Docking May 1st so unless I have more delays I might get my car by mid May, finally...

[dbwill]

What was your reservation number?

[curtis]

1184, dang, you had quite the wait as well.

[CliffK]

One variable you have no control over is how many arrive at once and how quickly they can get them onto a truck. It appears that once on the truck, all the cars on that truck will be for the same dealer, so it should only take a couple days to get from Baltimore to Milwaukee.

I was at the dealer when the truck arrived with mine and got to watch it "being born," so to speak. Hahaha. Anyway, it only took an hour or so while we dealt with paperwork for them to fill it, wash it, add the license plate frames and whatever else they did. The only add-on I got at the dealer was the cargo cover, which basically attaches with velcro and can be installed in minutes.

When I got the call on a Saturday morning that the truck was coming in on Monday morning, I made an appointment for 1:30 on Monday and took the afternoon off. We touched base by phone late that morning, and two of three trucks had arrived, my car was on the third, and they thought it was only an hour behind the others. Well, it didn't show up until about 5:30 that afternoon. And wouldn't you know, mine was the last of the eight cars to come off that truck! The first one off was the same config, and we took photos and everything, only to discover that it had the wrong VIN #. (So now I have birth photos of somebody else's baby!) Thankfully I had the time and the flexibility and patience to deal with that, but just be aware that if you plan to pick it up the same day they get delivery, there may be delays that they have no control over (as though you haven't already experienced that).

I'm glad to hear that yours is finally on the way!

[Chassol]

The port where the ships come in is about 10-12 miles from where the MB processing center is in Jacksonville. So trucked from the port to the processing center - prepped - then trucked again 10-12 miles to the smart dealer in Orange Park.

I would imagine about a day or two to go from port to MB processing center. Keep in mind this center does both MB and smarts coming into the port for much of the Southeast (and probably more) United States. The only good news is trucking to Orange Park, FL is a short distance.

The time factor at processing center will depend on work load of MB and smarts being processed through at any given time. BTW the MB processing center is being relocated to Brunswick, Georgia in early 2009.

Our DDE is still 04/09/08 - 07/08/08. I'm still hoping for early May delivery. I have a 2006 Subaru Tribeca 7 passenger limited (gets 21-23 MPG) to sell first, but can't do it until we have DDE on smart.