XSeries-forum

Hi guys, I know we here in UK are not so lucky as bmw-owners in America and we cannot track our order using BMW website, but I believe it still might be possible to track the vessel. I wonder if anyone knows which shipping company BMW use for delivery UK and from which port. I believe it should be depart from Charleston and arrive in Southampton. Shipping company I suspect to be the same as they use to deliver cars from Europe to America - Wallenius Wilhemsen http://www.2wglobal.com/www/wep/index.jsp but not sure it this is the only one they use.

Thank you for any information

Correct on the port of entry i.e. Southampton and pretty sure the shipping agent is correct to. A real shame you can't track your vehicle online

The only tracking you can do is the ship it's on. If you know the date it left the factory (via the Dealer) then you can work out the vessel it might be on and from there follow you car. I managed it very successfully with mine (geeky thing to do, but kinda fun). Mine was on a vessel within 24 hours of leaving Spartanburg. If it misses the first one, there is another one within a couple of days.

All BMWs are shipped by the Wallenius Shipping company, and leave the US via Charleston. The shipping schedules can be found here:
http://schedule.2wglobal.com/AppSchedul ... tryList.do

Select the USA for departure and UK for arrival country, then Charleston, SC as departure and Southampton as destination. That will give you the next series of departures from Charleston, and the ship name. Mine came on the Fidelio.

In local coastal waters you can track the vessel using AIS which is an inshore identification system and will give you a real-time position anywhere in the world as long as there is coverage. There is up most of the Eastern Seaboard of the US and from the north channel off Scotland into European ports. This only works within about 20-40 miles of the coast. If the vessel is out of range then nothing will show.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

Deep water tracking is possible as some ships provide 6/12 hour weather reports and their position. You will need the ship's name and callsign (do a search against the vessel and you should get that data) in case there is more than one vessel of the same name.
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/

If you really want to track things then you will be able to see the ship come in to Bremerhaven on a webcam! All BMWs for Europe (incl the UK) clear customs there before being shipped onward. Southampton is the arrival point and then all the cars go to the BMW Preparation Centre at Thorne in Yorkshire for UK prep before going to the dealer.
The webcam is here:
http://www.blg.de/en/blg-logistics/serv ... utomobile/

I can't take the credit for this, all I did was reverse the route that this guy used to track his 335 from Europe, and he really must have spent some time tracking everything down.
http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/07/14/how-t ... -delivery/

So now you know how to track an X from the US to here. You will need an understanding Sales person to look up the various code changes so you can make this work.

I have worked two short spells at Thorne. I was under the impression all BMW's shipped into Immingham docks then moved to Thorne by transporter. I am 100% this was the case with European shipping but I may be wrong with US.

This is where it will end up!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 3&t=h&z=18

Thanks guys, especially X5Sport for all the links.
I got a print out from dealer's system with VIN, order numbers and some vehicle details. It says "Current event - departed plant 18/02/2011 so I will be tracking vessels now. There are currently 3 vessels departing Charleston and arriving Southampton between now and estimated delivery date. What I cannot understand why according to vessel itinerary it comes to Bremerhaven and then to Southampton... probably because they deliver some X models to germany first and then pick up other models for UK...
Dealer mentioned that the car will be taken to vehicle preparation centre first - I assume this the one in Thorn.

The other thing - do you know if Bluetooth preparation with thematics is done at the factory or here in UK? I believe there iphone application which allows you to track your car using Connected Drive feature.

Acideraser you sound as impatient and excited as I am I had fun looking up the info X5sport had put up I am not sure when my car left the factory all I know is that last Monday it had been built

Will contact the dealer to find out more info cant wait to be it might be on the same ship as yours.

x5Trace, you should be able to use this link W&W cargo tracking system - http://www.2wglobal.com/www/customerCentre/index.jsp to find the vessel you car is been delivered on, just make sure you open this page in internet explorer.

All US built BMWs come into Bremerhaven first to clear European Customs (including our own) and are then just taken off the same car carrier in Southampton and stuck on transporters. The ship also picks up a batch of European cars (BMW, Merc, Audi etc) for shipping out again to the US.

At a guess I would think you've got the Fedora....
www.walleniusmarine.com/PageFiles/357/F ... 145476.pdf

I hope it's Fedora, will try to confirm it's her using track % trace by VIN number, once she leaves the port

VIN Track & Trace never worked for me.

I thought mine was one ship later than it was, so pleasantly surprised when it turned up a few days early. It took one week for the car to go from Southamton to Thorne to the Dealer, and a few days to do the prep work. I was like a father expecting a new baby

by never worked - do you mean the page never worked or it didn't recognised you VIN number? I found out that Track & Trace page works in Internet explorer but not safari or crome browsers

A bit of useless information about Thorne I hope some may find mildly interesting.

A= Cars in. Covered in protective wax.
B= Dewax-car wash. Valet.
C= Inspection area.
D= Repairs and servicing.
E= Paint shop.
F= Yard storage.
G= Cars out. Transporter loading lanes.

Note there is no rail head. All cars in and out are via transporter.

Sorry if it's all a bit geek

[quote=""acideraser""]by never worked - do you mean the page never worked or it didn't recognised you VIN number? I found out that Track & Trace page works in Internet explorer but not safari or crome browsers[/quote]

The page worked in IE and Firefox, but it never recognised my VIN.

[quote=""acideraser""]I believe there iphone application which allows you to track your car using Connected Drive feature.[/quote]

There is indeed an App. It will only report back when your car is within 1.5km and the ignition is off. No snooping on anyone using you car..

There is also an App that will let you lock and unlock the car. And another one that logs where you left the car - for those using large car parks. Serious geeky stuff. Just type BMW into the App Store