Our car finished production on 4/30, and as far as we can tell left Graz on a train to Bremerhaven on the 3rd, so we are hoping we will be on the Don Juan departing Bremmerhaven for the New Jersey VPC this Thursday. Anyone else booked on this Don Juan voyage?

 

My car was just finished today! I'm hoping that it will be on the first boat headed this direction!

 

Shark, do you know that you are on the Don Juan? Since my car was on the train today, I'm hoping they can squeeze me not this ship. Taumax, if your car was finished today, then most likely you'd be on the boat leaving the 16th, or even the one after that. My car finished last Thursday, and didn't leave on the train until yesterday or today. It takes a day or two by train to get to the port. I'm hoping that if my car arrives at the port tomorrow (or even possibly there now?), that there's enough room for it on the Don Juan!

 

No, we don't know. The last we heard was that our car was on a train to Bremerhaven, and that was Thursday. Was just curious if we were going to be on the San Juan if we would already be booked on it, and was just wondering if anyone else was aware they were booked.

 

I don't think your VIN actually gets recorded as cargo until it gets loaded on the ship, but I could be wrong. Is the ship even at the port, or is it still out in the ocean returning from its last voyage? You could probably use one of those tracking websites to see where it is right now.

 

Joe, I thought the same, but if you look at WWL's website, some car's status is shown as "booked" rather than "loaded on vessel". The Don Juan is due to arrive Bremerhaven tomorrow and depart Thursday. Our MA emailed us yesterday and said our car may arrive as early as the 18th. I don't beleive he's correct, because for that to happen we would have had to be on the ship that departed Bremerhaven on Saturday.

 

Wow, yeah, I wonder what your MA is basing his information on? The Don Juan is due in Jersey City on the 23rd, correct? You don't get a hit when you enter your VIN, right? How are you seeing other car's statuses as "booked" on the site?

 

Yes, the 23rd. I did a "wild card" search on WWL's wesbite to see what was being shown about other cars on other ships, and a few of them show "booked" as status.

 

How do you do a wildcard search? I was trying to find that out the other day. I remembered reading about it, but couldn't find it.

 

Nevermind, I figured it out!

 

Just got off the phone with ASKMINI, and was told it is 'at the port of exit', and that they would no longer be able to track it. Still holding out hope for the Don Juan!

 

Has anyone located any satellite images of the port on Google?

 

This is the link for Bremerhaven web cams:
http://www.blg.de/en/blg-logistics/s...am-automobile/


Then of course there is marine traffic to track the ship. It uses google map so you can see earth version @ Bermerhaven.
http://marinetraffic.com/ais/

This brings back memories, not necessarily fond memories, but memories nonetheless. Seems that ordering a MINI brings out the OCD side in all of us.

 

Joe, if your car is at Bremerhaven, ours certainly must be. I noticed that last night a couple of cars within 20 or 30 VIN numbers of ours were loaded onto a Baltimore bound ship, so ours must be close. Based on the amount of time I've seen other people appear to wait, I would be surprised if our car is not on the Don Juan. Hopefully yours will be too.

 

There is a car about 30 VIN numbers away from mine on the Tombarra, so hopefully I am close too!

 

Thanks for the links, Fredo!

 

Well my car arrived at the port of exit today! So let's hope it's on the soonest boat headed this direction!

 

The automated line now says our car is "at the port awaiting a shipping vessel". Hopefully that will be the San Juan today.

 

where do you check vin number to see which ship the car is on, my MCS PW/B is "awaiting transport" for about a week now.

 

https://att.2wglobal.com/gstattweb/
Just enter your VIN in the cargo ID field. Everything is spelled out in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d-updated.html

 

Shark, seems that each model has their own sets of VIN numbers, which explains why our numbers are not sequential. Yours is an all4 S, and mine is a base Countryman. I believe it is the first 8 characters that determines your model.

 

Looks to me as if cars with all matching digits except the last 5 numbers are not built in numerical order either. While there's definitely some relationship to the build order versus VIN numbers, it looks like they are running multiple numbering schemes...and you may be correct, that may be related to specific model. While in general the numbers tend to increase with build order, I'm guessing there's something else that determines the last few digits...I was thinking perhaps the order in which the vehicle orders are accepted from the dealers by BMW, or something like that. Clearly the VIN numbers are not selected at random either, but it's definitely not determined by the build order on the assembly line. Would be interesting to know. There's a good post in the First Gear section of the forum that discusses what the different VIN digits mean. Much of it is accurate to the Countryman, but some of it definitely is not. Like most (if not all) other vehicle manufacturers, certain digits are related to the model, engine, transmission, model year, country of manufacturer (looks like Minis are coded to Germany despite being assembled in England and Austria), and whether the vehicle is set up as left or right hand drive.

 

Use this link to see a live webcam of the Don Juan being loaded. It's the ship on the left.

http://www.blg.de/en/blg-logistics/s...am-automobile/

 

Just looked, and the ship on the left looks like it's being pushed by a tugboat out to see. Is it all loaded and leaving?

 

Yes, I was right, it is just about gone now. Still no sign of my VIN number.