So finally, things have come a full circle and I got my car yesterday from PCD. Its been a long journey but I did take the shortcut by paying a 5K ADM for an open allocation for an out of state dealer thanks Day Laborer as the wait was 9-12 months when I was trying to get on the order bank. Here is my build
M3 Competition Xdrive
Portimao Blue
Fiona Red extended
Carbon Fiber Interior Trim
Executive Package
Parking assistance Package
Laser headlights
Drive recorder
Wireless charging
Red brakes
Carbon roof
Was debating between the red extended vs full but didnt want red leather on the lower part of my dash and Im pretty happy with the extended leather. I can confirm that the door part has a strip of red leather for the Fiona Red extended option
Timeline Breakdown
8/4/2022-Status 112-Order placed for open allocation wk 36 build
9/4 – Status 150 – Scheduled for production
9/12 – Exterior body assembly begins (151)
9/12 – In paint booth (152)
9/12 – Entering Assembly Line (153)
9/13 – Assembly in process (154)
9/13 – Quality check
9/13 – Production completed (155)
9/13 – Ready for transport (160)
9/13 – Awaiting carrier assignment (182)
9/13 – Dispatched from factory (190)
9/14 – At port, Bremerhaven
10/24 – In transit (Kline Donnington)
11/11- At Port – Brunswick
11/17– VPC work order closed
11/18- PCD date give to CA – 12/5 (just one date)
11/22 – PC confirms delivery date
11/23- At dealership (PCD)
12/5 – Performance Center Delivery
There have been so many thread on ordering, tracking and PCD experience so Ill just post some updates
Ordering:
Wait times have changed and market has changed. People used to say 9-12 months wait but now many dealers even out of state ones may have open allocations. Would be best to reach out to them and place order with 3-4 dealers. Otherwise reach out to brokers in this forum Day Laborer whom I have personally used and autocompanion to see if there are open allocations available. Their commissions are very reasonable. Usually M4 can be had at MSRP or even below and M3 might still need a premium for but many are coming now @ MSRP
At Port
This is the biggest crap shoot of all. Usually M3 goes to Bremerhaven and M4 go to Zeebrugge. As from my experience, the BMW Genius nor the CA had any information on the wait times and when ur car will be on the ship except when ur car gets on a ship in which case, the Genius can confirm which ship your car is on earlier than ur CA. At port for east coast bound ships can range anywhere between 2-6 weeks. West coast ships were usually 2-3 weeks but things might have changed now. During my time (Aug-Nov 2022) the average wait times at port had been 3-4 weeks. Mine was delayed 6 wks and some were even longer. When someone is waiting for more than 4 weeks, they may briefly go into “Intransit” for a brief 12-24 hrs (or even shorter). This just means that you car is being moved from a different area of the port where the car is parked to the staging lot which is where the ships are docked. Usually ur car will find a ship within 1-2 weeks when this happens (so there is light at the end of the tunnel). Dont believe the Genius that says that ur car is being moved from Bremehaven to Zee when it happens. Thats not true !!!
Tracking
Several website are available for tracking ships. Most of them either go on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen (East coast, Canada and West coast)
https://www.walleniuswilhelmsen.com/schedules
or
Kline RORO (East coast)
https://www.klineglobalroro.com/schedules.html
You can confirm if you car is on the WW if you have a Bill Of Lading (BOL) which is usually available in 2-3 days. The BOL is provided by your CA or sometimes may be guessed. But there are posts about that. Or u can call ur genius when ur car is intransit and get the info on which ship you are on.
https://www.walleniuswilhelmsen.com/track-trace
WW ships update the Mygarage to intransit usually in 1-2 days of ur car being boarded and Kline ships are a bit late- usually 2-3 days
The free websites (most user friendly) to track ships across the ocean are:
www.vesselfinder.com
www.marinetraffic.com
www.fleetmon.com
Once the ship is out of the European coast, it can only be tracked by satellite and only Fleetmon offers free tracking. You have to sign up for a free account (just ur email and no CC info)
Usually the ships take 10-14 days to reach East Coast. WW ships come to Halifax first and then to NY/NJ
K line ships come to Baltimore and then Brunswick and so on.
PCD Experience
If you want PCD, you want to let your CA know as early as possible but it wont be confirmed in the system until you reach status 150. It will show under the order details in ur VIR. Your CA can still request PCD after that but then its more headaches but if you have a good relationship with your CA, its worth to pursue it
Usually PCD port of entry used to be Charleston but its been all over now. Majority go to Brunswick (kline) and some even have gone to NY/NJ (WW).
Usually PCD contacts your CA (or ur CA can reach PCD) once your car reaches the said port AND the work order has been completed. Usually work order is completed at VPC in 24-48 hrs at NY/NJ and 4-7 days in Brunswick and gives them 1-2 PCD dates to chose from. Some have had luck calling PCD and gotten more than 1 dates. So its really a luck of the draw. Usually delivery of PCD takes places 3-4 weeks after it reaches your Port in US.
As far as the PCD experience itself, if you havent done any of the BMW events – Autobahn or driving events, its worth the experience of the Skidpad (drifting in the wet with and without DSC) and a track event (1 mile) with slalom in the car that you ordered that BMW has in its stock (so u r not using ur car for these). I got to drive the M3 car that BMW uses. They also then go over the details of ur car and explain the ID8 software in detail (esp if you are new to BMW). The stay at the Marriot and the food are OK, but the actual PCD experience will be worth the hassle.
If you have already been to an BMW autobahn event or the driving one (usually they use I4 or IX cars these days) or the M driving school thing, then the stuff that they do at PCD is much shorter and not much different from those. The track (slalom) is pretty short and you really cant let loose unless you choose their M driving all day event package etc. The skid pad, emergency braking, slalom and off road course really doesnt do much if you have already have experienced these before but your results may vary.
If you are thinking about skipping the PCD, you can still do these things at PCD withing 1 year but there is no guarantee that u might drive the same car that u ordered (which might not be a bad thing) and the hotel stay isnt covered. Usually these are the cars used
Skidpad- 3 series M340i (same for all)
Slalom- similar to the car that u ordered – M3 for me
Emergency braking – M3 for me
Off Road Course – X5 (same for all)
Instructor driving on track with u as the passenger – M3 for all
The tour of the BMW factory (produced X3,X4,X5, X6 and XM) is good but it felt a bit mundane esp if you have already watched videos of how your car is made at Bremehaven and tracked or stalked the mygarage app constantly like most of us have done. Atleast it gives u a perspective of what happens in each state of this process in person now as ur watch them.
I really wasnt digging the off road thing. Wanted to just get my car and skip it but if you want the factory tour, you will be doing this off road as part of that group.
The hotel experience was good. People were friendly and polite esp when they knew u had come for the BMW. The dinner was good (try the Hong Hong Salmon if you like spicy seafood). The breakfast was mediocre and the lunch at the BMW performance center was mediocre too but its just like anywhere. You didnt come for the food lol.
I lost the tire lottery and got Pirellis. I have a long drive back to WI and so used Discount Tire in Woodruff to swap to DWS 06 (they had them in stock) which I ordered about 10 days before I picked up my car online. They were very good and took care of my brand new rims and packed my tires in plastic bags and loaded them into my car.
I used Extreme Auto Spas near PCD to do my PPF. Their prices were reasonable and used Xpel. Typically PPF takes about 1 day. So I would call them ASAP when you get ur PCD date and see if you can schedule it. The are super nice to work with and Sheldon is awesome !!!. You get a BMW CCA discount of 10% or they usually do a discount of $250 if you do PPF and ceramic. Their typical full frontal PPF costs about $2300.
I did get another set of wheels 827M CSL from Paddleshifterz in Germany which Im going to mount the Pirellis on and use as summer tires. Cant wait to put this beast to work once the break in period is done. I wanna thank all the Bimmerpost members whom Ive interacted with in this forum for the past 5 months and listened to my complaints and cribbing..lol. Its been truly a great forum to get urself familiar with the car and even vent ur frustrations. Good luck with ur car !!!!
More Stories
Top 10 best seven-seater electric and hybrid cars in 2023
A 1960 Aston Martin DB4 Roars Back to Life
4 Basic Principles for Taking Care of Your Truck