Subaru Car Shipping Question...

[BPanda]

Ok, it's getting close to the time my salesman said the car is supposed to be in but they can't tell me a date. I'm curious why... I can buy a $100 item from Japan and can trace it city to city all the way to my door and they can give me a good idea when it's going to arrive usually within a day, but Subaru can't tell me where a $27,000 car is? I don't know, just doesn't make sense to me, you'd think they'd want to know where it is too.

[YorkWRX11]

Just hang in there.... You'll eventually get it

[Tizza Dean]

It sucks waiting, but well worth it! Just got to play the game.

[squiRe2001]

Geeze BPanda I figured you woulda had it by now!

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[BPanda]

You guys all know how awesome these cars are, can't wait to have mine, trying to be as patient as possible... I just don't understand how Subaru can't tell me where their $27,000 car is though. I just find it to be very stupid on their part to not know where their cars are or, for some reason, they just don't want to say...

[Anub1s]

Speaking as somebody in the transpacific shipping industry, though this applies to the industry as a whole, it isn't necessarily the fault of Subaru for not knowing where every single car is. Car shipments are handled very differently from any other frieght, unless the cars are shipped in closed containers. Typically manufacturers ship via RORO (Roll On/Roll Off) which means the car is driven on and off the ship, which means that thousands of cars are shipped at the same time, and that makes for a tracking mess. Your car isn't shipped all on it's lonesome, even when it's being trucked, so someone having to track one specific car for you would be a nightmare, and waste time much better spent elsewhere so that your car actually DOES make it to you.

[KronosPerformance]

Speaking as somebody in the transpacific shipping industry, though this applies to the industry as a whole, it isn't necessarily the fault of Subaru for not knowing where every single car is. Car shipments are handled very differently from any other frieght, unless the cars are shipped in closed containers. Typically manufacturers ship via RORO (Roll On/Roll Off) which means the car is driven on and off the ship, which means that thousands of cars are shipped at the same time, and that makes for a tracking mess. Your car isn't shipped all on it's lonesome, even when it's being trucked, so someone having to track one specific car for you would be a nightmare, and waste time much better spent elsewhere so that your car actually DOES make it to you.

Very good point. I worked for this rail car company that drove GM cars off of Rail Road cars...only did it for 2 days and quit...that job sucked even though it sounds easy.

[BPanda]

I obviously understand that I don't have the only car coming in from Japan. But when you have like $200,000 (assuming that you'd have like 6-8 cars on a truck) rolling around, I'd think you'd spend some money to know where it is.

[carnevino]

Bpanda, sorry if you've already mentioned this ( you have a lot of posts, I tried looking) but did you actually put down a 1k deposit on it way back in 5/14 or what? That's a pretty decent amount of time to not hear anything about your car. I'm guessing you actually did put a deposit down since you know the color, but not sure. There has to be more than just one Subie dealer close to you, have you contacted SOA and asked?

[BPanda]

Yeah, I put down a deposit. I have a VIN and everything, they just gave me an estimated delivery date of the first week in July. It was originally supposed to be in in May, but whatever. It's not that that's bothering me. Lol, it'll be bothering me if it's not here by the 7th of July though I just don't get how you can have millions of dollars worth of cars moving around the country and not having a clue where they are. Just baffles me.

[carnevino]

When I was driving up to Elk Grove from Vegas to get my new Subie, they knew a silver limited was otw but could only narrow it down to within a 4 day window. They were holding a OBP Limited for me (which was on the lot) but then while I was on the road the dealership called me and told me the silver had just rolled off the truck and did I want that one..well yeah i got the silver. My point is this, they really DON'T know, it's like how Anub1s tells it. Hang in there!

[BPanda]

Lol, if they really don't know, I find that to be ridiculously stupid. Shipping millions of dollars around the country and being clueless as to where it is just doesn't seem very smart. I guess they've been doing it like this for a pretty long time though, so it must be working for them.

[Anub1s]

I obviously understand that I don't have the only car coming in from Japan. But when you have like $200,000 (assuming that you'd have like 6-8 cars on a truck) rolling around, I'd think you'd spend some money to know where it is.

In a way, they do. If a car doesn't show up in the expected shipment, money and time is spent tracking it down and figuring out what went wrong. They track it in the sense that when it gets on the boat, it's logged, off the boat, it's logged, on the truck, logged, off the truck, logged. Missing a point in there somewhere will raise a red flag for the shipping company, who notifies the shipper/consignee. Subaru isn't going to be notified of every single event for every single car, because like I said above it would waste resources and time. The shipper(s) are ultimately responsible for tracking, not Subaru. Subaru pays heavily so that they don't have to be, and the shippers are well insured in case something DOES go wrong.

Really, it's only when things go wrong that a single car will show up on anyones radar.

[BPanda]

That works then too, could give people the tracking number or whatever of the shippers. Lol, then again, maybe the shipping company took a few dollars off the bill to have Subaru not tell the customer so they don't get a million more calls everyday

[Anub1s]

Depends on the shipping company. For mine, unless you have a container number, booking number, or bill of lading number there is no way. The last two you won't ever get from Subaru (almost guaranteed, unless you go to corporate and REALLY raise a stink), the first doesn't apply to RORO shipments.