The Waiting Game..

Good question. I know that BMW has facilities at Southampton and Immingham. The ship carrying our X3 to New Jersey made a stop at Southampton along the way. (drop off BMWs and/or pick up MINIs)

http://www.fvlmagazine.com/Article.aspx?aid=146


UK is part of the EU, so BMWs from Germany don't have to clear customs. I don't know if BMW has a VDC here, or if cars are trucked directly to dealers from the ports. They might even use freight trains to move the cars around. No idea.

Anyone else know???
 
There will be all the fitting of the interior yet Keith I would have thought... After watching all the megafactories on discovery :wink:

Mine is still just a build slot at this stage :(
 
KeithJ said:
Car Status for me is Body shop complete... Does that mean it just needs shipped?
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Sorry, no. I haven't toured Regensburg. Presumably it is similar to Spartenburg SC and Plant Oxford, which we have toured.

Here is how those plants are organized.

In the Body Shop individual panels are welded, glued and fastened together to form a Body in White. Most of the welding done by robots but there are a few spots that are done by hand. The body shop lines at Oxford are specialized. There is a compact line for the Clubman and a very compact line for the MINI Hatch and 'vert. At the end of the body shop, there is a fair amount of hand finishing and eyeball checking. -- When we toured at Oxford, I happened to see a MINI convertible body fail the alignment test. -- I suspect a convertible body that isn't properly aligned will never be assembled into a vehicle for sale.

After the Body Shop, the body in white moves on to the paint shop. The paint process is highly automated. At the end of the paint shop is a very thorough hands on human inspection. Any imperfections are repaired. At Spartenburg, the painted bodies are moved into a huge temporary storage facility. I think they only run a few colors at a time and then store the bodies until needed. When we toured, they were still building Z4's there.



This silly video was made about a year before we toured. Plant had changed some when we were there. Changed a lot more now.

Wrong plant, old Z4 but it shows body shop and paint shop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n92wyHAS74Y
 
Interesting video, I would love to go over Munich for a tour of the BMW Factory!

Anyone up for a German Beer and Beemers weekend?
 
I am with you on that Andrew, as long as you don't call the car the Zeeee 4 then you should get it organised! Haha

Would love to see where the car was built!
 
In Deutschland, man sagt Zett Vier :)

We both still say zee but I've learned to call the car a zed 4. Otherwise no one understands what I'm talking about. Even Debbie has started calling it 'The Zed'.

Debbie has a crazy busy schedule. In April trips to San Diego and London. May -- Bogota. June we are going to York. July we are going to Zee, sorry Zed Fest. I doubt I can convince Debbie to go to Regensburg in July, but maybe. . .

Calais to Regensburg is 9+ hours unless you drive like an idiot on the no-limit parts of the A3. . .
 
Does anyone know if you can track the status of your build online?

Seems like you can if you're in the US...http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/07/14/how-to-follow-a-new-bmw-from-order-to-shipping-and-to-delivery/
 
No idea for UK. This is the first BMW we've ordered from a UK dealer.

The US website is not accurate. The toll free 800 number isn't too bad. We were also able to track our cars when they were on a ship. WW lines has a website where you can enter a VIN.
 
Andrew, good man on calling it the Zed 4! Come up to Scotland and I will teach you a few scottish words that will easily confuse english people.

Tracking - No tracking for BMW uk. They had this option available 5 years ago but stopped it. Its available for the Americans.

So unfair! :headbang:
 
Blindly, the amount of time you guys talk about something you haven't got, imagine how much you'll have to say once you've got it!!! :poke:
 
Your just mad at us for getting Alpine White Z4's so your no longer the only white in the village! :rofl:
 
Yeah ok....but I'll have my pipes in the right place!!! But you'll have more money in your pocket!! :(
 
KeithJ said:
Andrew, good man on calling it the Zed 4! Come up to Scotland and I will teach you a few scottish words that will easily confuse english people.

Tracking - No tracking for BMW uk. They had this option available 5 years ago but stopped it. Its available for the Americans.

So unfair! :headbang:
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Grrr - you'd have thought they'd realise that having the system active for UK buyers would mean their sales force are freer to sell without being harassed by impatient buyers! :D :wink:

Nickm said:
Blindly, the amount of time you guys talk about something you haven't got, imagine how much you'll have to say once you've got it!!! :poke:
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We're just excited! :trampoline:
 
My car is due to be built this week (wk 9) and delivered wk 12.

Phoned my dealer earlier to check on progress and ITS ON THE SHIP!!!!

and the delivery estimate is now week 11!!!!!

Yippee!!!
 
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