How long does a Defender sit after it is built to be put on a vessel?
Three Wheeling
Joined: Apr 2021
Posts: 68
Likes: 8
Greetings ! here are my timelines and how long it took for mine from the built date to delivery:
- built date 4/9/21 in Slovakia
- transport to port departure from Nitra: 4/15/21
- in port yard for 1 week: approximate date 4/23/21
- traveled from Bremenhaven to SouthHampton ( loaded more vehicles in SouthHampton for 3 more days )
- Left SouthHampton on 4/29
- Arrived on Baltimore on 5/8/21
- Departed Baltimore 5/10 and arrived in Brunswick GA on 5/13/21
- Unloaded and in port for processing for 9 days (!!!!)
- Left Brunswick GA port on 5/22/2021
- Ground shipping to Dallas took 5 days by truck
- got it today - 5/27/2021
Now, in all honesty, there are a LOT of vehicles on that ship. About 7500 of them, and it does take a lot of time to load, balance, secure during sailing, unload, and processing. However, land transport, is atrocious. But, oh well ... is here now. And is a beauty !
- built date 4/9/21 in Slovakia
- transport to port departure from Nitra: 4/15/21
- in port yard for 1 week: approximate date 4/23/21
- traveled from Bremenhaven to SouthHampton ( loaded more vehicles in SouthHampton for 3 more days )
- Left SouthHampton on 4/29
- Arrived on Baltimore on 5/8/21
- Departed Baltimore 5/10 and arrived in Brunswick GA on 5/13/21
- Unloaded and in port for processing for 9 days (!!!!)
- Left Brunswick GA port on 5/22/2021
- Ground shipping to Dallas took 5 days by truck
- got it today - 5/27/2021
Now, in all honesty, there are a LOT of vehicles on that ship. About 7500 of them, and it does take a lot of time to load, balance, secure during sailing, unload, and processing. However, land transport, is atrocious. But, oh well ... is here now. And is a beauty !
Rock Crawling
Joined: Apr 2021
Posts: 497
Likes: 234
From: DFW
Hello [ [b]p400_au ]
Well, I had a starting point. Manufacturing date.
Then everything is pretty much out there....
1 - I got the day of manufacturing from the dealer - (starting point) and delivery date in US
2 - JLR, in Slovakia has a # of transporters ( 5 ) that they use for shipping from the factory to the port ( I was told by members of other Land Rover groups in Eastern Europe ) - based on the date and time, I figured out which transporter / carrier is, by exclusion ( others being en route with other vehicles )
3 - from here, you can kinda calculate the departure date, and you know the port where the vehicle leaves from ( Bremenhaven - LR that are distributed for the Southern US, delivery terminus is in 99% of the cases in Brunswick and / or Savannah GA )
4 - watch the date and departure port for ships type, cargo, final destination ports ( plenty of apps out there that will report that )
5 - calculate the draft of the ship ( a vehicle carrier has a draft of 10-11 m - when they reach that loading point / depth, they are ready to ship ). Based on those details, I picked mine, which was NIAGARA HIGHWAY. I was right fortunately.
6 - now here was a bit of a surprise, when they did a stop in SouthHampton UK, where they loaded even more cars. This monster ships can carry about 8,000 cars, even more some...(watch on youtube a fantastic documentary about this type of ships )
7 - due to that, they stopped in Baltimore, and unloaded some of the vehicles.
8 - departure to GA, Brunswick from Baltimore
9 - all the maritime shipping times are pretty much spot on
10 - now, when it gets on land, on the states side, it gets hairy .... forget all the logic, and timing. If the border inspection, vehicle inspection, etc is moving in a steady pace, then you get your vehicle in time, if not ... there ain't much you can do.
11 - you know the truck carrier that leaves the destination port ( GA - Brunswick ) to the destination and you can estimate time and traffic based on: weather, miles ( truck and restrictions miles ) , average speed. Based on the size of your dealership you can estimate if your vehicle will be on a train, or truck. Also distance from port to your dealership. Most of the times, it will be on trucks.
That is how I calculated it, and I think I was off by a day ... but, that was out of my control.
Yeah, is a bit of research, but what else could I do while waiting on the vehicle ?
Hope that helps !
Well, I had a starting point. Manufacturing date.
Then everything is pretty much out there....
1 - I got the day of manufacturing from the dealer - (starting point) and delivery date in US
2 - JLR, in Slovakia has a # of transporters ( 5 ) that they use for shipping from the factory to the port ( I was told by members of other Land Rover groups in Eastern Europe ) - based on the date and time, I figured out which transporter / carrier is, by exclusion ( others being en route with other vehicles )
3 - from here, you can kinda calculate the departure date, and you know the port where the vehicle leaves from ( Bremenhaven - LR that are distributed for the Southern US, delivery terminus is in 99% of the cases in Brunswick and / or Savannah GA )
4 - watch the date and departure port for ships type, cargo, final destination ports ( plenty of apps out there that will report that )
5 - calculate the draft of the ship ( a vehicle carrier has a draft of 10-11 m - when they reach that loading point / depth, they are ready to ship ). Based on those details, I picked mine, which was NIAGARA HIGHWAY. I was right fortunately.
6 - now here was a bit of a surprise, when they did a stop in SouthHampton UK, where they loaded even more cars. This monster ships can carry about 8,000 cars, even more some...(watch on youtube a fantastic documentary about this type of ships )
7 - due to that, they stopped in Baltimore, and unloaded some of the vehicles.
8 - departure to GA, Brunswick from Baltimore
9 - all the maritime shipping times are pretty much spot on
10 - now, when it gets on land, on the states side, it gets hairy .... forget all the logic, and timing. If the border inspection, vehicle inspection, etc is moving in a steady pace, then you get your vehicle in time, if not ... there ain't much you can do.
11 - you know the truck carrier that leaves the destination port ( GA - Brunswick ) to the destination and you can estimate time and traffic based on: weather, miles ( truck and restrictions miles ) , average speed. Based on the size of your dealership you can estimate if your vehicle will be on a train, or truck. Also distance from port to your dealership. Most of the times, it will be on trucks.
That is how I calculated it, and I think I was off by a day ... but, that was out of my control.
Yeah, is a bit of research, but what else could I do while waiting on the vehicle ?
Hope that helps !
Last edited by Mechano2020; May 28, 2021 at 10:52 AM.
Winching
Joined: Nov 2020
Posts: 712
Likes: 248
From: Pacific North West Wonderland
Some of these push backs in delivery dates may be due to the temporary closure in Nitra:
Supply shortage in car components continue affecting carmakers in Slovakia.
First, the Bratislava-based carmaker Volkswagen decided on suspending the production of its SUV models in late April, restoring production only on May 17 due to a shortage of semiconductor components. The supply shortage then affected the production of the Trnava-based Stellantis, which first halted several shifts and later decided to suspend production completely until May 27.
Most recently, Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra announced that its production would shut down for nine days, starting May 27.
Production at the Žilina-based Kia Slovakia has not been affected, the SITA newswire reported.
This could be why my build just suffered a three week pushback delay.
Rock Crawling
Joined: Apr 2021
Posts: 497
Likes: 234
From: DFW
MORETTI
You may be right ... I was yesterday at the dealership (which I am not going to name for obvious reasons), and I overheard a conversation of one of the sales guys, that they are not even taking orders at this time for new Defender vehicles. Yes, chip shortage was mentioned as THE main reason. JLR is not a Ford, or a GM from the standpoint of mass production. They had a good stock of chips which shielded them. It appears that it ran out. Also, they are sort of a victim of their own success ... they sold more units than they ever anticipated. No, this is not from the dealer, but you can dig into this into reported sales and import records. Yes, then new Defender sells very well. There could be vehicles out there, ready for shipping, but for sure there will be a hiatus in production till late summer, or early fall. That, providing there will not be another crisis coming up this fall / winter. If that is the case, all bets are off....To give you an idea how bad things are, I sold my '18 Velar a month ago, for about 4 k $ less than original purchase price. Good for me, but this is insane. If you are 3 weeks late only on your build, you are a lucky person. Seriously !
You may be right ... I was yesterday at the dealership (which I am not going to name for obvious reasons), and I overheard a conversation of one of the sales guys, that they are not even taking orders at this time for new Defender vehicles. Yes, chip shortage was mentioned as THE main reason. JLR is not a Ford, or a GM from the standpoint of mass production. They had a good stock of chips which shielded them. It appears that it ran out. Also, they are sort of a victim of their own success ... they sold more units than they ever anticipated. No, this is not from the dealer, but you can dig into this into reported sales and import records. Yes, then new Defender sells very well. There could be vehicles out there, ready for shipping, but for sure there will be a hiatus in production till late summer, or early fall. That, providing there will not be another crisis coming up this fall / winter. If that is the case, all bets are off....To give you an idea how bad things are, I sold my '18 Velar a month ago, for about 4 k $ less than original purchase price. Good for me, but this is insane. If you are 3 weeks late only on your build, you are a lucky person. Seriously !
Winching
Joined: Nov 2020
Posts: 712
Likes: 248
From: Pacific North West Wonderland
MORETTI
You may be right ... I was yesterday at the dealership (which I am not going to name for obvious reasons), and I overheard a conversation of one of the sales guys, that they are not even taking orders at this time for new Defender vehicles. Yes, chip shortage was mentioned as THE main reason. JLR is not a Ford, or a GM from the standpoint of mass production. They had a good stock of chips which shielded them. It appears that it ran out. Also, they are sort of a victim of their own success ... they sold more units than they ever anticipated. No, this is not from the dealer, but you can dig into this into reported sales and import records. Yes, then new Defender sells very well. There could be vehicles out there, ready for shipping, but for sure there will be a hiatus in production till late summer, or early fall. That, providing there will not be another crisis coming up this fall / winter. If that is the case, all bets are off....To give you an idea how bad things are, I sold my '18 Velar a month ago, for about 4 k $ less than original purchase price. Good for me, but this is insane. If you are 3 weeks late only on your build, you are a lucky person. Seriously !
You may be right ... I was yesterday at the dealership (which I am not going to name for obvious reasons), and I overheard a conversation of one of the sales guys, that they are not even taking orders at this time for new Defender vehicles. Yes, chip shortage was mentioned as THE main reason. JLR is not a Ford, or a GM from the standpoint of mass production. They had a good stock of chips which shielded them. It appears that it ran out. Also, they are sort of a victim of their own success ... they sold more units than they ever anticipated. No, this is not from the dealer, but you can dig into this into reported sales and import records. Yes, then new Defender sells very well. There could be vehicles out there, ready for shipping, but for sure there will be a hiatus in production till late summer, or early fall. That, providing there will not be another crisis coming up this fall / winter. If that is the case, all bets are off....To give you an idea how bad things are, I sold my '18 Velar a month ago, for about 4 k $ less than original purchase price. Good for me, but this is insane. If you are 3 weeks late only on your build, you are a lucky person. Seriously !
My defender is supposed to be built in the next two weeks. Lets see if that happens.
Rock Crawling
Joined: Apr 2021
Posts: 497
Likes: 234
From: DFW
@ RobM
You can try 2 things: if you are friend(ly) with your dealer, they should give you a VIN already. I he has no VIN, and he is honest ( rare in car business ) then your car is not built. Do you have an order # ?
If he has a VIN, and he is really nice, he may give you an approximate arrival date. Now, if you are on West coast ( not sure if you are in US or not ) then all bets are off ... the ports are jammed with lots of ships waiting to be unloaded. Is really bad.
Another thing you can try - and this is if you have an order number, find a friendly dealer, in another area ( if yours has no clue ) and try to see if they can help some how. Having access to Vista can get you lots and lots of info. Only if they want to be nice to you.
Now, I am not saying or alluding that this may be your case, there are dealers out there, bad ones, that will sell the vehicle from under you to a higher bidder. Your deposit at this crazy time, doesn't mean much. That can refund it and they can mark up your build, and sell it for several more thousands $ to a willing (other ) customer. I did a comparison for my exact build, vs. what would cost to get an exact one now ( a MY22") and it comes up 8 k$ more expensive. I am not trying to scare you or depress you, but go to your dealer and ask for VIN and order # - try nicely
. Let them know you are there, and you want that vehicle and you watch it ...
If you paid a deposit, you SHOULD have a VIN by now. No question about it. The VINs are allocated about a week before the build date.
You can try 2 things: if you are friend(ly) with your dealer, they should give you a VIN already. I he has no VIN, and he is honest ( rare in car business ) then your car is not built. Do you have an order # ?
If he has a VIN, and he is really nice, he may give you an approximate arrival date. Now, if you are on West coast ( not sure if you are in US or not ) then all bets are off ... the ports are jammed with lots of ships waiting to be unloaded. Is really bad.
Another thing you can try - and this is if you have an order number, find a friendly dealer, in another area ( if yours has no clue ) and try to see if they can help some how. Having access to Vista can get you lots and lots of info. Only if they want to be nice to you.
Now, I am not saying or alluding that this may be your case, there are dealers out there, bad ones, that will sell the vehicle from under you to a higher bidder. Your deposit at this crazy time, doesn't mean much. That can refund it and they can mark up your build, and sell it for several more thousands $ to a willing (other ) customer. I did a comparison for my exact build, vs. what would cost to get an exact one now ( a MY22") and it comes up 8 k$ more expensive. I am not trying to scare you or depress you, but go to your dealer and ask for VIN and order # - try nicely
. Let them know you are there, and you want that vehicle and you watch it ...If you paid a deposit, you SHOULD have a VIN by now. No question about it. The VINs are allocated about a week before the build date.
Last edited by Mechano2020; May 28, 2021 at 07:52 PM.
Rock Crawling
Joined: Apr 2021
Posts: 497
Likes: 234
From: DFW
What does the dealer say about the shipment date ? I mean you can do my type of research, and figure out where it is, or take the dude to lunch and have him give all those details in minutes. It SHOULD be in Vista if he wants to give it to you.... really. Find the maritime shipping company ( most important ) and I can give you some hints from there.... You may have some internet digging ...but then, if it all would come into place, like perfect, it would be boring, wouldn't it ? 
