How Accurately Can Dealer Locate Car in Transit?

[u2jrmw]

I am waiting for my car to arrive on truck from port. What granularity does the dealer get regarding the location of the car in transit? Only reason I ask is because my salesguy is being a little vague. It was going to be here early this week, now he is hoping by Saturday, if not then the week after Christmas...

He is telling me basically that it is on a truck but he doesn't have a delivery date to the dealership.

I want to make sure I take delivery before the year end to get the federal tax rebate.

Thoughts?

[vortexjunkie]

youre in a pickle i would say try calling another dealer and ask if they have a way to track the exact whereabotus

[lbs4]

most dealers will NOT loose a sale due to a few days, im sure if you tell them your situation and you will go else where if you dont have it by then, or if you cannot make the tax date, they will go back a couple days on the paperwork. it wont affect anything at all just save you money

[u2jrmw]

most dealers will NOT loose a sale due to a few days, im sure if you tell them your situation and you will go else where if you dont have it by then, or if you cannot make the tax date, they will go back a couple days on the paperwork. it wont affect anything at all just save you money

Hmm, that sounds a little shady... I would of course prefer not to have to be in that situation. What I really would like to know is if these delivery dates are as mysterious as they claim?

[lbs4]

i know it would be better to have the car before the date, but im saying if they do get the car on the first, they wont loose a sale having the paper work say jan 1st, instead of december 31st. but i know what you mean

[AofC_RR]

Once it's on a truck we have no way of tracking the car. Really the only way to do it is for us to make an insane number of phone calls to track the trucker down which frankly is not time well spent for any party involved, thus NO. Keep in mind weather, traffic delays, mechanical breakdowns, flat tires. All of these things can delay a truck. Also trucks don't always make one stop. He could be dropping cars at several other locations.

[u2jrmw]

Once it's on a truck we have no way of tracking the car. Really the only way to do it is for us to make an insane number of phone calls to track the trucker down which frankly is not time well spent for any party involved, thus NO. Keep in mind weather, traffic delays, mechanical breakdowns, flat tires. All of these things can delay a truck. Also trucks don't always make one stop. He could be dropping cars at several other locations.

Based on various time sensitive incentives I have $2500-$3000 riding on getting the car in and paid for before the end of the year. Based on what you are saying there is no way that my dealer can know that the car will make it.

So is my best option to go a little further afield to see if I can get a matching deal from another dealer that has the car in stock? I would hate to do that at this late point, but I can't lose that much money feeling bad for the salesguy.

[hender]

most dealers will NOT loose a sale due to a few days, im sure if you tell them your situation and you will go else where if you dont have it by then, or if you cannot make the tax date, they will go back a couple days on the paperwork. it wont affect anything at all just save you money

this doesn't seem like a big deal at all. have them print up the papers by december 30th or something, so they're dated...then do all the signing and stuff when you get the car.

are the obligated to inform the parties on the exact day the sale is completed? (e.g. would you still get hosed even if the date on the papers reads dec. 30 and they send it in on jan. 5)

[AofC_RR]

I believe he's referring to the tax break. If the car is already on the carrier, IE truck then you should see it soon. You're in the Midwest so I'm not sure if the car is rail loaded or not as that's outside my area and general knowledge. But like I said if it's on a truck it can't be more than a week to get to you.

[Keith@APR]

I think they see:

at manufacturing plant
at port of leave
at port of arrival
cleared from port of arrival
in transit to dealership

[DavidB8]

I don't know.. My dealer told me the exact day they were expecting my car. And they were right on. I would think they have a bit more exposure than when it was put on a train at the port otherwise how would they know when my car was arriving?

I certainly can't see finding out that difficult if the dealer wanted to. Insane number of calls? Whatever. The trucking company would know exactly where their truck is and what the schedule is at that moment. It may change but they would know as of the time they received the call. It's not a 10 minute task but I would bet within maybe 5 calls and an hour they could figure it out.

Hell my dealer has made dozens of calls and spent a lot of time getting my deal setup and ready go. They even went as far as driving a guy 45 mins to get a $50 part just so they weren't delayed prepping my car.

I guess it just depends on the dealer and how much effort they want to put in it. It's to bad one place wow's you and another disappoints.

[NWS4Guy]

They can guestimate, but once on the truck, it depends on a LOT of things - route taken, snow in passes this time of year, how many cars on the truck destined for other dealerships, etc.

Mine is on a truck leaving Houston today, bound for Seattle. Back in Oct, several did the same route and it took exactly 7 days to get here. I would say that is one of the longest truck routes a car will take (So Cal ports in San Deigo), so it should be there *very* soon. The only dates Audi gives the dealers are what AofC_RR and Keith gave. There are other means they might have to get info like ship names, or know the carrier/driver of the truck they can check with, but this will vary from dealer to dealer.

[AofC_RR]

They can guestimate, but once on the truck, it depends on a LOT of things - route taken, snow in passes this time of year, how many cars on the truck destined for other dealerships, etc.

Mine is on a truck leaving Houston today, bound for Seattle. Back in Oct, several did the same route and it took exactly 7 days to get here. I would say that is one of the longest truck routes a car will take (So Cal ports in San Deigo), so it should be there *very* soon. The only dates Audi gives the dealers are what AofC_RR and Keith gave. There are other means they might have to get info like ship names, or know the carrier/driver of the truck they can check with, but this will vary from dealer to dealer.

That's what I was driving at. If the system says it's truck loaded there's a rough dealer eta. You never know what the trucker is going to run into in terms of delays though like he said. And no offense but to call distribution, and have them pinpoint what truck it's on. Then get the number to the trucking company, call them, have them get a hold of the truck who is NEVER going to give you an accurate reading where he is really at. I've had them tell me they were 45 min away, 4 hours later they showed up and that's on the mild side.

[Keith@APR]

That's what I was driving at. If the system says it's truck loaded there's a rough dealer eta. You never know what the trucker is going to run into in terms of delays though like he said. And no offense but to call distribution, and have them pinpoint what truck it's on. Then get the number to the trucking company, call them, have them get a hold of the truck who is NEVER going to give you an accurate reading where he is really at. I've had them tell me they were 45 min away, 4 hours later they showed up and that's on the mild side.

hehe, car transports are fun.

I once had a driver call me at 6pm telling me he was in a hurry and if I could come up to the facility and meet him around 8pm (after we are closed) he would be very appreciative. I said, sure, I only live 10 minutes away, no worries, give me a call when you are close.

Well, at 1am my phone starts blowing up. I answer and tell him sorry, I am not getting out of bed and he'll have to wait till morning.

I then get a call from the owner of the trucking company telling me either I go up there and let him in or the car we are waiting for goes to NJ and then back "sometime" for delivery to us outside of Atlanta.

Needless to say, a certain company we do business with no longer uses that carrier.

[stikillller]

i'm in the same boat, although it shouldn't take as long since my car is coming from NY to Philly ^^