For those just joining waiting for your cars here is our road to motoring.
9/23/2008 placed order for week 40 spot
9/27/2008 production started
10/3/2008 production done
10/4/2008 recieved at port 8:14
10/10/2008 loaded on Tombarra 13:54
10/10/2008 set sail
10/23/2008 discharged in Brunswick at 23:15
10/25/2008 Started VDC processing
10/27/2008 Released from VDC
10/28/2008 arrived at dealer 13:30(we say her come off the truck)
10/29/2008 ready at dealer 15:00 ,handed over to us 17:00(thanks Neil and Global MINI for the quick prep).
Notes:
Owners Lounge
it can take a while for the correct car and option info to show up.
the options under review order detail come and go
the status can be up to a week behind
if you check it enough times it will change to what you want it to be
WW shipping cargo tracking
did not show info for VIN untill the 9th. At that point it showed booked on 2nd and recieved on the 4th.
discharged did not show up till 15 hours after it happened.
tracking accross the pond
our ship did not send weather report so http://www.sailwx.info did not help
other sites will show the ships when they are close to some ports.
http://www.marinetraffic.com
http://www.vesseltracker.com
it may seem like forever but one day the OL will show this(ours did not change till after we got our car, it was stuck at enroute till today then went to at VDC and just late tonight at Dealer)

 

I was a week 40 build/Tombarra passenger too and my time line was similar to yours (though I placed my order the first week in September). I lost track once my car was discharged from the ship in Jersey City; just curious, how were you able to track the VDC processing and release dates?

 

Thanks for the detailed write up SnP.

 

I was a real pain in my MA boot . I called ever day for an update on the status once the ship got to brunswick.