My dealer stated he will have my VIN in about 2 weeks.

Does this mean it will likely ship from Japan at that time?

I thought I remember someone saying that VINs only become available when they are loading the car on the boat.

 

And does anyone have an idea of how long it takes a car to reach a dealership from the time it's loaded on the ship?

I can add or subtract a few days on my own for dealership location relative to the port location. At least I'd like to think I can.

 

if we order one from japan it takes 2 months to get a vin after the order # is produced. what dealers do is if a vehicle is already in sea in transit we can swap with another dealer before it reaches the port which occurs if both dealers accept the trade. you lucked out then because I a few cars I tried to find earlier for some clients and no luck.

 

My buddy and I ordered ours at the same time and he got his 1 month before I got mines. The difference in the cars is that his was AT and Blue Slate, while I chose the IP MT. We ordered on Nov 1, I got my VIN on Dec 21, was told that the car arrived at the port on 1/6 and I finally picked it up from the dealership on 1/16.

 

VINs are released when the cars are on the ship enjoying their cruise across the pacific. Once enroute, all loaded cars' VINs are released.

 

That's what it sounds like. All I know is the last week was especially hard to wait. Seemed like all I did was visit this forum to help past the time.

 

My experience was so different with BMW, the VIN# was generated as soon as the order hit the body shop, and the info was given to the customer. I felt having the VIN# enabled me to track the vehicle myself on the shipping carrier (technically the CA was needed to confirm which ship the car was on, but I found it could be done if one guessed the carrier right and punched in the VIN as there are only so many carriers used), and also to get the car insured ahead of time and a quote generated. The oddest thing I noticed was that the VIN on the BMW existed in Carfax before the vehicle even left Bremerhaven, Germany.

We live in such a self-service world today, I think letting the customer track their car saves money for the mfg. But I guess it may also make the sales dept. to somehow lose their power or control, so maybe Infiniti doesn't want the customer to have the info w/o the dealership giving it to them.

 

Nice! Looks like we'll be taking delivery on the same day!

 

You did my pet peeve

VIN# = Vehicle Identification Number Number

 

I think he was kiddin' about VIN# .....
And you changed all occurrences - nice -- someone has way too much time in their hands

 

Yeah I know what you mean -- I kinda go in and out of that zone myself !!

 

Yeah I was just kidding

 

I like when people ask for PIN #'s too

 

How about when you get a reservation NUMBER for travel and it's a bunch of letters.

 

Treacherous,

You going to love the Lakeshore/Stone...I can't get enough of mine!