This matches what we were told too. Although, we ordered via MSSD, but timeline seems the same. Very little detail from the dealer candidly. Ordered in mid-July. We were given a build date of August 26th. September 10th, we were told the VIN (it was unclear when the car was under production). Last week, we were told it shipped from Sweden and given the ship it was on to loosely track it. Expected in port by October 10th, but customs should take 3 weeks according to dealer. We expect delivery around first week of Nov.

 

We expect delivery around first week of Nov.

What city is the delivery going to? West Coast / East Coast?

 

Not having a VIN yet doesn’t sound right if the build date was truly 9/20. I’m pretty sure the VIN is the first thing assigned to the frame/car when the vehicle gets slotted into the production build plan. At least that’s how the OSD team explained it to me - perhaps that’s specific to OSD orders but I doubt it.

As for the 8-10 week delivery time - that part sounds spot on, unfortunately. For example, I’m on the east coast (in New England) and my car was completed in the first week of July. It shipped from Sweden on 8/23, arrived in NY on 9/8, passed customs on 9/9, was finally cleared for transport on 9/15 (waiting on customs paperwork) and finally arrived the 2 hour drive to my dealer on 9/23. We finally took delivery yesterday. So, we were right in that 8-10 week delivery range. West coast deliveries take even longer - sounds like closer to 12 weeks.

 

This is great intel. So 1 month from Sweden to taking delivery in NE, means ours could be a week or two earlier!

 

The VIN gets assigned when it's built, so that part doesn't makes sense. To give them the benefit of doubt, it's possible they have someone at their dealer who tracks these things and only publishes a report every so often... so from their perspective, they don't see the VIN until later. In Volvo's system, the VIN is there when built. I think it's actually there once it's formally assigned a slot in production a few days prior.

Nothing has actually changed with Volvo's ordering process, it's just normally it's not hard to get an allocated slot, while today it is, at least for PHEV and BEV offerings. The shipping time from Sweden isn't too bad. In Pennsylvania we generally get cars from Sweden faster than we do from South Carolina. Generally while we haven't been getting enough cars... the dates in the system have been pretty accurate.

 

To give them the benefit of doubt, it's possible they have someone at their dealer who tracks these things and only publishes a report every so often... so from their perspective, they don't see the VIN until later.

For sure, I bet this is what happened in our case

 

This is for non OSD orders: (OSD orders have even less visibility when it comes to the shipping!)

Before the shortages, I often was able to see the VIN well before the actual build date. In the current climate, the VIN is assigned right before the production starts. The shipping process itself doesn't seem to have as much delay as it did earlier this year and last year. Sometimes there are longer waits to be loaded onto a ship (compared to what I remember in the past.) Although, I didn't track it so closely before all of this! Once it does reach the port, unloading and customs has been pretty quick most of the time. After that, there is a port process (involving generating the Monroney label, software, accessories, and probably a bunch more that I'm not aware of.) That often takes a couple of days to a little over a week. The biggest shipping delays I've seen of late have been once the vehicle is released from the port. There is often a delay in getting it assigned and on a truck for shipping to the dealership. I think trucks and drivers is another one of the many shortages. The ETAs we receive are windows of time. Prior to being produced (or before loading on a ship, I can't remember which) the ETA is a range of about a month. Once it is on the ship, the ETA window is usually reduced to a two to three week window.) It certainly feels vague but I get making sure there are time buffers.

 

Can anyone tell me what the "planned factory complete date" is? My car's build date was supposed to be 09/20 and I haven't heard anything from the dealer yet. It should be coming to Brunswick and it looks like there's a ship in port there now, scheduled to leave 10/04 (tomorrow) and another that will be there early next week, scheduled to leave 10/12. Is there a chance my vehicle could be on the ship that leaves today or no because of that "planned complete date"? I hate to bother the dealership and ask, but he said it would be a couple more weeks before I had a VIN so I figure maybe I will hear back soon?