I am just wondering if anyone knows roughly what a "ship" status means for my Civic order.

On 2/4 I put my name on a car that my dealer had in place with a build date of 1/24. It seemed like this build date is somewhat fluid and/or that Honda does not update the status right away.

I originally figured I'd get the car at the end of Feb or begining of March but it turns out waiting is harder than I thought.

Today I was told the status of the car is "ship" but I did not quiz the sales guy to see if there was a VIN. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas/experience whether this status means the car is on a boat or close to be.

Thanks

 

If you were told the car is in SHP status, it's been assigned, built, issued a VIN, and is in transport.

There are two things the dealer can check - one is updated daily. The first is a 'Vehicle Status Assigned / In-Transit Report'. This is a paper printout of what's coming to the dealership, and is specific to the dealership. The columns you'll be interested in at this point are 'Ship Date', 'Shp Loc', and 'Dlr ETA'

A 'Shp Loc' of 'OC' will translate to 'Ocean Transit'. It's on the boat from Suzuka (generally, it's loaded within a day or so of being built), and will be arriving at port in approx. 2-3 weeks. If you're really lucky, you'll have a two letter US state abbreviation in place of 'OC'. West Coast shipments generally arrive in Portland, SanFran, or San Diego. East Coast shipments generally arrive in Baltimore, from what I know (and, yes, they *do* ship vehicles from Japan to Atlantic ports!). Of my five new Hondas, 3 came to Portland (including the two hybrids), 1 to Baltimore, and one was built in Marysville.

From the US port, your car will be put on a rail car, and sent to your nearest 'Delivery Point'. This is a regional distribution center (usually within 50-100mi), where the cars get sorted out and put on trucks to the individual dealerships. This step is allowed up to two weeks, but they generally get it done in one, especially if you live in or near a major metro area.

'Dlr ETA' will be a one week time period (M-F) where they anticipate delivery to the dealer. When my car was updated with this info, my salesperson remarked that they would beat the end of that week with that - and they did. My ETA was marked 0116-0120, and it arrived at the dealer on Jan 18 (neither of us knew this at the time, as he was on vacation until the 21st, and I wasn't in a rush to have the car the day it came in - I should have been, given what happened to my front bumper as a result of the ft. license frame install...

The other tool the dealer has is called 'Honda Interactive Network', or 'IN' (they use lowercase 'n', btw). Using this online tool, your dealer can track not only your car in progress, but also look up the manufacturing codes for a particular car - that's how I reserved mine - it was an allocation car that we figured out the color / option code for (MagPearl w/o Navi), and as that was exactly what I wanted, my name went on it even before it was built. They can also locate any in-progress or available car in the country using IN. So if your dealer has no Galaxy Gray HCH-II's with Navi in stock or on the way to them, for example, they can locate one as close as possible for a dealer trade for you. If you haven't guessed, this is the one that's updated daily.

Generally, the dealer will tell you the car takes 4 weeks to get from Suzuka to your dealership, but most of the time, it'll get there in 3. When it does...enjoy your car. I like mine more every day

 

This was my timeline for a 2006 HCH non-navi:


Oct 23 - Ordered car from Palo Alto, CA dealer with a build date of Nov 17 but no VIN.
Dec 2 - Informed by dealer that my car shipped and received VIN
Dec 20 - Dealer calls to say car is in
Dec 21 -Picked up car

 

I know these things are all over the map but here is my timeline for my 2006 HCH with Nav:

Jan 2 - Ordered car from Phoenix dealership with a build date of Jan 18th
Jan 19 - Pick up car

 

Thanks everyone, this helps me alot.

GreenandBlue, I really appreciate the time you took to write this. This sort of detail is very good to know and exactly what I was looking for. This should stop me from bothering my salesperson again (at least for a week or so).

If I had not wanted Navi, the dealer had 3 hybrids in stock.

 

GreenandBlue. I thank you too. I had asked in a different thread about shipments from Japan but got no answer. Most interesting and logical. They cannot materialise out of thin air. What a huge logistic problem unfolds behind the calm showroom frontage. Not just the cars , but the spares (in the right number and order), the manuals etc. Management at its best.

 

Hey, new member here--been lurking for a while. I'm also impatiently awaiting delivery of my new HCH (Alabaster Silver no NAV). My serial number (last digits of VIN) is 09006. I was wondering if anyone has taken delivery of one with a later serial number than that? Just curious...

Packrat

 

Not at all. Was hoping it would be helpful. I don't work for Honda (yet), but have some good relationships with a couple of people who do.

You'll find this to be the case, at least through April. Turns out that the 'take rate' on the Navi for the Civic exceeded expectations, and Honda has a backlog of orders for Civics with it (EX, Si, Hybrid). As you may know, this is the first time that Navi has been available on the Civic series, and many buyers want this option, it turns out.

In some cases, Corpoprate changed the car to a non-Navi vehicle, just to get the car built and out in the sales channel (yes, they're allowed to do this). If the customer doesn't like the car - no problem. The dealer gets to eat it if the customer backs out. This is especially true with the Si. I don't have the exact figures of the allocation adjustments, but can look them up.

Bottom line - if you must have Navi, be willing to wait, and expect that there'll be not much dealing on the Navi cars until this situation is alleviated later in the year (I'm guessing it won't be until almost time for 'build out', though, which occurs about July).

However, if you can settle for a non-Navi car, the dealer may have *additional* cars to sell (both through allocation and cancelled orders), and if they're sitting on the lot, you're in a way better negotiating position.

A side note about colors - MagPearl and Opal Silver Blue, being exclusive to the hybrid, will take longer to arrive. You'll also not find too many of them sitting around. The next hardest will be the Alabaster, because of the two-tone interior. But if you want the Taffeta White or the Gal Gray - you're in the best position to find a deal (until gas goes up again this spring


Tulip - if you find the manufacturing process interesting, google the term kanban when you get time. You may recognize it as 'just in time' or 'lean' manufacturing. Also, do some research on 'Toyota Production System'. Interesting stuff - it seems to work for the Japanese pretty well.

 

Excellent Thread. Thanks Mark, Tulip, etc.

I have two HCH'06s on order and Mark gave me an idea for naming the 2 cars with his previous posting ( KANBAN & CONWIP ).

I live in Ontario (Canada). We don't get the Navi option and only 4 options for colours but we still have to wait to get the cars produced (about 2 months I'm told).

Do you know anything about production and delivery of cars for the Canadian market ? Do dealers in Canada exchange cars with American dealers ?

 

Keep waiting for the nav. It's a very cool system and very user friendly. The most fun I have is showing people the voice commands. They control more than just the Nav.