Frank Wulfers

Back in the USA

Tracking the car
June 9, 2006

It was too bad I was not able to take the car with me on the plane but that would probably cost more than the purchase price of the car. So the waiting starts..

Fortunately, there is a way to track the car and find out how it will make its way across the ocean. Most Saab vehicles are shipped by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. To find out more about the shipping schedule for your car, go to the tracking page:

1) go to www.2wglobal.com
2) click on Customer Centre and Cargo Tracking
3) click on Auto Cargo
4) enter your vehicle VIN in the Cargo ID field.
5) Click on Track and you will see the name of the vessel, port of origin and destination among other things.

My vehicle shows up as:



On the website, you can click on the Voyage number to see details about the schedule, including the ports this ship will visit.



My car will be put on the vessel in Southhampton in about 10 days and will arrive on June 12th at Port Hueneme north of Los Angeles. So it seems the estimate of 6 - 7 weeks after drop-off in Europe is an accurate estimate.

Archive picture of Isolde



On the boat
June 19, 2006

The car has been loaded on the ship. It's still a long time away before it reaches California but at least it's moving again. Every day a little bit closer.



Arrival at the port in the USA
July 12, 2006

At last, she made it to shore in California.



Arrival at dealership
July 18, 2006

Almost home. It arrived at the dealership in Mission Viejo waiting for the finance check clearance (they were a bit slow in cashing the check from 3 months ago..), clean up from the long trip and a quick visit to the service department to have the daytime running lights disabled.

Delivery
July 21, 2006

At last, today is the day for picking up my car at the dealership. After signing the necessary forms, I could finally drive my car again that I dropped off in London exactly 7 weeks ago. It seems more like 7 months! It took 20 weeks from order to delivery in California so you definitely need patience with the European Delivery Program.

Would I do it again? Most definitely. It might not be the fastest, most expensive, most exclusive car in California but how many people do you know that toured the factory where their car was made, have driven their own car along glaciers in Norway, crossed the Oresund link from Sweden to Denmark, experienced the autobahn in Germany, driven along the canals in Amsterdam, crossed the North Sea, visited ancient castles in Wales and photographed their car with Stonehenge in the background?

What a trip, I can't wait to do it all over again some day.