Order - waiting - tracking and delivery experience of Tiguan 162TSI

[SnowyRiver57]

As promised in my newbie post I’ll provide a rundown of the stages over the 7 month or 33 week wait.

This is for the benefit of those (living in Australia primarily) who have ordered their vehicle and wish to track their VW to delivery.

All up the “order-to-build” took 15 weeks and the “build-to-delivery” took 16 weeks.

I placed the order for the 162TSI highline with driver assist package (no R Line, no sunroof) on 12 July 2017 and collected it from the dealer on 21 February 2018. When I placed the order, via a tender process, all 7 dealer offers acknowledged that they could supply by my target delivery date of 18 October 2017. An acceptable 3 month delivery timeframe. As I was travelling overseas for a period I sold my XV Subaru and went off overseas.

When I returned for a week in mid-September, as I had not heard anything from the dealer, I contacted them to get a status update. The sales rep was apologetic, “Sorry, but there is a problem. Demand has been such that VW has run out of driver-assist components and are waiting for the supplier to catch up. Also VW are “retooling” for the MY18 model and production is held up by this also. So I can’t give you an expected delivery time. But hey, you will get the MY18 model updates!”.

Naturally I was very annoyed as when I finally returned home in mid-October I would have NO car and NO potential date for the new Tiguan. Additionally while I was away, the sales person I had been dealing with “left the dealership” and when I contacted them again at the end of October no-one knew about my order or could find anything “on the system”. Thankfully, a thoughtful employee put me through to the Fleet Manager. He took all my details and listened sympathetically to my situation and promised to get back to me regarding the order.

The next afternoon he contacted me and provided an update on my order/vehicle; that the Tiguan unfornately wouldn’t be landing in Australia until mid-December — at a best guess; the name and details of my new sales contact, and – as I had no car — that the Principal of the dealership had agreed to provide me with a loan vehicle until the Tiguan arrived, which was not something they normally offer to new car buyers. I was very relieved and thankful as I could get around again while I waited… and waited.

It was not until the 8 November that I found out from VW that the car was built and the 15 December from the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website that the car had been loaded onto a ship.

Some key dates of the wait:

• 12 July 2017: Order placed with dealer
• 17 August: VW Australia acknowledges order (Welcome)
• 20 October: Expected delivery date by dealer at time of order
• 1 November: Build date of vehicle (obtained from documentation at dealer delivery)
• 8 November: VW Australia acknowledges vehicle has been built. (I’m built), but dealer information system indicated vehicle was “in-build”
• 4 December: Requested and provided VIN of my vehicle from the dealer as the vehicle now existed
• 14 December: Vehicle loaded on ship to Australia via UK, USA, Panama Canal and NZ. This information was obtained from the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website using full vehicle VIN. Ship schedule showed expected unloading in Brisbane on 31 January 2018.
• 30 December 2017: VW Australia acknowledges vehicle shipped (I’m on my way)
• 1 February 2018: Vehicle unloaded in Brisbane (information from the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website).
• 13 February 2018: Dealer advised that vehicle would be ready to deliver from the 18^th February. But as of today they do not yet have the car on-site.
• 20 February 2018: Drove my new “Tiggy” home.
• 28 February 2018: VW Australia provides welcome and warranty/road assist information.

Some observations from my “ordered my new Tiguan” experience:

• There is a delay between a vehicle milestone and VW notifying the owner of the event.
• My dealer couldn’t access accurate/up-to-date status information regarding my vehicle from VW.
• The only useful date about your vehicle delivery is the docking/unloading date at your closest port of the ship carrying your vehicle. This can be found on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website (Global Shipping & Logistics Solutions | Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics) from firstly using the “Track and Trace” page and then using the ship “Schedules” page to view the ship’s schedule and track it through ports. You need the full VIN for your vehicle to do this and it may take repeated searches over a couple of weeks before you get a “return ping” once your car is loaded.
• Once a vehicle lands in Australia it is held at the docks (customs etc.) for 10-14 days before it gets trucked to your dealer. Once the car lands it does not appear anymore on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website and the dealer does not know when the car will arrive at the dealership until it actually arrives. Only then is it possible to get a delivery date to you from the dealer.

I hope you find this information useful.

In my next post I’ll cover my first couple of weeks' experience with my new Tiggy.

[sharp]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately Wallenius Wilhelmsen site doesn't allow tracking by VIN numbers anymore. Do you know if dealers can see the ship name and arrival date in their ordering system. It used to be called NADCON but I'm not sure if it's still the case.

[brucea]

...I placed the order for the 162TSI highline with driver assist package (no R Line, no sunroof) on 12 July 2017 and collected it from the dealer on 21 February 2018...

Yikes. I placed my order for a 162TSI Highline with driver assist package + sunroof (MY18 but no R Line) on 4 July 2017, it arrived at the dock 14 August and I drove it away 29 August. It seemed like a long wait at the time.

Now that you've got it I hope you're as happy with yours as I've been with mine.

[spacemannz]

Ordered 162TSI + DAP 18/07/17 (No RLine, no Sunroof, like yours). Was told it would be MY18 but they had no clue of the differences
Drove away 01/09/17. I feel I was very lucky.
Dealer could tell me nothing about shipping status. VW system generated emails were fun but uninformative.

I feel it was definitely worth the wait but it didn’t seem so at the time. Waiting til Feb this year was a very real prospect - I held my old car back from sale until after my Tig arrived. Lucky I was in a position to do so.

I was most disappointed to be forced to buy the ‘option packs’ even though it was a factory order. You would think a factory order would mean I could specify individual options, as it does for Europe.

I hope you enjoy your new Tiggy as much as I do!

[dgp]

Does anyone know if the build process of the Tiguan Allspace can be tracked anymore?

[phonebooth]

You'll likely get email updates if the dealer has entered all your information in the system properly. I never received these email updates but my dealer was very proactive in providing me with personal updates. They can tell you the ship name when it departs. My dealer sent me a screenshot from their system with the ship name, carrier, origin and estimated vehicle delivery date.

Once you have the ship name you can browse to the carrier website likely Wallenius Wilhelmsen although the Allspace ships from Mexico so I'm not sure if the same carrier is used. On the carrier website you can see the ships schedule with planned docking dates for each leg on the journey. Most ports also have a live webcam service where you can even watch it unload if you're lucky (or super stalker-y).

Mine departed Bremerhaven after being built in Wolfsburg on approximately March 18th and arrived in Perth on April 4th. Delivery to me took place on April 18th @ 2.30pm. I put pressure on the dealer for delivery ASAP due to my birthday. This obviously didn't speed up customs/quarantine etc but the dealer did their part in a hurry (I'm grateful for them doing so).

At the end of the day, if you go ahead with the purchase, ask your dealer for updates when you feel like it. You've paid good money for the vehicle and likely paid a high dealer delivery charge. Make them work for it.

[dgp]

Thanks for the info phonebooth. I am definitely placing the order, just waiting on the leasing company to finalise paperwork and raise the PO. We have already established the price, the dealer has told me he has already placed the order, even though he is still waiting on the PO.

[phonebooth]

Nice one. Congrats on your purchase!

[dgp]

Nice one. Congrats on your purchase!

Thanks, I’m looking forward to the change. I have been driving commodores for years, currently driving a VFII Redline. I will miss the lazy torque but I need a more practical car (read getting older with bad back ��).
I ticked all the boxes except roof on the 162TSI. Getting Platinum Grey, I actually think the standard Tiguan colour choices are better than the Allspace (grey and silver particularly), but it it was it is.

[iDiesel]

I shopped around different dealers until I found two that had stock of what I wanted on a boat on it's way.
Then tried to get them to match the cheapest price I had received, but ended up paying $1500 more to avoid a 4 month wait for next deliveries - the tax for getting it within 3 weeks of putting the order in and the dealers knowing stock was limited - 1st shipment of Allspaces into Aus.