Honestly, it all ranges. I had my VIN for 5 weeks before my car arrived, others have gotten their VIN 2 days before delivery - online at the tracking. It all depends on how long after receiving the VIN, the dealer calls you and tells you that it is available. In my instance, I know my dealer called me as soon as the paperwork became available. Hope this helps. I'm assuming the average is 3 weeks.

 

The trick to the whole thing is knowing when the VIN was populated in the report. VINs are recorded when the cars are loaded onto a transport ship and headed East. They show up a day or two later in the report.

Now, if your dealer checks on a daily basis, you can do the math to figure rough estimates of when your car will hit the docks. (Three weeks to CA, Five weeks to East Cost)

If OTOH, your dealer doesn't check the report that often, you may not be able to do any better than the estimated delivery date shown on the report (which has been a little later in most cases).

Also, add into this that the longshoremen are locked out of the west coast ports, and you're looking at a delay of however long it takes to resolve the labor dispute, then process the backlogged cargo, and eventually get up to schedule.

 

The VINs are posted after the ships leave Yokohama. As stated heare already, it is important to know when the VIN first appeard in the system. Once this date has been established it takes fifteen to seventeen days for the cars to arrive to the West Coast. Then it becomes a little of a guessing games because much depends on any accessories that may need installation such as kickplates, spoilers and the like. My car arrived early last week and has been sitting in port awaiting kickplates. Today I spoke to the West Coast Regional office and asked that they ship it to my dealer as is. ETA is now three days.

For strike information and shipping schedule see this other thread
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....&threadid=7070

 

The fleet manager at Douglas Nissan of Orange told me that the VIN shows up approx 2 weeks before delivery.

 

9 days for me!