During a weekend of driving the other half around all the dealerships in the immediate area to help her decide on her next purchase, we ended up at Warrington Mazda. Not wanting to miss up on an opportunity I decided to question my dealer.

Many thanks to my chap at Warrington for this info, he went further than he needed to and restored my faith a little.

First, all Mazda car transports (PCC/RORO) arrive at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppy, Kent. Mazda has a 24 acre site there called Neats Court where it unloads the cars and performs pre transport checks.

Using this information and shipping details found on the american forum I decided to try to locate the ship the RX-8's will be on.

There seem to be two main contenders for carrier, the first is NYK Lines, the second being OSK Lines. NYK lines because they were the carrier used to ship the cars to America, however they don't seem to have a scheduled Hiroshima to Sheerness service. OSK lines because they have a large PCC/RORO fleet and do provide a service between Hiroshima and Sheerness.

At the moment I have been unable to get a PCC/RORO schedule from either website but I have found the route and shipping time. The route is via Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Suez Canal and The Med. Average shipping time is 25 days give or take a day or two.

Further informtion if anyone down Kent would like to perform spotting duties. Most NYK lines PCC/RORO vessels have a two word name where the second word is usually Leader, eg. Pacific Leader. All OSK lines PCC/RORO vessels have a two word name where the second word is always Ace, eg. Bravery Ace.

My dealer also showed me a print out from the tracking system they use in the dealership, this shows order number, VIN, car spec, delivery date, etc. It looks similar to the american system although maybe not as detailed. Mazda have said a few times that our cars will not appear on this system until the boat is on the water and I can confirm that there were no RX-8s on the printout that I saw. However other orders for Mazda 6s and MX -5s that were awaiting build were there.

I will call an Friday and ask him to scan the list again as the production run will be finished by then and hopefully the boat will be on it's way.

Sorry for the long post but I thought it was info you'd all like to hear.

Top work. keep it up!

Here here !
(A little anorak-y , but good work all the same) ;)

M.

Thanks for the information.

I wonder if Mazda will be sending information to us like the customers in the states received?

Chris

What is the sequence ?
i.e. production stops today - so some of us will have had our cars built (we just dont know who !)

Will loading start today and the ship set off in the coming days ?
Or has loading been happening all along and the ship will just go ?

How soon will Mazda be able to tell us if we are 'on the water' or not ?

What happens if we are not ? When is the next wave of European production ? It must start next week (i.e. 1 month after the last run) if the cars are only going to be 1 month behind?

Questions,questions....

Morgan.

Good work Titianium Grey. I spent half an hour this morning trying to find out the shipping information as well and narrowed it doen to those two shipping companies, although it's always possible it could be a UK shipping co doing a return journey.

Wondering if my car will be on that first boat is now bordering on obsessive!

I can't wait much longer.....................:D

Good info TG :)

It's well frustrating still not knowing whether we are in the October or November delivery slot after all these months.

If it takes 25 days plus or minus, the boat should be here by late september by my reconing. (24th Sept is exactly 5 weeks). Give them 2 weeks for unloading, customs, delivery to dealer, PDI etc and that takes us to 8th October.

So we should all hopefully be test driving a car at our dealers mid October, if not picking up our own.

Its my wedding anniversary tomorrow and it would make a nice present to myself to know my car is on the boat (if anyone from Mazda is listening ;) )

Originally posted by MarkW
Its my wedding anniversary tomorrow and it would make a nice present to myself to know my car is on the boat (if anyone from Mazda is listening ;) )

No no no!!! You have to buy the WOMAN a present. This could end in terrible tears!:eek:

Originally posted by Lensman


No no no!!! You have to buy the WOMAN a present. This could end in terrible tears!:eek:

lol @ Lensman.... Just been out and spent seventy squid on her and will be paying for a meal tomorrow night as well so all is well with the woman :)

Good job it isnt tonight though as would have had to miss Pulling Power, its bad enough having to miss the footie tomorrow :)

interesting info hopefully we will all know more very soon

Originally posted by MarkW
its bad enough having to miss the footie tomorrow :)

I have a sinking feeling that after the match has ended you'll be glad you were out with your wife and most of us will wish we had done likewise.

TG

Do you work as a researcher on Surprise Surprise??

I wonder if the container ship has set sail today?

Lets wish her a safe and speedy passage, and I hope my bl00dy car is on her!!

heres hoping there is no major cyclone or something similar to hinder its path.

heres hoping there is no major cyclone or something similar to hinder its path.

just spoken to the mazda muppets,


still no news as to what is on board the ship but i was reassured (if its really worth it) that if i ordered in February like most of us here we should be in the first batch. (wonder what really is on board? 1000 crates of sushi perhaps) Mid November is now a more realistic delivery date but still Mazda refuse to give any actual dates.


She did indicate that EP numbers is in no way a determining factor about who gets theres first. It is just a way of recording orders.