OmegaBob

Background: I ordered in May from the dealer allotment (dated 2/21) and my info was never sent to Mazda's database & never received any "pre-order" gifts or emails from Mazda. From the advice of my fellow forum members, I was able to get the dealer to add my name and RX8 Orders confirms that they will ship out my gifts (though they will be delayed b/c of when my name was added). Problem is that I still had no VIN#.

Well today, I just received the "Factory has accepted your order" email and this part scares me:
"...the factory will assign your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and begin production on your Mazda RX-8. We will send you a notification email with the VIN when that occurs--sometime in the next 1-3 months..."
Man... thats a long time. I was hoping to get it sometime in August...

Questions:
1 - Do you guys think that this is just a delayed email? Meaning that my car is already in the process of being built or even waiting to be shipped?
2 - If it hasn't even been built yet, any good guestimates as to how long it'll be before my 8 is here?

Thx!

jtimbck2

I hate to tell you this, but you're not getting your car in July/August. I too ordered in May, my car was built on 6/26 (I have the email that tells me so, which came 3 weeks or so after the "your order has been accepted" email), and I don't expect my car before the 3rd week in August, judging by the current schedule.

OmegaBob

Hmmmm.

Do you think that becaase of the delay of them putting me into the the system that maybe the order in which I will receive these emails is also delayed.

Meaning that there is a certain proceedure and that their computer just spits out these notifications in order.

Basically, I'm hoping that my car is already built.... I know. Iknow. I can dream can't i?

ectomort

I placed an order w/ my dealer on April 15th and received the "order accepted by the factory" email about a month later. Last week I received the "VIN assigned" and "your car has been built" emails. I trust the accuracy of the time estimates in the emails (the optimistic dates are working for me. =)

jtimbck2

One more piece of info I forgot to mention. My salesman called me with my VIN a couple days before I received the "your VIN has been assigned" email. FWIW.

OmegaBob

Thx guys!

Well.... I'll hope for the end of August... but I guess that maybe Sept is looking for realistic

Oh well....

OmegaBob

UPDATE: Remember what I said about how I felt that these emails are "delayed" b/c I was put into the databse later than the rest....

Well..... last night, I did the hack on my dealer's inventory and for the first time, a Winning Blue 8 that matches the one I ordered just showed up (plus a Tit Grey one too). I visited my dealer today after the Philly Rev-It-Up and I asked him to check out the VIN to see if it was mine or even available. He gave me the keys to one of the 8s he had outside and I test drove it while he searched.

After 20 min out (loved the car even more now!) I returned and he said that he wasn't sure but the specs do match mine... so maybe it is mine (his inv report didn't have any new info). I left still feeling the rush of driving the 8 but also feeling worried that I may still not see my 8 anytime soon.

Here's the kicker: I just checked my email and discovered a NEW email from Mazda stating that my VIN has been assigned AND the VIN matched the one I found in the dealer's inv through that hack.... of course meaning.... THAT CAR IS MINE!!! Wooooo!

Now, the question is that is my car being built or already built? Waiting to be shipped? In port?

Again, b/c of the delay with the database... I'm hoping that my car will be here before mid-August! Gotto be optimistic!

Turbo1.8

Just for reference could either of you provide that the last four (ie75XX) digits of your VIN? For example, my car 98XX will be here on 7-15 accrding to my dealer. Yeah right, bunch of BS. Just curious when it will actually be here and when they will fess up.

OmegaBob

JM1FE17N740110696

How the heck do I read this again? I remember there being numerous replies about it... but I think I'll have a heck of a time trying to do a search.

Turbo1.8

Thanks OmegaBob. I interpret your VIN as car number 10,696 whereas mine is in the 9800 range. Theoretically, they should arrive roughly at the same time. Is your August delivery based on any statements from the dealer (believe at your own risk) or from Mazda?

jtimbck2

Mine's 6779, and supposed to be here near the end of August.

OmegaBob

Turbo: thx for that bit of info. 10696 !! The date is an estimate from my dealer... so unfortunately, nothing official. =(

jtimbck: I'm going to aim for the 3rd week in August. That way, I can save a little bit more the downpayment . If it gets here earlier, then wooo hooo! If it doesn't... well... grrrrrr.

btw - are the vins based on the order in which the cars are built or are they just assigned to them based on other factors?

tuckerst33

If I were you, I would call back your dealer and ask him if they were allocated a car just like yours which is already made and on a ship to the USA. If he can find a car with the same specs, he can make you the owner of that vehicle and give you the vin #. If the car is on a ship now like my car, then you will get it in late August. I placed my order in early June. When I called the other day, they missed up my order and ordered a a different type of car. They found a duplicate car on their inventory of cars not pre ordered and gave it to me-----Good luck.

OmegaBob

tucker: I would do that... but when i ordered mine in May, my sales rep gave me a printout of all the 8s they had coming in (at the time, NONE had vins). This is the only winning blue in AT that they are getting....

According to the website inv hack, there is a titanium grey due in but I don't know when as well....

ectomort

It means your VIN has been assigned and your car is being built. You will receive another email from Mazda to inform you that your car has been built and is ready to be shipped.

That message indicated the build date of my car (20030709) and said I could expect to take delivery in 3-8 weeks, depending on the distance of my dealer from port. (Or something very close to that.) In my case, the "VIN assigned" and "car built" emails came on the same day...

OmegaBob

UGH! I just called the 800 number and asked what the status of my car is. After checking, the guy said that the order date was 6/11 and that either it hasn't been built yet or is being built. He said to call back in the second week of August to check on it's status -also told me about the 6-8 weeks for delivery after it's built.

My question now is: say that they started to build my car THIS week (7/21), what do you guys think would be a good est of when I''ll get my 8?

My hope now is early Sept.... am I dreaming?

edit: according to the web site hack, my dealer is getting titanium gray 8 with the same options as my blue, except that it's a lower vin # - 4078. I PM'd fubar to see what the status of this one is. If it's on it's way, I think I'll call my dealer to see if it's spoken for. If not... then I may very well consider getting that one instead of the blue......

jtimbck2

A followup on my 8 (vin 6779) -- both rx8orders and my dealer say it's on a boat, the ETA according to rx8orders is the last week in August. I don't know if that's the ETA to port or the ETA to me.

In other news, my dealer called me today to tell me they just got their first RX-8 in last night -- I plan to swing by this evening and take a look. :p

ectomort

It depends on when the next ship departs from Hiroshima, and time to get to your port. As I recall, transit times across the Pacific were 12-17 days. Check the archives for how long it took the first allocation cars to arrive in port at JAXPORT from Hiroshima. I don't think our cars will be subject to the same port delays (over 1 month!) that the previous allocations suffered/experienced. At least I hope not!!

The notification email I received from Mazda on 07-09-2003 said:
Since I'm in CA, relatively close to Port Hueneme, I think the earlier time estimate (3 weeks to port) applies to my car. ibfubar200 (thanks!) checked my VIN yesterday and my car is "on water" so I know a ship left between 07-09 and 07-21. It may have been on water a few days, or over a week. I'll update this thread when my status changes again (to "in port") or when I get the car. :D

OmegaBob

I just called the 800# to inquire again. I was debating on whether or not I should wait for my blue or take the titanium that the dealer was getting soon.

When I called, they informed me that my car has been BUILT !!! (build date 7/24) and that it should be shipped out TODAY (7/29). Though there is no delivery date yet, the rep there est that I should have mine by mid-late Sept (I'm hoping sooner)!!!

I will wait a few days and then ask fubar to check the status for me. Also, no email from Mazda as of today....

jtimbck2

Not trying to be pessimistic, but if your ship date is 7/29, you're looking at mid-Sept. at the *earliest* for receiving your car, if the current delays are any indication. I'm still holding out the hope that the ports will get caught up soon, and that by the time my car arrives (probably in mid-August, it's "on water" now) the port-to-dealership time will be down to no more than a week. Especially for cars like mine with NO port options to be installed.

OmegaBob

I'm planning on the end of Sept... that way when it comes before that (I hope) I will be pleasantly surprised.

btw - mine too has no port options... although I keep debating about the spoiler.....

jtimbck2

Update:

My salesman left me a message Friday afternoon to tell me that it's looking like about 2 weeks 'till my 8 is here! (You can imagine how my heart leapt when I got home from work Friday and saw the caller ID blinking the name and number of the Mazda dealership ).

My thought is this: most dealerships aren't going to volunteer information like that unless they're fairly confident it's true -- after all, they don't want to get my hopes up and have me say "but you said it would be here in 2 weeks". Does that make sense?

OmegaBob

Makes perfect sense! Here's hoping for ya!

btw - ave you tried the 800#? What did they say about your 8's status?

Keep us posted!

jtimbck2

No, I haven't gotten around to calling yet -- maybe I'll try to get a call in tomorrow.

tuckerst33

I talked to my dealership yesterday---Brown Fairfax Mazda. They told me that my car arrived at port in New jersey on 8/1. He told me that my ETA is 1-3 weeks.