BMW Shipping Woes

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Philly

Philly

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Away from all the things going on with the Detroit show, 370 BMWs bound for New Jersey were damaged in shipping

Autoblog
The carrier M/V Courage tipped at the port in Jersey City on Friday causing damage to over 370 BMWs. The ship was loaded with new 3-series and 1-series vehicles, including new M3s. Around 70 of the damaged cars are reported to be total losses with others sustaining major damage. Word is that the M3s bared the brunt of the brutality. Extensively damaged cars will be crushed while those with minor damage will undergo repair at a receiving facility in Elizabeth, NJ, after which they will proceed onto dealers. Bimmers destined for European delivery customers were also on board, although it's not clear how those buyers will be handled in the wake of the incident.

This is a particularly harsh hit to BMW in terms of the new M3 and even more so for the owners awaiting their new V8-powered uber-coupes. We'd expect this unfortunately event will lead to an extension of the waiting period many potential customers will have to endure. It also means many dealerships are out of luck for a demo car. With the M3's competition coming on strong from the likes of Lexus, Cadillac and Mercedes one can only imagine this sort of setback might steer away a few potential buyers.
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This is a shame for BMW. That is a lot of money in damages, but the delay of new cars and the M3 we have been waiting for will surely back everything up. It will be interesting to see how this get handled though. And wasn't the ship that capsized in the English Channel full of BMWs too?
 
Maybe they'll float up on the shores of various locales. (reference to Nike incident)

This will indeed delay shipping, and if the cars are pre-ordered, BMW may be in a real quandary.
 
Around 70 of the damaged cars are reported to be total losses with others sustaining major damage.
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So what are they going to do with the non total losses? Fix them and resell them? Use them as demo's?
 
A few months ago this happened off the coast of the UK... a ship tipped and the containers washed up full of BMW motorbikes in perfect nick.. people were running off with loads of them!

Oh and a container full of luxury BMW's and Merc's sank in the channel.. don't think they will wash up though! :lol:

Robin
 
Jim Prower
How on earth did the ship tip badly enough to smash up all those BMWs?
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Exactly what I was wondering too. Have the storms been that bad over there?

Bubble Bunny
So what are they going to do with the non total losses? Fix them and resell them? Use them as demo's?
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They might sell them as (damaged in transport) vehicles for a reduced cost like furniture companies do.
 
Bubble Bunny
So what are they going to do with the non total losses? Fix them and resell them? Use them as demo's?
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while those with minor damage will undergo repair at a receiving facility in Elizabeth, NJ, after which they will proceed onto dealers.
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I imagine they will be sold as wrecked/salvaged vehicles, and some will become demos.
 
Jim Prower
How on earth did the ship tip badly enough to smash up all those BMWs?
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philly cheese
Exactly what I was wondering too. Have the storms been that bad over there?
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I work about 7-8 miles from the Port Jersey Auto Marine Terminal where this happened. The weather's been somewhat windy, but I would be very surprised if wind/waves could tip over something like the Courage. Upper New York harbor is fairly well protected from the sea. Certainly the ship would have been exposed to much rougher weather in the Atlantic. Sounds to me like there was human error involved, but that's just a hunch.


*McLaren*
I imagine they will be sold as wrecked/salvaged vehicles, and some will become demos.
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Yeah. I'd say at least half of the M3 and 1ers were already demos destined for showroom floors.

As I understand it, it is legal for a manufacturer to repair a car damaged in shipping and sell it as 'new' WITHOUT disclosure to customers as long as repair costs are within a certain percentage of the MSRP.

This came up in a lawsuit years ago when an attorney sued BMW NA for respraying his car after a shunt and selling it to him without disclosure.

For the more heavily damaged ones, BMW NA has no recourse except to crush the ones they can't repair, title the fixable ones as SALVAGED, or disclose the moderately damaged cars as a USED, then 'dispose' of them in whatever manner they can. They used to have a program called 'Executive Cars' or something, where they CPO them and sell them to the public at a substantial discount. Not sure if it's still around.


M
 
They have automatic stabilization on these ships. A couple things I could think of, is that that system either failed, or that the ship HIT something, like a sandbar, causing it to tip
 
<conspiracy theory>

Maybe the Japanese have developed a wave machine and in order to keep customer from receiving their ordered cars Toyota/Lexus paid the government to destroy all ships containing these Bimmers.

It seems entirely plausible to me.

</ct>
 
Meh, a wave couldnt' do that much damage and not do any damage onshore. Beleive me, if a Tsunami hit Jersey, we'd have heard of it. Remember those stabilizers I was talking about? I'll bet they failed in some way, if there wasn't a collision with some underwater object...

[Ridiculous] Perhaps Toyota had a submarine. [/Ridiculous]
 
Car-carriers are notorious for being easy to tip over. They're light (compared to other cargo vessels) and pretty tall. It's not very surprising at all...
 
Hell, it did happen to a whole shipment of Mazda's about a year ago as well.
 
Eric.
<conspiracy theory>

Maybe the Japanese have developed a wave machine and in order to keep customer from receiving their ordered cars Toyota/Lexus paid the government to destroy all ships containing these Bimmers.

It seems entirely plausible to me.

</ct>
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Japan is an island nation.

And they Kamikaze was a wind that destroyed two invading fleets.

Coincidence... I think not!
 

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