Arrival date speculation
 

There is a posting about the First 86er"s cars in port awaiting processing to dealerships, so that suggests to me that the Gumma factory's output, or at least half of it, is about to hit our shores very soon.

Also, within the same logic, it suggests that the April 20 date is the intended target date to arrive at US ports with delivery dates beginning in early May. (I wonder if ships carry different makes of cars, and if so the Subies may already be here) I think my BRZ should be in the second round of shipments based on my dealer's allocation over seven months. I still think it will come in early June.

I spend too much time thinking about these matters.

I doubt they will arrive at US ports on April 20th. They might leave Japan on April 20th, but it will be a few weeks before boats start arriving at US ports.

My guess is that it's too good to be true when they say early May, if we are lucky mid-May, but probably putting this into perspective...late May.

A few weeks? More like a week to two depending on the speed of the cargo ship, but lots of things can tie containers up once they reach the destination port.

Maybe a week to the west coast. Definitely at least 2 weeks going to the east coast.

I would assume these will all be going to go to a west coast port(s) and then go via ground to dealerships. So if that's the case about a week port to port. As for time to your individual dealership that may is going to vary a lot.

Possibly. I know Subaru has a port in Baltimore, MD...so I don't know if they will use that for east coast cars or do like you said and have them transported by ground upon arriving on the west coast. I'd imagine that ground would take longer than just having it carried by ship. I guess it just comes when it comes though, lol.

Anyone have any information on the shipping companies / vessels used / ports / etc? I know that Subaru ships to Vancouver, WA and uses Auto Warehousing Co. (AWC). I think they have another point of entry in California somewhere as well as one in Baltimore, MD.

What's the closest port to the Gunma prefecture? Does Subaru ship out of a singular port, or do they go for the ones with the nearest proximity to their factories? Prior to switching over to the BRZ and FR-S the factory produced the Subaru Sambar. If Subaru does have a specific port they ship vehicles from the Gunma plant out of, you might be able to deduce FT-86 shipments from that.

edit: based on this, my best guess would be that they all ship out of Tokyo

edit2: some resources to poke around on:

• Port of Vancouver USA
• APRS
• JOC Sailings - Sailing Schedules
• ShipmentLink Shipping & Transport
• Intermarine USA

edit3: Westwood Shipping Lines has the Westwood Victoria departing Tokyo tomorrow on April 18th and arriving in Vancouver, WA on May 4th. Route 057E. As far as I know Subaru is the only company with a distribution center in Vancouver. Probably grasping at straws, but we can always hope :)

Seems legit.

There's always the chance that the Westwood Victoria isn't carrying cars, but if it is they're almost guaranteed to be Subarus

I'm pretty sure dealerships will see their initial cars in mid to late May.

if they come through Vancouver, WA i should get mine quickly after hit the port since i am so close...

I have a feeling i wont see a brz till june or so

[FRS 1st86 Guy here] OP of that thread later found out that it was getting ready to be loaded on the ship, not actually in the US yet.

When we attended the 1st86 event, it was relayed to us that the shipping time for Toyota/Scion was 4 weeks to the East Coast and 9 days to the West Coast ports (East Coast has to take the long trip around South America, can't go through the canal).

Scion was shipping East Coast ones first, then West Coast so that they could get the 1st86 delivered in about the same time. Per the thread mentioned above, a Toyota regional manager is saying the goal is to have all 1st86 delivered by 5/18.

No idea what bearing if any that has on BRZs but thought I'd relay it along as part of the speculation here.

Info
 

This was just posted on another site thought I would share it, you never know somewhere in all this stuff lies the truth.

Re: Have you heard from your dealer on delivery

I got this note from my dealer yesterday - note this was unprompted!


Latest update I received from my local rep is the first shipment of BRZs shipped out last week. Typically, when a ship is 14-days from port, the inventory is visible to Subaru of America and then they give us delivery ETA dates on every unit on the ship. He expects our delivery ETAs to appear sometime in the next 1-2 weeks. The minute I see an ETA I will contact you.