# When is deadline for PCD



## Dabears (Feb 22, 2016)

Must you decide on PCD at the time you order your car? Or is there a deadline after your car goes into production where you can decide you want to pick up in Spartanburg?

UPDATE - You can schedule PCD as long as your vehicle has not yet cleared VPC assuming your vehicle is being shipped to an East Coast port. BMW will be able to truck your vehicle to PCD from ANY of the East Coast ports, even if the ship doesn't have scheduled stops in Brunswick/Charleston. Also, if you schedule PCD, but can no longer make it to South Carolina for pickup, you can cancel free of charge prior to the car clearing VPC. Hope this helps anyone else seeking these answers in the future!


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## tturedraider (Nov 11, 2005)

Dabears said:


> Must you decide on PCD at the time you order your car? Or is there a deadline after your car goes into production where you can decide you want to pick up in Spartanburg?


You should decide as soon as possible. The whole thing has to be completely set up before the car is assigned to a ship. It needs to be on a ship that unloads at Brunswick, GA.

You also need to do it quickly to get as close as possible to your preferred date. Doing PCD has the potential to delay your delivery a little. It depends on how many deliveries they have scheduled around your preferred time frame.

PCD is totally worth the extra effort. It is something you will talk about long after the experience. Also, it's so easy to fly Southwest from Midway straight to Spartanburg. And the drive back isn't bad.

I imagine since you're in this forum you're aware BMW picks you up at the airport, puts you up at the Marriott, including dinner and breakfast, picks you up in the morning, and provides lunch during your delivery experience. All at no extra cost to you or your dealer.


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## Ninong (May 20, 2014)

Dabears said:


> Must you decide on PCD at the time you order your car? Or is there a deadline after your car goes into production where you can decide you want to pick up in Spartanburg?


You should do it as soon as possible. Your order has to be modified and you may not be able to do it once it enters its production week.



tturedraider said:


> You should decide as soon as possible. The whole thing has to be completely set up before the car is assigned to a ship. It needs to be on a ship that unloads at Brunswick, GA.


I believe cars that are ordered for PCD are unloaded in Charleston. Only cars that were ordered for European Delivery with redelivery at the PC are unloaded in Brunswick.


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## Wine-O (Feb 17, 2010)

Ninong said:


> You should do it as soon as possible. Your order has to be modified and you may not be able to do it once it enters its production week.
> 
> I believe cars that are ordered for PCD are unloaded in Charlotte. Only cars that were ordered for European Delivery with redelivery at the PC are unloaded in Brunswick.


Charlotte? Maybe you meant Charleston?


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## Ninong (May 20, 2014)

Wine-O said:


> Charlotte? Maybe you meant Charleston?


:rofl:

Yes, I certainly do.


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## Dabears (Feb 22, 2016)

Thanks everyone. I'm undecided on whether to do PCD. I want to, as I know it would be great but I have a few obstacles...

1. I ordered the car 2/26 and production is scheduled to be completed 3/7. This is great but it sounds as if I'm already "late" to the PCD party

2. I also need to take delivery by 4/26, as I have a certificate that expires at that point and I don't want to lose $1000. Without PCD I estimate the car to arrive in Chicago between March 30- April 17. PCD may push me past the expiration date (?!)

3. I'm limited on vacation time at work due to other trips. I would require a Friday or Monday delivery. I know Friday's are very sought after. Monday's, I'm not sure but I'd have to drive home to Chicago immediately after PCD to make it into work Tuesday. (I'm not opposed to driving through the night). 

I think it's unlikely this will work out for me on this one, but I'm open to being convinced otherwise lol

EDIT: what happens if I tell my CA I want to do PCD and once I hear back about the dates and they are not workable with my schedule? Can I simply cancel that portion and have the car delivered to the dealer? I'd imagine it's not hat easy. I also don't want to be a difficult buyer for my CA.


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## Ninong (May 20, 2014)

Dabears said:


> Thanks everyone. I'm undecided on whether to do PCD. I want to, as I know it would be great but I have a few obstacles...
> 
> 1. I ordered the car 2/26 and production is scheduled to be completed 3/7. This is great but it sounds as if I'm already "late" to the PCD party.


It's scheduled to be completed the week of 3/7. You could probably still add it if your dealer does it tomorrow (Thursday).



> 2. I also need to take delivery by 4/26, as I have a certificate that expires at that point and I don't want to lose $1000. Without PCD I estimate the car to arrive in Chicago between March 30- April 17. PCD may push me past the expiration date (?!)


You should have no problem with that because if your car is built next week and ships out the following week, it should hit Charleston in three weeks after that. It clears Customs in Germany, so it doesn't have to go to Brunswick and wait for Customs and Agriculture to clear it. It could still have in-transit damage that might delay it, so that's unpredictable.



> 3. Personal issue, I'm limited on vacation time at work due to other trips. I would require a Friday or Monday delivery. I know Friday's are very sought after. Monday's, I'm not sure but I'd have to drive home to Chicago immediately after PCD to make it into work Tuesday.
> 
> I think it's unlikely this will work out for me on this one, but I'm open to being convinced otherwise lol


The biggest issue you have to decide is if you really want to do PCD at all considering the expense of flying over there and then driving back to Chicago. It's over 700 miles, so you're looking at probably two days, right? And, you're right, Fridays are the days everybody tries to get.


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## Dabears (Feb 22, 2016)

Thanks! I just sent an email to PCD to confirm a few things for me. They seem to be very responsive. So should they confirm what I've read, I will contact my CA tomorrow. 

I would love a April 15/22 pickup allowing me to fly in Thursday night and then drive home on Sunday. A monday pickup would require driving through the evening/night with 2 drivers. Are Monday's very difficult to schedule?


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## Ninong (May 20, 2014)

Dabears said:


> Thanks! I just sent an email to PCD to confirm a few things for me. They seem to be very responsive. So should they confirm what I've read, I will contact my CA tomorrow.
> 
> I would love a April 15/22 pickup allowing me to fly in Thursday night and then drive home on Sunday. A monday pickup would require driving through the evening/night with 2 drivers. Are Monday's very difficult to schedule?


Fridays are the most popular. Mondays are the second most popular but it's really Fridays that fill up the quickest because everybody wants to fly out after work Thursday and most of them live no more than a 2-hr flight away, otherwise they wouldn't be considering PCD in the first place. Everybody wants to stay at the Marriott Thursday night and take delivery Friday. Then head out around 3 pm Friday to maybe get a couple hundred miles done before dark, leaving them all day Saturday to finish driving home. Or they can even take it slower and drive the scenic route home and get home by Sunday evening.


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## Dabears (Feb 22, 2016)

For my car which completed production on 3/7, the earliest BMW would book my PCD was 5/5. They are unable to schedule a PCD less than 8 weeks from the Production Date until the vehicle has been boarded on a vessel.


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## Dabears (Feb 22, 2016)

I am waiting for my vehicle to board a vessel to ship to PCD. I am hopeful I can bump up my PCD date from 5/5. I see others have had luck rescheduling their original date once the car is on a boat. The standard seems to be 2-3 weeks closer date? (obviously this depends on availability). Crossing fingers!


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## Lionnutz (Jul 24, 2014)

U can request for a PCD delivery even if the car is loaded onto a boat as long as the scheduled port to be unloaded at is on the east coast AND the ship has not arrived at its first US port of call. This applies to ED or non ED cars. Bmw will truck the car down to Spartanburg from any east coast port (Baltimore, ny). It's not required PCD cars be unloaded at specific ports like Brunswick or Charlestown as mentioned to qualify for PCD. Those are just the commonly used ports due to proximity. This is all from personal experience and information given to me by the PCD department at BMW. 

Having said that the earlier u decide on PCD the better. U will have a better choice of dates and minimize the delivery timeframe.


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## Ninong (May 20, 2014)

Lionnutz said:


> U can request for a PCD delivery even if the car is loaded onto a boat as long as the scheduled port to be unloaded at is on the east coast AND the ship has not arrived at its first US port of call. This applies to ED or non ED cars. Bmw will truck the car down to Spartanburg from any east coast port (Baltimore, ny). It's not required PCD cars be unloaded at specific ports like Brunswick or Charlestown as mentioned to qualify for PCD. Those are just the commonly used ports due to proximity. This is all from personal experience and information given to me by the PCD department at BMW.
> 
> Having said that the earlier u decide on PCD the better. U will have a better choice of dates and minimize the delivery timeframe.


Have you personally experienced having your European Delivery car unloaded at Charleston for redelivery at the Performance Center? I'm not saying they did or did not tell you that, I'm just asking. Do you know of anyone on this forum who has ever had their ED car unloaded at Charleston for redelivery at the PC?

Quite a few people on this forum have ordered cars for Performance Center delivery that happened to be on the same ship as other forum members who were ED customers with redelivery at the PC and their experience was that the cars ordered for PCD were unloaded at Charleston while those that were ED with redelivery at the PC were not unloaded until Brunswick, taking them longer to arrive at the PC than those cars that were unloaded at Charleston. It seems logical that if the ED cars could have been unloaded at Charleston, they would have, especially since other cars on the same ship were unloaded there.


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## Lionnutz (Jul 24, 2014)

Ninong said:


> Have you personally experienced having your European Delivery car unloaded at Charleston for redelivery at the Performance Center? I'm not saying they did or did not tell you that, I'm just asking. Do you know of anyone on this forum who has ever had their ED car unloaded at Charleston for redelivery at the PC?
> 
> Quite a few people on this forum have ordered cars for Performance Center delivery that happened to be on the same ship as other forum members who were ED customers with redelivery at the PC and their experience was that the cars ordered for PCD were unloaded at Charleston while those that were ED with redelivery at the PC were not unloaded until Brunswick, taking them longer to arrive at the PC than those cars that were unloaded at Charleston. It seems logical that if the ED cars could have been unloaded at Charleston, they would have, especially since other cars on the same ship were unloaded there.


Where did I say anything about ED cars being unloaded at Charleston?

I said it's not required for a car to be unload at either Brunswick or Charleston to do pcd as was mentioned in another post.


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## Ninong (May 20, 2014)

Lionnutz said:


> Where did I say anything about ED cars being unloaded at Charleston?
> 
> I said it's not required for a car to be unload at either Brunswick or Charleston to do pcd as was mentioned in another post.





Lionnutz said:


> U can request for a PCD delivery even if the car is loaded onto a boat as long as the scheduled port to be unloaded at is on the east coast AND the ship has not arrived at its first US port of call. *This applies to ED or non ED cars. Bmw will truck the car down to Spartanburg from any east coast port (Baltimore, ny). It's not required PCD cars be unloaded at specific ports like Brunswick or Charleston as mentioned to qualify for PCD.* Those are just the commonly used ports due to proximity. This is all from personal experience and information given to me by the PCD department at BMW.


They can't handle European Delivery cars destined for redelivery at the Performance Center through the port of Charleston, SC. That's why they go to all the trouble of taking them further down the coast to the port of Brunswick, GA and then transport them back up to Spartanburg, SC. I believe it has to do with US Customs and USDA clearance. Cars from the factory that are shipped straight to the Performance Center are pre-cleared in Germany. European Delivery cars have to clear Customs and Ag here at the port of entry, which is why they take longer to clear the VPC than non-ED cars on the same ship.


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## Lionnutz (Jul 24, 2014)

Ninong said:


> They can't handle European Delivery cars destined for redelivery at the Performance Center through the port of Charleston, SC. That's why they go to all the trouble of taking them further down the coast to the port of Brunswick, GA and then transport them back up to Spartanburg, SC. I believe it has to do with US Customs and USDA clearance. Cars from the factory that are shipped straight to the Performance Center are pre-cleared in Germany. European Delivery cars have to clear Customs and Ag here at the port of entry, which is why they take longer to clear the VPC than non-ED cars on the same ship.


Okay... Before u keep going back to harp on Charleston read what I wrote.

What i said applies to ED and non ED cars is in regards to when it's still possible to request PCD even after it has been loaded on a ship) which is the title of the thread) U can up until the ship reaches the US if it is bound for a east coast port...

I did not specifically point out ED cars goto this port or that port or non Ed cars can goto this or that port and not that one. U interpreted it that way. it is not what I said at all. All I did was say east coast port is necessary to request for a pcd if the car has been loaded. If BMW doesn't do ED cars at one port fine...big whoop it will never get scheduled to be unloaded there so it's entirely irrelevant.


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## Dabears (Feb 22, 2016)

I updated my posts based on conversations with PCD and my CA, along with input from Bimmerfest. Hopefully this helps others in the same situation as me 

My vehicle made it on the Brasilia 3/16, after sitting at port since 3/10... arrival in Brunswick 3/31. 

Earliest Friday PCD I could book was 5/13, so locked it in. Not sure if I will keep the appointment, thats 5 extra weeks to wait I am not sure if I am willing to wait.


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## tturedraider (Nov 11, 2005)

Dabears said:


> I updated my posts based on conversations with PCD and my CA, along with input from Bimmerfest. Hopefully this helps others in the same situation as me
> 
> My vehicle made it on the Brasilia 3/16, after sitting at port since 3/10... arrival in Brunswick 3/31.
> 
> Earliest Friday PCD I could book was 5/13, so locked it in. Not sure if I will keep the appointment, thats 5 extra weeks to wait I am not sure if I am willing to wait.


Cool. I'm glad you scheduled it. I actually came back to this forum to see what you decided.


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