Thankful for a Jeep??

Went to the dealer today to drop off some paperwork and found out that our ride is gonna be in next week!

Sticker

I've been checking online for the window sticker just about every day and today it was there!  I called Chrysler and they told me our Jeep came off the assembly line yesterday!  Now if they would just ship the thing.

D1 Status Confirmed

Called Chrysler again last night, and today.  Both times they had trouble finding our info.  Yesterday they told me it was scheduled for 12/5 (a month after the date they gave me Thursday).  Today they told me 11/5.  I also got email from the sales manager at our dealer.  And I quote:

Your wrangler has been assigned a full ID number. It is in fact in a D1 status. Which means will be built any time next week. The plant is in Toledo, OH. So it should be released to shipper within 2 weeks.

The Status then will Show KZ, and the Jeep will be in Selkirk, NY. It is our holding ground for most of New England. That should happen all by the end of the month...

My best guess work at this point that your Jeep will be here the first week in December. Calling anyone by phone, and if they know how to read the routing and work screen, will only be an approximate at best.

I will keep in touch with you as our current D1 status change.

It looks half full, but I have a suspicion it's half empty...

I couldn't put it off any longer, and called Chrysler tonight.  It was my third call since we ordered.  As before, they couldn't get any information with the vin number at first.  Finally the guy was able to tell me it's status was "gateline" with an estimated ship date of 11/8!  I was trying to stop my head from reeling, along with looking through my papers for more info on what "gateline" is.  I finally found my list of build status codes and asked him if we were in D1 status (gateline, scheduled to be built).  He seemed surprised that I knew the code and said something like, "You must be looking at the same thing I'm looking at".  If I had his access, why would I call? 

Anyway, from his info, our Jeep isn't built yet (today is Thursday), but could be shipped as early as Monday!  Do they work weekends in Toledo??  I've been checking the "find your sticker" site every day, but our vin number doesn't pull anything up yet.

He did say a couple times that the ship date has a 30 day leeway, and that the dealer could get the Jeep as late as December 8, but that's still almost a month earlier than we thought, after the last call to Chrysler.  I guess I'll call next week.

"The life we live is tricky tricky
I love my home, and my family
Who's gonna love you when the
Mountains gets steep?
We're gonna make it-in a jeep"
--Iggy Pop

Update

I called Chrysler yesterday for an update on the build status of our Jeep.  It took some time, but the guy was able to tell me that it's in the system and has an estimated ship date of January 1st (Isn't that a holiday?).  Folks at the Jeep forums think the color and/or the half doors are making it take longer than it should.  At least we'll be able to save more for the down payment (and wheels & tires, and other upgrades...).  We wait for 1/1/11...

D Status

Today was allocation day at our dealer.  I got an email saying our Jeep is being built!!  We are in "D Status", which I guess means scheduled and we also have a VIN number.

Also, we've joined TreadLightly.org, which is supposed to give us a price that's 1% below invoice and a $100 rebate on new Goodyear tires.

Be a Sport

Just got back from our dealer.  They're going to order us a Sport this week.  We added half doors (of course), the tow group (which changes the rear axle to 3.73), the Infinity speakers, and the limited slip rear differential.  It's going to be about $7000 cheaper than the Rubicon.  The things we're going to get asap are the heated seats, a GPS unit (I think the Garmin Nuvi 550, which is waterproof and rugged, so I can take it snowmobiling), and better wheels and tires.  The wheels and tires are pretty cheesy, only 16", but they'll do for now.

Of all the stuff we wanted, we got the two most important things, and the things that would have been the most expensive to do after:  the Bright White and the half doors.  Everything else is either doable after we get it, or not important.  Thinking back, we kinda talked ourselves into the Rubicon, using the old line, "ah, we're getting a new car let's do it up right, what's another couple thousand?"  In a way I'm glad we weren't able to order the Rubicon when we wanted to, the extra time has helped us make a better decision.  And now it'll be easier to pay it off early.

The sales manager said he'd be able to order it Wednesday the 13th, and if we're lucky we'll have it for Christmas.  He's going to call us with the VON (vehicle order number) and then I should be able to track the progress.

Until then I can finish researching the GPS and start looking at wheels and tires.