Does anyone who had a factory order remember how long it was between status 30 and 40?

We were told ours was in transit last Friday and believed it was on the boat, but found out Monday it was at status 30 (waiting at port for a boat). Spoke to dealer today and he says there's no update and he won't get another one from Fiat until Monday.

I've signed up to a marine tracking website and am following any Grimaldi ro-ro carriers that visit the port lol.

The Status codes can change a little bit sporadically at times, but as rule you're looking at about 2 weeks from the Port in Italy to the UK Port. The UK Port is normally Royal Portbury Docks near Bristol.

One thing that would throw me occasionally when I used to order Fiats & Alfas for work was that the status could show 'at port' then 'in transit' then go back to 'at port'. Apparently that was because cars built outside of Italy (including the 500L) went from their country of manufacturer into Italy, then got the boat with the Italian cars to the UK. Not sure how accurate that was, but if that's the case with your 500L it might add a few days to the time. It might also explain why your dealer saw the status 'in transit' and then found that it'd jumped back - it might not actually have jumped back, might just have been at the first port from Serbia to start with and now be at the Italian port!

I reckon it'll be with you within the month, at best 2-3 weeks.

Thanks for that, nice to hear from someone with a bit of insider knowledge.

I assumed that once on a boat it would stay there until reaching Portbury with some stops along the way. Interesting to hear that it might be moved onto a different one at some point.

I've been watching one particular ro-ro ship which left Bar, Montenegro 2 days ago and appears to be the only ro-ro ship that has docked there this month, so I thought it seemed likely our car was on it. Interestingly, today it docked at Civitavecchia which I believe is where the 500X is exported from. I wonder if ours is going to hitch a ride with a few 500Xs on a bigger ship.....

SuffolkBexx said:

I've signed up to a marine tracking website and am following any Grimaldi ro-ro carriers that visit the port lol.

Click to expand...

I dread to think what you were like leading up to Christmas lol

chips1 said:

I dread to think what you were like leading up to Christmas lol

Click to expand...

Patience isn't one of my strong points lol.

Hubby is going in to sign some paperwork on Monday. I'm guessing the dealer thinks it won't be too long if we've reached that stage.

Lol it's understandable. Have had a look through my emails when we purchased the car and this was a response I had back.

There is no exact timescales given by Fiat. Once it is status 35, I would expect it to arrive in the UK with 7-10 days. I will keep you posted and will continue to check daily for updates.

The last bit never happened lol, I think I too might have been a little impatient

chips1 said:

Lol it's understandable. Have had a look through my emails when we purchased the car and this was a response I had back.

There is no exact timescales given by Fiat. Once it is status 35, I would expect it to arrive in the UK with 7-10 days. I will keep you posted and will continue to check daily for updates.

The last bit never happened lol, I think I too might have been a little impatient

Click to expand...

I suspect our dealer might be finding us a tad annoying lol, hence telling us there would be no updates until Monday. To be fair, he's been calling us every Friday with an update, even if just to say there's no news.

What's making me particularly impatient is that with the Easter holidays coming up it would be lovely to have the new car to take our kids places with. Our Panda is great, but it would be nice to have something else in the boot other than just the pushchair lol. Heck, we'll be able to go grocery shopping with the kids at the same time!

Don't think that's likely though as we're only a week away from Easter. Will probably get it just as my eldest goes back to school lol.

SuffolkBexx said:

Will probably get it just as my eldest goes back to school lol.

Click to expand...

Always the way lol.


At least your dealer is calling every week even if it's not good news

Apparently it's now on the boat and about to dock at Portbury! :slayer:

Not going to get it until early to mid April though due to Easter holiday.

At the dealership, they have a shiny new 500L in the colour we've chosen and it was so nice to see it in the flesh for the first time - in real life you can see it's mostly blue with a little hint of green which doesn't really show on photos. Definitely picked the right colour.

SuffolkBexx said:

Apparently it's now on the boat and about to dock at Portbury! :slayer:

Not going to get it until early to mid April though due to Easter holiday.

At the dealership, they have a shiny new 500L in the colour we've chosen and it was so nice to see it in the flesh for the first time - in real life you can see it's mostly blue with a little hint of green which doesn't really show on photos. Definitely picked the right colour.

Click to expand...

At least that's some good news for you in a sense.


Lets hope there is nothing wrong with it when it arrives, you know big dents and the sorts......I'll stop typing now lol


Joking aside though I hope you enjoy it when it arrives.

chips1 said:

At least that's some good news for you in a sense.


Lets hope there is nothing wrong with it when it arrives, you know big dents and the sorts......I'll stop typing now lol


Joking aside though I hope you enjoy it when it arrives.

Click to expand...

I fear I'm going to go over it with a fine-toothed comb when it arrives lol.

Dealer did say he would get it to us as quick as possible and he's been pretty on the ball so far. Or he could just be keen to see the back of us.

Hubby needs to call him again though. Just got an email advising us the 7 day free insurance starts tomorrow, so we need that postponed as we need to leave our current insurance on the Panda until we've exchanged cars.

I hope my new car is on that boat too! Any idea when the boat arrived? I drive over Avonmouth and Portbury docks daily and this morning noticed loads of Fiats literally under the M5. When I came home I was stuck in traffic on the M5 and could see two huge car transporter ships. I did hope that one had Fiats on!

I was told my car was status 30 when I ordered it last Tuesday. Fingers crossed

cctesta said:

I hope my new car is on that boat too! Any idea when the boat arrived? I drive over Avonmouth and Portbury docks daily and this morning noticed loads of Fiats literally under the M5. When I came home I was stuck in traffic on the M5 and could see two huge car transporter ships. I did hope that one had Fiats on!

I was told my car was status 30 when I ordered it last Tuesday. Fingers crossed

Click to expand...

Hi cctesta, sorry I didn't spot your message yesterday. Great to have a waiting buddy lol.

I'm honestly not sure if the dealer was accurate by saying the boat was about to dock imminently as it doesn't match any of the boats I'm following. Basically, only one ro-ro ship (Eurocargo Livorno) has docked at the port of Bar in Montenegro (where all 500Ls are shipped from) in the last 3 weeks - on the 15th of March to be exact. That boat then docked at several ports in Italy and turned back around to repeat its course.

Going by what Liam told me above, I believe my 500L (and probably yours too!) was dropped off at the port of Savona in Italy. Since then, 2 ro-ro ships have docked at Savona and I suspect one of them has our cars on it.

Those ships are the Grande Mediterranean and the Grande Roma. The former is currently on it's way to Portugal and will arrive there on the 24th. The latter is currently on its way to Valencia in Spain. By my estimates, if it's on the former, it should come to Portbury around Easter Sunday, depending on how long it stays docked in Portugal.

There is another ship (Grande Ellande) due to dock at Portbury in just a few hours. As lovely as it would be for our cars to be on it, I don't think they are as it left Savona couple of days before our cars arrived there.

All the ships I've mentioned are owned by Grimaldi Lines, which is partnered with Fiat to transport their cars. If you go to www.marinetraffic.com you can search for those ships and see exactly where they are. I signed up for a free trial of their subscription service to get more detail.

As you can see, I've spent far too much time trying to find where my 500L is lol.

EDIT / I've just seen you're getting a Panda, not a 500L. So that means our cars won't have started their journey together. They might be on the same ship, but as yours was made in Italy, it may have managed to get on the boat that's about to dock at Portbury (Grande Ellande).

I'm exactly the same, trying to track it and looking at the movements of ships on marine traffic. I did exactly the same when I bought my Mercedes.

When I ordered mine last Tuesday I was told it was at status 30, so already built and awaiting transport. The dealer called me last Friday and said it was on its way, I'm definitely sure the words 'in transit' were used. I'm going away next week until the 5 April and I'm hoping to pick it up after that.

The dealer was 95% sure that the timing was realistic and it should be available to collect from the 5th.

I'm waiting on a Panda. It'll be a second car. I found this post by searching Staus 30.

Oops, looks like I edited my post too late lol. I'd just spotted you're getting a Panda and added some extra info as our cars are made in different countries.

It's very likely yours will arrive first as it's skipped a step that mine has to take (being transported from Serbia to Italy). You're going to be itching to get back from your holiday to go pick it up lol.

BTW, we're trading in a 2014 Panda for the 500L. I will miss it dearly.

My mum has a 2006 Eleganza Panda and she loves it. She lives on the Isle of Wight and the roads there are shocking, so no good for my Mercedes. I have bought the new Panda for her primarily but also to use when I go over there. I am really excited to get it. I originally wanted the Panda Easy + but there was no stock. The deal on the Panda Lounge was phenomenal so I went for it and in the preferred colour, black.

I'm looking forward to having a drive in it. I didn't test drive it as I knew it would be better

cctesta said:

My mum has a 2006 Eleganza Panda and she loves it. She lives on the Isle of Wight and the roads there are shocking, so no good for my Mercedes. I have bought the new Panda for her primarily but also to use when I go over there. I am really excited to get it. I originally wanted the Panda Easy + but there was no stock. The deal on the Panda Lounge was phenomenal so I went for it and in the preferred colour, black.

I'm looking forward to having a drive in it. I didn't test drive it as I knew it would be better

Click to expand...

I'm sure your mum is going to love it! I've no experience of the older Panda, but the current model is awesome, I smile every time I'm in it. We have the twinair engine which is a little firecracker and as you can see from my avatar we went a bit bold with the orange lol. Will definitely be sad to see it go, but we really need more space so have to move on up.

The 500L and the 500x were both in the showroom last week. I was really impressed with the styling and the quality feel of both cars. I'm sure you will love it when it arrives. The 500L reminds me of Peter Kay's Car Share as he had a red one.

Wow that is a bold colour!! What colour is you new car?

cctesta said:

The 500L and the 500x were both in the showroom last week. I was really impressed with the styling and the quality feel of both cars. I'm sure you will love it when it arrives. The 500L reminds me of Peter Kay's Car Share as he had a red one.

Wow that is a bold colour!! What colour is you new car?

Click to expand...

I only watched Car Share because it starred a 500L lol!

We've gone for jazz turquoise as we do like strong colours lol. Would have loved yellow, but that's only available on the Trekking model.

We test drove the 500X, but it didn't wow us as we were expecting, so tried the L and it was perfect. They are both very nice cars in their own ways.

Some reviewers have said the Panda feels a little cheap inside, but I've never thought that. It's got some lovely little touches, like the squircles and the panda lettering on the door plastic. Feels solidly built and the seats are nice and comfy. No complaints at all really, only that it's not big enough for our needs.

Turquoise is a lovely colour. I like good, strong, bold colours on cars too, makes them stand out. I remember about 5 years ago looking out over my works car park and thinking that every car was just a shade of grey, it was so dull to see. I then bought a car in electric, speed blue to inject some colour. :slayer:

I've added those three ships you've mentioned to my fleet so will watch their progress