How accurate is the Vehicle Inquiry Report?

I'm in the "black hole" period waiting for re-delivery of my ED MY12 F30. The black hole is when the owner cannot track the car -- it's arrived and been through customs, so the only system that has updated status is BMWs system, which of course, customers cannot access.

The dealer had me come by yesterday to sign some paperwork because the ETA for the car at their store was 9/1. But it was pretty clear that the car wasn't going to arrive today because the Vehicle Inquiry Report they left up on the screen while they searched for the paperwork showed that the car hadn't been released to the carrier yet. The 9/1 ETA was based on the car clearing customs five days faster than it actually did. (Though the shipper's system said it cleared customs in two hours, the VPC didn't show the car arriving until five days later. I think it just sat somewhere in limbo.)

My question is about the Vehicle Inquiry Report system. Is the info realtime? IOW, if the last status was "work order opened," will it get closed and will an updated ETA be generated? If you are a dealer, you probably know what I am talking about. At the bottom of the screen on the right are the estimated dates -- to the immediate left are the actual dates. Do the actual dates cause the estimated dates to get updated? It didn't look like that had happened on the status for my car.

The salesperson for my car is a newbie -- he's not sure of much and he's not very responsive in email. So, I am going just on what I saw in the few minutes I was in the store.

This is likely NOT the case with yours, but one thing that I've often wondered about it damage/damage repair during transit. When a car goes into a black hole it may be nothing, or maybe something happened.

Question: ON new cars they do NOT need to tell you, provided it is below some $$ threshold. What is the rule with ED cars???

And what documents did you sign and why? I aint signing nothing til the car is on the lot!

GL

A

PS Prolly nothing more than labor day weekend...