My dealer called late last week and told me that the ship with my TCH was 4 days out. I suspect that it should dock in Houston today (Sunday) or tomorrow.

He then hopes that the car will be here (Austin area) late next week.

I done a lot of net searching. I've not been able to locate anything showing the Gulf States location in Houston. Nor have I been able to see any records on car-carrying ships coming into port.

Does anyone have any better info on the port and or the Toyota ship fleet that comes into Houston??

I am pretty sure that all ships carrying Toyotas made in Japan come in to West Coast ports. They then are transferred to truck or train for delivery to ultimate destination in US and Canada.

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Not as I understand it.... They come into the Gulf States Distributor in Houston via ship. Salesman even made a comment about coming through the Panama Canal.

I found this info on Toyota Logistics Services, which imports all Toyotas into the US. http://wwshipper.com/dsnews/news/february.html

Unless Toyota added Houston in the last several months they have 3 ports on the West Coast and one on the East Coast(Newark,NJ).

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Hummmmm.......It is my understanding that Toyota distributes vehicles to most of the United States with the exception of two areas. These independent regional distributors are Gulf States Toyota (Southwest) and Southeast Toyota.

I believe that the ports you are talking about serve "Company States" but not Gulf States and SE Toyota areas.

I understood that Gulf States receives the vehicles from the Port of Houston and adds all the accessories there before sending the cars to the dealers. However, I may be wrong about the port. I will check with my dealer tomorrow and find out. He was telling me that the ship was due in port today or tomorrow and that I might see my car as early as the end of the week. I don't think that would be possible unless the cars came directly into Gulf States in Houston.

Anyhow, unless someone has "final answer," I will check tomorrow.

Thanks!

My window sticker says Port/Plant Jacksonville FL. I bought it in Auburn AL

OK, I was wrong... It rarely happens, but I WAS WRONG.

My TCH window sticker shows that it came into port in Long Beach.

They evidently go to Gulf States Toyota in Houston from there for those all-important add-on fluff packages and then to the dealer.

Picked-up my white one today.

congrats, scooter (don't let your significant other see the stuff in print about you being wrong - it will come back to haunt you) - hope they did not "fluff" yours too much...

Thanks JK!

My dealer was good enough to order mine "fluffless." We got the Leather and Sunroof that we wanted, but managed to avoid the big bucks packages.

two days ago, mine was a cat F with a estimate of before the 22nd. The only fluff I got stuck with was the "Preferred Accessory Package". If it only has Carpet Floor / Cargo Mat / Cargo Net / First Aid Kit then a major rip off at $277, but if it includes the Glass Breakage Sensor, as someone has told me, then I can live with it - was not going to make or break the deal anyway...