tom-
great shot! if they gave out awards for best forum contribution, it would go to you! hands down!
good job! and thanks for sharing!

 

hey guys! there's a beautiful shot of a WW ship that looks very similar to the turandot, on the maps.live.com feed right now. it's free, you just have to register. and i don't remember all the specifics.
but with the birds eye angle, i'm able to soar around the ship and look at it from, yep... you guessed it: a bird's eye view!
and i don't know why i'm getting this lucky shot/angle option today when i haven't been able to get detail like this all MONTH. but oh well! i'm not complaining! and i don't know much about this program, so....

 

Beautiful image TomW. I wonder though how long it would take to unload and process. I keep calling "ask mini" but it still says "in route".

 

Even the ship looks beautiful to me! Ha Ha--Thanks for the posting.
Sales rep in Portland suggested a Thursday, March 20 appointment to pick it up--not sure I could make it there until the Friday or Sat. after. Whew! Long wait driving around in a borrowed car! Hope its earlier for you folks...M.

 

TomW, That is a great shot! Now if you can only go back out there and take a shot of them unloading my MCS. Just kidding...

Let's hope it's not very long before someone reports on here that their mini is ready for delivery.

 

We just scheduled (tentatively) our delivery with our MA for this Saturday

That is, of course, pending it's arrival at the dealer. But from what we are hearing that should be enough time to get it processed and transferred.

We'll let you know if that changes for any reason.

 

Ah that's good news, but I did not get any info from my MA. Within a week it will be OK

 

All of our cars are unloaded and the Turandot is underway, heading to Nagoya, Japan.

 

Thanks Tom! You did what we all wish we could have. Now just a bit more waiting.

 

I called "ask mini" to see if they had a better idea about where my mini was. The freaky thing about it is that when I asked the automated system to speak to someone I got transferred to someone and before I gave them my production # he knew who I was, my phone #, and my email address. I was a little freaked out. I think I'm just going to wait til my dealer calls me and leave it at that.

Oh yeah and the status I got from the system yesterday which was "in transit" was now "awaiting transport". I don't know if that means awaiting transport from the docks to the VDC or from the VDC to the dealership???? Any ideas??

 

I also called "Ask Mini" this morning.

They told me that their last status report was "awaiting transport" in Southampton. She said that once it gets to the dock they get no further updates.

She said that the salesperson would be the one to talk to after it has been shipped out of Southampton.

So, "awaiting transport" is where it was three weeks ago!

 

Called the dealer and he said that when the cars arrive at the docks it may take 7-10 days to process and be at the dealership, so for some of us (living in so cal.) we may be looking at getting our cars as early as Saturday. cross your fingers

 

Emailed the dealer today, I was told my MCS would be ready on or around the 14th. He will contact me within a day or two and confirm pickup date.

 

J bear, did you order from Portland?

 

Yes - I placed my order on 1/15/08 in Portland.

 

I spoke to my MA this afternoon, and my Mini will be available for pick-up on next monday(3/10). Yoohoo!

 

Cool love to see pictures after you pick up your new Mini.

 

Ever since the turandot docked i have been hearing this from mini information "vehicle waiting at the port of exit for a shipping vessel", is anyone else getting this?

 

sdinsider23 - yes, what you need to do at this stage is phone your local MA at the dealer - they now pickup where Mini USA left off when it got on the ship. Your MA should be able to confirm the arrival and an estimated arrival at the dealer.

 

Thank you for the help. I wish my MA was a little wiser i called him and he told me yesterday the ship was just about to dock in a day, even though i verified that the vin was on the turandot, so he seems as clueless as the automated service.

 

Hmm... my MA is Tuesday and Wednesday off..... I am not able to get any info until she is back to the dealer
And still MINUSA owner's lounge said "En route"......

 

I believe that our MA's know one thing "SALES" after that they really don't know much about tracking or anything. When I called my dealer he only estimated the 7-10 day delivery but he didn't guarantee anything. It's like my friend said, we know more about our cars than the dealer.

 

Thats true, ill be happy when I hear from someone in so cal that has gotten theirs, then ill know mine will hopefully be right around the corner.

 

I sent an email to my MA about an hour ago. He's been exceptional and has been proactive in finding out answers to my questions so I'm hopeful that he'll provide more details when he stumbles onto my email. I'll share his response once I hear back.
As a side note, I looked at several other "All Aboard" type threads in 1st Gear to find out the time frames from VDC to delivery that others had actually experienced. It seems that if they were in CA, the delivery was available almost exactly 1 month from date of departure from Southampton. In our circumstance, we sailed Feb 11th and would be expecting to see deliveries March 11th. Just a trend that I gained from digging into this site and using other Mini owners' published delivery dates.
The good thing for us is that our boat landed on a Sunday which means that it has a full work week to deliver--and that could mean some deliveries by the end of this week.

 

My MA just told me that the system still shows the ship not yet arriving to port with an expected arrival date of March 2nd. He knows that its in port even though the system doesn't show it--must happen all the time. When it arrives at the dealership, they need a full day to run it through the shop for its safety inspection and detail. He is doubtful that mine will get there by the weekend--but also said its possible and that nobody really knows.
He's going to keep checking it for me and will let me know when a status is changed. I'm going to stick to my prediction of Feb 11 to Mar 11 as the time in transit...we'll see if any SoCal people can beat Mar 11th!!! Good luck.