Interested in hearing from those that have ordered their MINI, how did you typically find out on the state of the vehicle? I have noticed MINI Owner's Lounge has a lag time from the actual state of the vehicle and what is reflecting on the Order Track in the Owner's Lounge.

Found out today from a rep at MINIUSA mine recently completed Production, however, as of today, I haven't really received any updates from my MA; is this typical or do you generally need to call them to keep asking?

 

if you go to the 1st Gear forum, there is a sticky post on this very subject

 

Yeah, actually saw that; was also interested in feedback from those who recently ordered.

 

I ordered my Clubman on February 23. This morning, according to ASK MINI (live telephone person), it will be finished on March 11.

 

Well, there's not much for your MA to update you about between production start and production finish - days 1-5 of production are gathering parts, day 6 is build, day 7 is paint, day 8 is final and QA. I only called ASKMINI to confirm that it was being built (day 1) and that it was on schedule days 6 & 7.

Got news from my MA (today, no less!) when it hit status 155 (final + QA) and he's going to let me know when there's more info like being at the dock or if he knows which ship its on, etc.

 

One Year Ago tomorrow (05/03/08) Molly officially finished Production. I ordered her on 19/02/08, I immediately had my production number (sorry guys). I tracked her more by Calling MINIUSA at least once a day. I never bothered my MA, he had MINIs to sell!! I did e-mail him some questions when I saw some discrepancies that were showing up on here (NAM) and I wanted those corrected before I picked up Molly, didn't happen, but at least I let them know I wasn't going to be happy until I had exactly what I ordered.

I pretty much stayed glued to my laptop and work computer the entire 8 Weeks. When it got down to Molly finishing production and sitting at the docks waiting on a ship, there wasn't much information to gather until your MINIs VIN shows up on the Shipping Company's Manifest, assuming your's is one that offers this sort of thing. I was able to track Molly pretty much all the way across the pond, but once she got into open water that was difficult. Once her Port of Call was in sight I would track the comings and goings of the docking and departing ships. You can find that website by googling it.

When I found out the Molly had been delivered I COULDN'T WAIT I had to see her, so Hubby and I took a trip on the Saturday before our scheduled and was able to get a sneak peek. The dealership was quite busy, our MA was with Customers, a Lot Boy offered to take us to the holding area in a Bimmer no less, we got in the car went to the holding area, NO MOLLY!! She was sitting on the Dealers Lot all along!! I was able to snap some picks and lose lots and lots of sleep waiting for the anticipated Delivery Appointment.

I researched Check List Items on here and made sure I had my list. Got the to Dealership right on time. Went over the car with our MA, he had us do the Paperwork first, then we went and sat in Molly. I remember him being very smooth on how he did things, first he opened the Boot and showed us the C@@L Goodie Bag of Car Care Products that were neatly tucked into a MINI Bag, then the Floor Lid, to see the tools. We did a walk around to make sure all was ok on that end, then it was inside.

I was the driver at the time, hubby stood outside while MA sat in the passenger seat going over all the goodies we had ordered, wish he had taken a bit more time on the OBC, but I figured it out over the weekend. Then he had Hubby sit in the passengers and that moment it was over!! I had Fob in Fobville and I was going to driver MY (Very First) Brand New Car Home...she had a Name given to her before she even knew what it was!! But Molly fits her and tomorrow she will be 1 Year Old!!

You asked for details!!

 

Ah, I can do that as well, as my MCS is presently in the dealer lot awaiting pickup.

The OL is useless... except to get your VIN, which you will then use to find which boat your are on and when you are due to set sail. Your boat will likely be trackable when it is near land, but you will be blind for about 2 weeks while it's crossing the Atlantic.

ShipAIS.com is a great first resource. They will only cover the English Channel portion of the voyage, but what makes them cool is that they will show the last position of your boat before it left their coverage area. Along with this they will list its destination and estimated arrival date/time, so you know when to start looking once again.

If your boat is headed to the Panama Canal, VesselTracker.com will be your new best friend. Register (free), and their data will be stale by only 2 hours, rather than the 24 hours stale data they provide unregistered users. When your boat arrives, it may wait at the mouth of the canal for quite a while (as in, possibly days), waiting its turn to go through. When you see it move, PanCanal.com is your best friend's hot sister, and you will be glued to the webcams hoping to catch a glimpse of something sweet. After it's through, darkness will descend once again, until just south of Tijuana (and you'll likely be able to watch as your boat floats on past San Diego).

If your boat is not headed to Panama, or has already left the Canal AIS coverage, MarineTraffic.com is a good resource for AIS tracking... my favorite, though, is ais3.siitech.com -- it's not as slick a presentation as VesselTracker or MarineTraffic, but it presents more info (such as estimated arrival time) and seems a bit faster. Also, east coasters will likely be able to track their boats all the way in to the dock, west coasters will lost sight of it again just before LA (near Santa Catalina Island).

Soon after your boat hits it's destination port, your MA should be contacting you with an estimated delivery date (mine actually arrived at the dealer 3 days earlier than what they told me). If they do not contact you, you will start sitting (I can't spell for ****) bricks and questioning your purchase because you've see the pictures from the VDC sticky thread. Your MA will be as blind as you are, and you will be upset at BMW/MINI for running a crackerjack operation... until you get word that it has arrived and is ready for pick up.

Oh yes, checklists. I haven't made my own consolidated list yet, but here are some useful resources I plan to use in preparation for this weekend's delivery.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...p-the-r56.html
http://www.mini2.com/forum/mini-one/...-handover.html
http://www.mini2.com/forum/draft-f-q...-delivery.html
http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/people/k...Checklist.html

Note: if you order your MINI from a state with front and rear license plates, but you live in a state with only a rear license plate or you want to mount the front plate with a no-holes mount, your MA needs to know this ahead of time.

 

If your ship is coming through the Panama canal its going to dock at Port Hueneme, which is adjacent to the Oxnard VDC. There's a handy schedule of ships expected to arrive on their website (see "Business at the Port": "Vessel Schedule"), that'll tell you when its due to dock. Our last 3 MINIs have docked on time according to that calendar.

That's also useful to get a good guess at which ship your MINI is on, if you can't find that out any other way.

 

That Vessel Schedule lists the expected due dates that were set before the boat left Southampton. It's not terribly inaccurate, but it does not get updated during the voyage and you can get the same information direct from WW when you use your VIN to find out which boat you're on.

Our boat from last month was due on Feb 18th, got held up at the Panama Canal for nearly 2 days (if I remember correctly), and didn't actually arrive in Port Hueneme until the 19th.