Hello everyone. This is my first post so I thought I would introduce myself. I have a MCSC on order since 7/18/05. Is is Hot Orange w/ Blue top, manual trans, Sport/Prem/Conv/Cold packages, Orange int color, Blue/Orange uph, Ltd Slip, Web Spokes, Black bonnet stripes.
I was following an ordering process thread on this forum at https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&page=1&pp=25
How do some of you get so much information on your order? I have tried contacting my sales rep from MINI of Nashville who says simply "It is still on order...that's all I have." I called the 866-ask-mini automated service and it says "Scheduled for Production with no production date".

Thanks,
droptopmini

 

Welcome to the "club"! Soft-tops rock!

I can only speak for my own ordering experience, but usually my best source of info was the ask-mini phone line. Choose the option to speak to a human (Don't recall the exact wording...) and you'll get the most current , detailed info available - at least until production is complete. Once your MINI is built, you'll have to find alternate sources for info about whether it has reached the port for shipping, what shipping line/vessel/etc., and when it arrives at the destination port. Once my "Murray" was built, I got info about the "bill of lading" from my dealer, and was able to identify the shipping line, make some phone calls, and get info from them directly.

By the way, if you think waiting for your car to be built is tough, you will not believe how much worse it is waiting for delivery of your completed MINI! (Especially West Coasters)

Anyway, hope all goes well, and you are enjoying the open-motoring experience soon!

_Dave_

 

Welcome droptop!

I think we'll be hearing a lot from each other in the coming months.:smile: I also placed my order for my MCC on 7/17. I was given a delivery date of "late September." (I live in Miami) As for the status, I agree with the previous poster on calling ASK MINI and optioning for the human. Otherwise, the information will be as timely as the Owner's Lounge. When I called ASK MINI, they told be that I would be starting production on 8/8.

Hopefully you'll be in the same production run and we can start motoring Southhampton web cams, atlantic shipping lanes, weather, and all of the other things that us obsessed MINI-owners-in-waiting do!

We'll be dropping the top and motoring in no time!

 

I guess i'm in the same boat (not literally) as you! When i call ASK-MINI, i also get the "scheduled for production" thing. I ordered a bit later than you, 7/22, so it's only been a week. I'm not generally the patient sort!!!

Good luck, i bet the time will pass before you know it!

 

Blue and Orange...at first that struck me as strange, but the more I think about it the more I love it.

 

Welcome aboard!!! Congrats on the order - you're going to LOVE it... I've had mine since the end of September and it makes me smile every time I get in it...:smile: :smile:

We followed the ordering process through the Owners Lounge on MINIUSA and by calling "Ask MINI" a couple times a week...

Donna
02' CR/W MCS (gone to MINI heaven - burned up)
05' Cool Blue MCSC "Ariel"
05' HB/W MCS "Gizmo"

 

Thanks. I'm sure I will be talking with y'all often. I contacted the human who was very polite and she said that the last thing she has was that the order was placed on 7/18 and it should go into production in about a week. No dates were given. She said that is all she knows.

droptopmini

 

Slick combination. Should be sweet!

Here's some information that's been helpful...

As others said, call ASKMINI and talk to folks. The automated has no more information than the Owner's Lounge.

Here's an on-going thread that may provide a lot. We have been tracking since 'missing the boat' and there's lots of on-going additional tracking information:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...2&page=1&pp=25

I'm also a loaded-up MCS DropTopper so I feel your interest and desire to know more:
As it moves in to Production expect the following Stages:

[I left my dates on here to give a baseline for how quickly things happen:]
150 Production Started [SCHEDULED FOR PRODUCTION] - 07/11-16
151 Body Shop Started - 07/17
152 Paint Shop Started - 07/18
153 Assembly Started - 07/19
155 Production Completed - 07/20
160 Released to Distribution - 07/20
182 Released to Carrier [AWAITING TRANSPORTATION] - 07/20

Then it gets interesting!

Wallenius Wihelmsen Carriers to get the vessel name
http://schedule.2wglobal.com/AppTrac...trackType=Auto
You'll have to click through twice, select Auto and input your VIN

Schedules by Destination
http://schedule.2wglobal.com/AppSche...countryList.do
This will let you find all upcoming ship between Southampton and your destination port (NY, Charleston, etc.)

Port Information
http://www.2wglobal.com/www/customerCentre/portInfo.jsp
Lot's of Port-of-destination/departure data here, but not a lot of tracking assistance.

U.S. Coast Guard to get vessel "Call Sign" for tracking
http://cgmix.uscg.mil/psix/PSIX2/VesselSearch.asp
Use this to seach out the Call Sign for your ship. Just type in the name and find the WW (SWEden) registered ship. You'll need this to track the ship across the pond.

Southampton Radar
http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/radcap.asp
Live update radar maps of the Southampton Harborway. It updates by itself every 10 minutes or so. On shipping day, you can watch your car's transport leave the harbor!

Southampton Shipping Movements
http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/shipping_movments.asp
This is a regularly updated listing of ships arriving and departing in chronological order. Ship already departed won't be on here. Helps when your ship is delayed and so you know when to track it on radar and in the webcam

Southampton Live Webcam
http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/webcams.htm
Watch your ship in-port and as she pulls out in to the harborway. Automatically updates every few minutes

Oceanweather.com Use Marine Observation to track
http://www.oceanweather.com/data/
SailWX Tracking
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/index.html#search
AISLive.com Tracking
http://www.aislive.com/AISLivePortal...ndex=0&tabid=1
Various live 'crossing the pond' ship tracking sites.

Port Of Charleston Vessel activity for next 30 days
http://www.port-of-charleston.com/Vessel_schedule.asp
NY NJ Port Schedule (Vessel activity currently down)
https://www.firstnynj.com/
Check arrivals to see when your ship is in-port at it's destination.


Hope these help you (and others)

I'm sure there are other items of tracking information that can be appended.

Watching and waiting....

 

Hopefully it won't take too long. I ordered from MINI of Nashville and got the car in 5 weeks and 6 days. And a lot of the stuff does happen before the system is updated to show it. Mine said "At VDC" for 3 days after it was at the dealership.

 

rdelar01, hopefully I will get a production date soon. The lady on the phone said prossibly next week. We might be tracking our cars at the saem time.

MINI Steve, Wow. I think that is more information than I can assimilate at the moment. How log was it from the time you placed the order with the dealer till the time you received your first start of production report? It has been 11 days for me with no scheduled date yet. Thanks for this wealth of information.
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...welcome, np.

I placed the order on July 1st (111: order accepted at factory) I was given a VIN 7/11 when it went to status 150 'Production Started'

You have to start pretty soon as there's only a few more weeks of 2005 production before they shut down for a couple weeks to retool and start building 2006 models.

 

Time to start making some freakin' calls - I ordered our MCSCa on 7/1, and just got another "Order received" from ASK-MINI on Tuesday. The only 'date' I've gotten is an expected 8/31 production completion date. . .but from what I'm reading here, there should at least be SOME update by now. . .sheesh. . .

 

I just got off the phone with ASK-MINI. Now they have no scheduled production date for me. I love it how you can get different information from two different people. I'm either going to lose hair or get grey ones over the next few months.

What do you think if I start a "Production Week 32 (8/8/05) Support Group" thread?

 

Ouch man... Your dealer may have been out of allocations and pushed to the end of the order stack. I felt pretty fortunate to be in production in 11 days, but it is part of the reason I ordered an '05 and not waited until Late in the year to order an '06

The other is that I want to drive around in nice weather with the top down!!

 

I bet you'd get a number of folks in it!

Ya gotta start soon my friend!

 

Just called the dealer - got a production number - week 32!!! Somebody help me count - is that the week of the 8th or the week of the 15th?!?

 

Hmmm - according to Microsoft Outlook, week 32 starts on 31 July. . .please, Microsoft. . .for once, be right about something!!!

 

In the world of MINI, I believe Week 32 = 08/08 - Figure it to finish 10 days later so start looking at boats that leave after the 22nd (rarely get on in less than 4 days... but sometimes!)

 

Thats probably the week I'll be in as well.
UUNetBill, I think Steve is right, you were probably put off till the next month allocation. Each dealer is only allocated so many cars to order. My dealer actually modified a Chili Red Conv that was already in the pipeline.
Hopefully we will get some info soon.

 

8/8 works for me - I'll be on vacation from 8/13-8/20 anyhow, so I'll have something to look forward to when I get back. . .start trackin' the boat!!

So, how about starting that Week 32 Support Group thread??

 

I have created a thread for Production Week 32 (8/8/05) MINIs:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?p=605789

Let's stick together!

 

The MINI2 website has a thread for each month's production Group.

August production (Week 31, 32, 33, and 34) will be the last of the '05's. We have a thread started here if any of you Week 32'ers would like to join in:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95698

 

MINISteve,

Thanks for the info! I had no idea that we could track the shippment of our cars across the ocean. This is one more thing to occupy my time till my MCS arrives.
Thanks!!

 

...welcome. You should be able to watch it go through the Panama Canal. I'm sure there's a crownd of cameras available for that as well.

Have fun!! (I am )

 

Be advised that your experience tracking the shipping progress may vary drastically, depending on the shipping line involved. Murray came over on an NYK Line ship, and they typically don't provide ANY online info about the ship's progress. I was able to get critical updates by looking up their RO/RO ("Roll-on/roll-off") department phone number and calling direct, but only because the folks I spoke with there were having a slow day and felt like helping me. To find out what shipping line was involved, I had to get the Bill Of Lading info from my dealer, which happened to have "NYK" in the number, otherwise I don't think I would have been able to get ANY info. My ship had an accident leaving the port of Southampton, and for several days, i was wondering if it had actually started out across the ocean. I found info that it had arrived somewhere on the US east coast, but then all was silent, and the scheuled arrival date at Port Hueneme came and went. A phone call to NYK Lines revealed that the ship had had some kind of delay (unspecified) at sea, and was 5 days behind schedule.


The good part of the story is that the day the ship arrived at Port Hueneme, I got a call from the dealer saying it was already on a truck and would arrive that night. I was able to pick up Murray the next day, since it was the only car on that ship that was destined for that dealer.

Other good news for folks who start getting nervous when they find out the arrival date is nearing: The operation at the VDC (at Port Hueneme at least) is incredibly efficient, and they do work weekends and nights, so as soon as the ship docks, there's a good likelyhood the cars will get processed right away.

Enjoy the experience! Murray arrived April 20th this year, and the waiting is already mostly a dim memory - maybe that's just my old-age kicking in!

_Dave_