Finally picked mine up yesterday, my MA must be new since he didn't order the NAV code from corporate so I need to wait a day or 2 for the code, and 2-3 days for the Black Mirror caps I wanted. Mine came with Chrome caps, I had the Chrome Package but decided against it, so when they pulled the package the mirror caps didn't come off due to the way the packages are linked I guess. Otherwise my wife says it drives great! She wont let me drive since I am still recovering from shoulder surgery. I'll post picks after I get the correct mirror caps installed. Currently looks odd with the only chrome on the car being the mirrors.

 

Mine was on the Arcadia Hwy. I want to call up the ladder, but I hate doing that. It's just ridiculous. The add on's I'm doing can be done in a day, and all the parts are there now to have them done. There is just no logical reason they need it for 10 full days. I don't want to ruin the whole experience. The BMW's that were on the Arcadia aren't having to sit in Brunswick waiting for a truck to Global. They'll be there sooner. We have never waited more than a day from the BMW side for a car that we've ordered. A ten day wait at the port for a ship is one thing. A ten day wait for a truck after clearing the VDC is one thing. A ten day wait to pick up from the dealer? I want to have a happy experience, and haven't been the least bit demanding. I never called to bug him, but did want to know when to expect it a couple of weeks ago because I was selling my car, so I asked in an email. I'm gonna make the call later today, and I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

A truck! Yikes! The gas must be a fortune! I'm driving my daughter's older 328 with crappy speakers and creaky noises. It drives really well tho, and I'm getting some experience on the manual transmission after not having one for 20 years.

How hard do you think it will be to install those driving lights? We could definitely do the mud flaps, but it's a one hour job, so we we're just going to let them do it. I'm still unclear as to when the stock bonnet stripes are added to the car. I really love the after market graphics, and would rather go with them, but if the bonnet stripes are already on I was just going to add the boot stripes to match at the dealer. I asked Rob, but he didn't answer that question.

 

@Teleigh
I thought the same about my MA because he did not know anything about what boat it is on when will it land etc but he did tell me when i ordered that it will be end of Feb.
My car landed in Baltimore and my dealer is in Va/DC, so 30 miles away. But it took them almost 6 days to get it to the dealer. I was only getting bonnet stripes installed and that happens at the VDC. A similar car with no accessories to be installed left the VDC the next day it was offloaded.. what gives!!! Bonnet stripes are not that hard to install; now are they?
The car got to the the dealer late Fri, i think, and the Ma gave me a call on early Mon morning saying it was there. He claimed it came Sun night, but there was paperwork in the car signed indicating that it got the road test, state inspection etc done on Sat. I guess they did not want to waste MA's time on a sure deal, at the end of the month.
So my point is there are a lot more factors most of them unrelated to your car or transportation that cause delays.
If you like your car do not give up on it, if you settle for something else, that is all you are doing settling. I am trying to help but dunno if I am succeeding.

 

I think part of the problem is that we know they are so close. We were told 6-8 weeks when we ordered, same as when I ordered my MCS in '05. Technically 8 weeks will be March 25th so I'm not really going to feel the need to get irked until after that date, any pick up date prior to that is within what we were told to begin with.
The fact that we know the cars are in the state of GA just makes it seem like they should be here, not there!
Also, on the CM the stripes and stuff done at the VDC are a bit different, so maybe there is still a learning curve.
We are down to 1 truck, which cost me $72 to fill up yesterday! I've been through this before, and it's a lot like childbirth, once you have that MINI in your garage you forget all about the suffering of the process and are willing to do it again. We are on the third go-round, so I guess it's worth it to me .
Annette

 

I'm sure we could do it if we really wanted to, but I'm going to get mine installed at Harrison Motorsports here in Alpharetta/Roswell. I'd rather pay them the money to get it done cleanly and correctly.
Mud flaps, we'll do when we get to it. Sounds like a bit of a pain, but not impossible.
Annette

 

arrested-cloud,
It's the little unnecessary dishonest moments that are really frustrating, right? Why would your MA even lie about something so trivial? I think they think it's just easier or less confrontational. Who knows? Your post did help.

Annette,
I know you're right about once it's in my garage and what-not. I've done it before too and never been frustrated like this. There are other things I'm frustrated about that I don't want to put on here in case it is read by my MA. Does anyone know if they check them out? If they do I need to delete one of my earlier ones. Anyway, as I said, I know you're right, and I don't want to have it in my garage all covered with bad vibes. I also don't want to leave it at Global for 10 days with the entire ATL area opening and closing the doors and sitting in it with their fecal matter covered fingers.

Just trying to lighten things up with the gross out comment.....

 

Teleigh, to be honest I think some of the MAs read NAM, but not all and not all the time.
If I were in your situation (I can't remember what your original order date was) I would have NO problem calling Randy(the sales mgr from what I recall). I had to call last week and my MA was out (I knew he would be) but it was something I needed to get an answer about pretty quick. Anyway, Randy answered my question and then went ahead and gave me a status update on both of the cars we have on order. Based on what you're saying about picking up the 22nd, I'm wondering if your MA screwed up reading the manifest and your CM wasn't actually on the Arcadia and he's now giving you info based on actual data. Just making guesses here.
I look at it this way, my MA has NO reason to want it to take longer. He's just relaying the info he's got, he has no control over the car at this point other than to wait like me. He can, however, be honest about delays and you should absolutely get an answer from someone about why it is taking that long assuming the car ACTUALLY was in Brunswick the day you were told.
Just call Randy, explain that you are frustrated and just want to understand the delay and make sure you shouldn't be concerned about damage or some other issue.
Annette

 

Well.... I am not going to go into details on here, so if you want them, pm me. I will say that it took action on our part.

The good news, my car is at the dealer now, and I can pick it up Thursday.

I am a HAPPY CAMPER!!!!

 

I'm waiting on the Call!
My MA straight up told me that he would probably be the last to hear that my car was at the dealership and ready to go. Makes sense when you think about it. They want the salesmen doing their job not bothering the prep and installation guys every 5 minuets.

I think they try to get clients involved with their cars and the process. Certainly it could be argued that they could make the system a little better defined so that everyone is not second guessing a many tiered process. At the same time I am betting we know a good deal more than MINI ever intended for us to know too, which is a double edged sword.

Good to keep clients talking about their cars and being interested but not so good if everyone gets driven crazy trying to follow a foggy process. Part of the problem is some eager little investigators find out all sorts of stuff, post it and fan the flames. I know a red headed woman, for instance, who is following her MINI every mile of the trip down the coast right now. I think it is pretty cool that people have figured out so much about this process of building & shipping MINI's at the same time I don't think we need to drive ourselves crazy hanging on each piece of a puzzle that still retains it's mysteries.

 

Well you and your red-headed woman are both very wise! I thought you already got the call yesterday that yours was at the dealer! Yay! I wasn't really able to follow our ship very well because of it being on the k-line. I also thought all the folks on here that were stressing out and making phone calls were kooky (in a good way). I was completely fine with everything throughout the entire process, but when I did find out through research that the BMW's on our boat had a truck to Global, I knew ours should be on it too. Even then, I was still "anxiously" fine. It was just the unexplained, 10 day wait at the dealer, that sent my own kookiness into high gear. I even envisioned it had been crushed on the boat. I guess I ended up being the kookiest of all. I apologize.

 

I pick up my MINI tomorrow, my salesman sent me a picture after it arrived:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5178/...a4151a1a_m.jpg

Maybe I will see you there Teleigh. I believe I am suppose to be there at 1PM.

 

Our CM has been at the Baltimore VDC for a week as of late tonight. My MA said he would call us when it gets on a truck and we have not gotten the call yet. I'm starting to get concerned that maybe it was injured in shipping. Am I overreacting? It just thought it would have been here by now.

 

Probably.... I certainly understand! If it's any consolation, miniusa still says I'm in the VDC!

MacMitch, I'm not headed to the dealer until late afternoon, so I'll just miss seeing your new wheels and meeting you. Hopefully I'll get to meet you guys at an event soon! I wonder if that is my car in the bottom left of your picture????

I'm pretty excited to pick up my mini today!!! What an understatement!

 

My CM has been at the VDC in Jersey City (NYC) for a week now, so I too am worried that there might have been damage to it. However, maybe they wait until the truck heading to the dealer is full and it's other damaged minis that are holding it up.

 

Lindseybp,

I don't think you are badly out of the norm. I think it took close to that long for mine to get trucked too. Seems like everyone got spring fever and ordered new cars and the system is a little backed up. There was apparently some paper work problems with some of the MINI's around our birth dates, someone decided to change fonts.... So if there was/is a problem it could just be paper work.

I think the dealerships tend to try to keep the sales people selling instead of tracking MINIs. My MA flat told me he is the last to get info. I believe he is one of the most successful MINI sales people, probably because he keeps his eye on the ball, so to speak. So it is even conceivable that your MINI is further along in the process than you may think. I found that once the dealership got my MINI and my MA got the information the information I got drastically increased both in speed and detail.

 

Thanks for the comments folks. Just frustrating as we were hoping to have the CM by tomorrow at the latest. We have been more anxious since it got to the VDC than at any other part of the journey. I have even been cruising the dealer lot around 7pm every night this week just in case it arrived and my MA was not there....I guess that is a little obsessive.

 

I hear you, mine was supposed to be here last week and got delayed at the VDC due to the customs "Font" issue with the paper work according to my MA, hoping to pick it up this weekend or early next week at the latest.

Lindseybp, be careful they might file a restraining order on you for stalking . Looking at your order spec, I'd be anxious too, that is going to be one nice ride.

 

I know for one if my mini was damanged in transport i would be super pissed and if iw as not told about while there were trying to hide it, yeah it would be ugly for them, but also it they could be just sitting waiting for all there brothers and sisters to fill the truck up so they dont waste fuel driving across country with 3 mins on board. But you never know now and days

 

What was the issue with customs? I remember seeing a link to it somewhere, but now I can't find it.

 

I talked to my MA on Monday and she said that the customs documents for approx 1000 cars were the wrong font and customs would not release the cars, I'm just relaying what my MA told me. Mine sat at the VDC for over a week now and just got released a few days ago.

 

So my CM is at the dealer! Picking it up tomorrow, if I can sneak out of work for a couple of hours. My MA doesn't want to do a Saturday pickup because "they're too busy on Saturdays and what normally will take 2 hours takes 4". The wife is bummed because she won't be able to go with me to get it.

My MA says that the majority of that 2 hours is spent showing you how the car works. For those that have taken delivery, does it really take that long to go over the car? I consider myself pretty tech savvy. Will he be offended if I try to speed him up?

 

So we picked up the CM today. The first of 2 new MINIs joining our family this month. I'll leave it to the spouse (MacMitch) to give more details and his name, but wanted to let everyone know he's home!
We absolutely love Neil, our MA, and had a great experience once again. He was my MA in '05 when I bought El Kabong and it was a thrill to work with him again and then again LOL.
Here is what we were greeted with upon arrival0


A closeup-


And hanging from the rearview mirror!


Another shot,


And finally, released to the wild!


He got home just before dark, so we'll be getting plenty more pics this weekend.

Annette

ps punkrockdoc, I warned my husband this morning that it would take a couple-3 hours and he couldn't believe it. Our appointment was at 1pm, I left after taking a few pics. We own our own business so one of us had to get home to watch the store so to speak. Anyway, he called me at 3:36 as he was pulling out of the dealership.

 

Geez that woman takes lots of pictures,
About the pick up. IMHO a few things can slow it down. The wife suggested I do a couple things I did not do because I was not in a big hurry to get through the process. If I had it to do again though....

First the MINI sales person has to turn you over to another sales person who wants to explain a long list of warranty etc. enhancements and sell you on spending a few extra thousand. You might be able to avoid this if you plan ahead, but I think the dealership sort of insists on getting that sales opportunity. Maybe one could ask about it before hand and have it all sorted out?

Second the set up and education of the new owner does take quite a while, largely due to the MINI Connected, Nav, internet radio features. If you have an iPhone show up with music and Mini apps on it so it can get all hooked up quickly. There is a copy of the manual available ( I think I found it in the lounge). Were one to study the manual and know how to use the features on arrival I'm sure it would go faster. I think if you tell your MA at the start that you understand how it all works you might just have to show that you understand a few things.... MY MA had just about everything that could get done done. You might check with your MA to see if there is prep work that can be done before hand. I'm sure the dealership pressures the sales people to make sure customers understand things so the client ends up happy with the car's features. If you know as much or more than your MA when you get there, should go easy on you.

They will need proof of insurance. You should be able to handle this with your insurance company before you get there and reduce this chore to adding information to a form & signing it.

Had I known I would have done the things above and moved faster. Of course you may not care if it takes a while, it should be fun, so do it your way.

Have to run now Wulfric got some dust on his shinny little exterior this AM.......

 

Thanks for the info on pickup. We are doing our pickup this Saturday and don't want it to take a long time as my wife is pregnant and probably wouldn't last that long. Did they have your nav working? I know others have had to wait for codes, etc.