Excellent, so mine is sitting outside the factory (about 80 degrees there) waiting for yours to join it. Fair weather today and tomorrow in Graz so nothing to mess up the nice paint job (mine is black and will show every imperfection). Chance of thunderstorms Thursday but no mention of hail....yikes!

 

Wow, even on top of the weather! You might be even more obsessed than I am!

 

Joe, still the same status on my car today. Despite that it appears the car was finished Monday, the website still says "scheduled for production". So, as others have said, it appears the website is not continuously updated. The ASKMINI automated line continues to say that the car is done and awaiting carrier pickup.

 

The automated ASKMINI line is still saying that my car is 'in the body shop' for the third day in a row now. Still says estimated completion is May 3rd. Doesn't seem like the automated line gets updated too often either. I will call and speak to a real person later today.

 

Yeah, I beleive if your car was going to be finished tomorrow, it would have been in the paint shop today. What did the live person tell you?

 

Yes, I was just told that it was in the paint shop. I had to give a lot more information this time to verify that I was who I say I am (production order number, name, address and zip, phone number). I never had to give that much just to find my status, not sure why I did this time, unless it is a new person and just following the rules.

 

As of this morning the automated line says the car is "being transported to the Port of Exit", which I assume means it's on a train to Bremmerhaven. But the website still says "scheduled for production". Joe, today is the big day for yours, correct?

 

I believe today is the day for me! The automated line still says 'in the paint shop', same as it did yesterday. I'm assuming it's out of the paint shop at this point and probably being quality-checked. Then I'll have to wait for the train ride, then the boat ride - that old song from a commercial just came into my head 'take the train to the plane, take the train to the plane'. Not sure if I'm the only one who remembers those commercials, it was for JFK airport back in the 80s. I'm still holding out hope that I will have my car before the 26th, to drive to the wedding I'm going to that day. Let's see, I have 23 days to go before that date. Wait for a train, plus the train ride should be 2-3 days? Then wait for the boat plus a 13 day boat ride. Then wait at the port and be delivered to the dealer. It will be close, but I am still hoping. I read somewhere that you can see a range of VIN numbers scheduled to be on a ship, at what point can you find that information out? I wonder how far apart our VIN numbers are?

 

The MINI automated line still says: "vehicle is at the port, awaiting a shipping vessel."

I'm not sure when it switched from awaiting transport to being at the port.

But the last couple steps were:
- Completed Production: 4/21
- Awaiting Transport: 4/22

So it's been 11 days since it finished production. Hopefully it gets on a vessel soon.

 

Joe, my VIN # ends in 13869. What is everyone elses? Can I assume the cars come off the production line in sequential VIN order, or something close to that? Yes, if you lived in the New York area 30 years ago, you probably do know the song. From what I can figure out from the posts on the Track Your Mini thread (in the First Gear section of this forum), it looks like all cars going to the New York VDC go on a Wallenius Wilhelmsen ship, which appears to mean it should be very easy to track the car. And it appears I should be able to track the car once space on a ship is booked. Any one know when space on a ship is booked? Perhaps not until the car arrives in Bremmerhaven? When I enter our VIN on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen website, the response is "record not found".

 

Interesting, my VIN ends in 30317. Not very close at all. I seem to recall reading somewhere that if you only put a portion of the VIN on the ship tracking site (not sure how much you have to leave off), you can get an idea of the numbers that are being loaded on a certain ship, even if they don't have your exact number in the system yet. I'll have to look for that post.

 

So much for the theory of the VIN's being in numerical order. Looks like our cars will be on one of the following ships: Tombarra, which departs Bremmerhaven on the 5th and arrives Jersey City on the 19th, the Don Juan which is the 10th and the 23rd, and the Medea which is the 16th and 30th. So it looks like you have a real shot of making the date you want!

 

I'm guessing the Don Juan for me, you might make the Tombarra.

 

Well, it now seems clear neither car will arrrive before the TDTD event. But you might be able to pick up yours on the 25th, just in time for the wedding.

 

I don't know, if it arrives in Jersey City on the 23rd, the 25th seems to be cutting it a bit close. Making it onto the Don Juan is my last chance to make it here in time, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Have you spoken with anyone from the dealer regarding the TDTD event? Do you anticipate any issues with them honoring the discount? I have been following the TDTD thread, but didn't see if you mentioned anything about talking to our dealer about it.

 

It seems thatbI am on the same train with everyone...checked today after I read Shark's post and the car isalso being transported to port of exit. Sadly, from my research the next ship to Port H isn't until the 11th putting the car in Cali on June 2nd....most likely won't see it until June 15th. Hope everyone else gets theirs early for all the events coming up.

 

I don't see any TDTD issue at all, and I'm not going to stir up trouble where trouble does not need to be stirred up. I'm not going to mention anything until the MA calls to make an appointment for us to come in to pick up the car, at which point I'll tell him we have a certificate and to adjust the numbers on the paperwork to reflect that. If they balk, I'll point out that it's 100% clear we met all the conditions on the certificate, and that they have no right to add new restrictions that were never mentioned before. If there's still an issue, I'll call Mini and refuse to take the car until they abide by what they offered (that if we attend the TDTD event and take delivery by 7/2, we get the $750 off). I just can't imagine the dealer will care at all about the $750 as they get fully reimbursed from Mini. I really am not expecting any issue at all, but I'll be ready just in case. Our MA has been about as easy as can be to deal with, but then again we were about as easy a customer as they come for him. We've bought more cars than I care to admit, we knew exactly what we wanted, and I have a very good understanding of the car dealership business. When they saw what we knew I think him and his manager just knew they were not going to pull anything over on us. Our MA has been a complete pleasure to deal with, and he will make a nice commission from our sale with almost no effort.

 

Shark, I wish I had the same faith that you do. Something tells me, based on the 10% deposit they now charge that other dealers don't, that they will try to deny us being able to use it. You will probably go before me, so I will follow your lead.

 

Yay! Just got off the phone with a real person, and was told it passed through quality control and is now waiting for transport. The automated line was still telling me it was in the paint shop. Now I'm getting psyched!

 

Excellent!!!

 

I hope my MINI has a life jacket - because she's ON THE BOAT! Scheduled to arrive in Georgia in 14 days!

Here's my updated schedule:

Ordered: 4/9/12Production Number: 4/10/12
Vin Assigned: ???
Production Started: 4/11/12
In Paint Shop: 4/19/12
In Assembly: 4/20/12
Completed: 4/21/12
Awaiting Transport: 4/22/12
At the Port: 4/29/12 (est.)
On the Boat: 5/4/12
Arrived U.S.: TBD
Arrived at Dealer: TBD

Here's my shipping info:
- Shipping Line: K-Line
- Vessel: California Highway
- Voyage No: 18A
- Bill of Lading: HAM114034

I take it from the "how to track your mini" thread, that this will be tough to track due to being on the K-Line. If anyone has any other tips, let me know.

 

Congrats!!!

 

I'm in Houston - my ALL4 took three days from the day the vessel arrived at Brunswick, GA to my Houston dealer and my driving it off the lot and the VDC apparently put on the driving lights....that's insanely quick. My dealer told me Brunswick used to be a bottleneck but suddenly not. Fingers crossed of you!

 

Thanks!

Ooh - that's good news indeed. I'm obviously anxious so that would be a nice surprise to have it in-hand that soon after hitting the port!