After almost three months of waiting time, our new F66 JCW rolled off the boat and we took delivery of the vehicle two weeks ago. It's been a fun two week after three months of endless struggles with few information being provided by my dealership and the MINI App. I had to go through different MINI/BMW forums to find ways to track the status of car as every posts are missing some details. So here I am, sharing all the info I have regarding ordering tracing and taking delivery of a new MINI. Hopefully I can provide help for my fellow motorers.


Before we begin, there are couple things I need to point out. I am based in North Jersey, about 30 minutes away from Port of Bayonne where the BMW VPC was located. So our transit time is among the shortest. The time for VPC processing and transportation to the dealership can vary from days to weeks.

The timeline for our delivery (Delays marked in RED)
Oct 23 2024 F66 JCW Launched
Oct 26 2024 Order Placed
Nov 02 2024 Production Begins, VIN received (Vehicle not actually being produced, just the position in the production queue was confirmed)
Nov 16 2024 White Body Production (Vehicle actually being produced)
Nov 18 2024 In Paint Shop
Nov 18 2024 F67 Production Ceremony at Oxford Plant, Production Paused
Nov 19 2024 Final Assembly
Nov 20 2024 Quality Control
Nov 24 2024 Production Concluded
Dec 02 2024 Vehicle arrived at Southampton Port (Port of Departure)
Dec 16 2024 Vehicle Boarded Wallenius Wilhelmsen Vessel Oberon
Jan 05 2025 Oberon arrived Port of New York (Newark NJ outside the Airport)
Jan 07 2025 Oberon docked outside BMW VPC (Bayonne NJ)
Jan 07 2025 STOP SALE order applied on the vehicle for "Missing Type Ratings"
Jan 09 2025 STOP SALE Order released
Jan 10 2025 Finished processing at VPC, awaiting transportation to dealership
Jan 14 2025 Vehicle left VPC, Arrived at Dealership, PDI done, Taken Delivery

1.Ordering the Vehicle
Pick a dealership wisely. The service and price of the dealership can vary by state laws and competition in the region. We chose the dealership that is closest to our house which proved to be a huge mistake. NJ does not have any law limiting the amount of dealer fee, so in our case $899. All the nearby states have a hard limit of the fee and therefore the final price will be cheaper. I also heard rumors about a dealership on the west coast being the only dealership in the state and trying to charger 2k over msrp on all the stock vehicles they have. Bases on the sales numbers of MINI this year, that is absurd.

You do not have to buy from your local dealer. From what I learned, BMW has a program called Courtesy Delivery. If both the dealership near you and the dealership that you are willing to buy the car from agrees. They can arrange the logistics to ship your car to the dealer near you even if you did not buy the car from them.

Lock Down the Price. We were told by our previous sales rep that he can provide us with different kinds of discount and we will finalize the price when the car arrives. And two weeks before our car arrives, he was fired from the dealership for multiple complaints from different customers regarding his service. The new sales rep denied all the potential savings and only applied the Loyalty Rebate offered by BMW.

Pick the right spec. For a new vehicle like the JCW, sales reps from the dealership may not be having the best knowledge on the cars. They might only seems one or two that arrived at the dealership, so it will be better if you can do your own homework. I am attaching the ordering guide for MY2025 to this article. In order case, we are requiring the vehicle to have HK audio and powered seats. We did not need the 5AT Assisted Driving pack. However the sales rep claimed only Iconic Trim will have HK audio, which is false. If we had an ordering guide in hand back then, we would choose Signature Plus with the Power Seat Option.

Allocation. In most cases you do not need to wait for an allocation, that means the dealership either has a stock vehicle with production date that they can modify to the spec you want. Or they will have an allocation that you can place your order and wait for an assigned production date. For either way, make sure you leave the dealership with the 7-digit Production Number and the Arrival Port Info in hand if available. It will be handy for the next step: Tracking.


Oberon docked at Port of Newark

2.Tracking the Vehicle

There are three official ways of tracking your vehicle, especially after the production begins.

-The MINI APP is the easiest way for you to track your vehicle. And the most handy way to track your vehicle's progress within the factory. Once the production begins, there will be a GPS transponder attached to each chassis, the MINI APP is updated based on vehicle's location. So nothing to worry about if your vehicle is stuck in quality control for days, there might just be an internal traffic jam or some kind of celebrations happening. Once the vehicle is dispatched from the factory, the app became almost useless as all updates are delayed by about 2 days.

-Your Sale Rep depending on how busy they are and how enthusiastic they are about their job, is your second source of tracking. They can get the same info as you with the Vehicle Inquiry Report. A three digit internal code is representing the vehicle's status. And they can provide you updates base on the code.

- 866-ASK-MINI is my primary source of tracking once the vehicle is out of the factory. All the MINI geniuses working for this hotline are extremely enthusiastic and helpful. They can brief you on the vehicle status, cheer with you, and provide you with guidance based on their experiences. However it won't be necessary to bother them before the vehicle reaches the VPC as they are having the same information as the automated system of this hotline. The automated system can provide you with more information than your app, including the Vessel information.


Other than the three official way of tracking your new MINI, here are some other tools that can come in handy.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen: WW is the only shipping company that BMW uses to ship vehicles to the East Coast. They have a detailed schedule system on their website. For F65/66/67, the departure port is Southampton UK. For U25, the departure port can be Bremerhaven Germany or Zeebrugge Belgium depending on vessel availability. The WW website had banned the function for you to track your vehicle with the VIN number but it can still proved to be useful. When your vehicle is about to be unloaded from the vessel, you can use the tracking feature on WW website to check the status of your vehicle. The MINI BOL numbers haven't be decoded but we can use the BMW BOL number to check the status of the BMWs on the same boat, since the status is updated in batches, if the BMWs were discharged to VPC, your MINI should also be discharged at the same time. The BMW BOL number trick is A+Vessel Number +01 for USA. Example: Our Vehicle was loaded on Oberon (EA453 according to WW website) so the BOL number is AEA45301.

Vessel Tracking Apps: I used two during the process. myShipTracking worked well while the vessel was in Europe. It provides fairly accurate information and accurate position of the vessel. However, once the vessel is en route to cross the Atlantic, it lost signal for the entire duration. Then MarineTraffic came in handy. You can pay $1.99 for the satellite location of the vessel which provides enough updates.

Visit the VPC: I strongly discourage visiting the VPC, but in our case I would call it necessary course of action. Our car was already processed from the VPC, but our sales rep claimed that with the delay of holidays, our car should be departing Southampton port in the UK soon. To prove him wrong, I took a night drive to the port of Bayonne and took photos of the new JCWs loaded on the trucks and proved to him the cars had certainly arrived. He then agreed to dig further and advised me on taking delivery in 3 days.


F66 JCWs loaded on trucks outside the VPC


3.Other Useful Information
Production Speed The Oxford Plant produces about 1000 vehicles per day, five days a week. The VIN numbers are sequential, so base on the new arrivals at your local dealership, you can estimate when will your vehicle be produced with some simple math.

Vehicle Processing Center Also known as Vehicle Distribution Center. All BMW Group vehicles (Including the ones produced in the US) needs to go through VPC for clearing customs, initial Pre-Delivery Inspections, installing US Spec sticker (Emission, Tire Pressure, Roadside Assistance, Window Sticker). The VPC will also carries out repairs if the vehicle has damages during transportation. Your dealership should be able to provide you with the work order if any repair was performed in the VPC. General processing time in the NJ VPC should be 1-3 business days and NJ VPC is considered the fastest in the country. There are three VPCs alongside the East Coast: Bayonne NJ, Baltimore MD, Brunswick GA. One in Texas, handling vehicles going to the southern states. And another one in Port Hueneme, CA handling all the west coast deliveries.

A Brand New M5 Touring awaiting transportation at the VPC

STOP SALE ORDERS If you are unlucky like us. You will encounter something called as a Stop Sale Order. For most cases, there will be a critical recall on the vehicle and you can look up more info on the MINI UK website. However, in our case, it was simply the car being too new. The model had not received clears from EPA, DOT, or the California Emission Clearance. There is nothing BMW can do on their end and no estimated delivery time can be provided. All we could do was wait. But glad the order was lifted in three days.

Pre-Delivery Inspections. In our case, the vehicle arrived at the dealership by 9am. I had an initial inspection of the vehicle, and aimed for taking delivery around 2pm. Eventually the vehicle finished by 3:30, that includes the PDI procedures, removing the racing straps, and installing all season tires. However, dealership receive vehicles in patches and sometime you have to wait for your vehicle to be in line for PDI.


Another JCW in Midnight Black awaiting PDI. The vehicles came with plastic spacers in the suspension. So will appear taller before PDI.

4. Delivery
The Final Step! After cutting them a check, deal with the finance department on extended warranty etc., have your vehicle inspected, it is finally time to take the new born home. The sales rep should be guiding you through the setup and everything, filled with 93 Octane (as advised on the owners manual), then off you go.

The dealership did a terrible job cleaning the car, so I spent some time the second day cleaning and waxing the vehicle.

The B48A20O2 powering the new JCW, noticeably larger than the B48TU on the previous JCW due to the new fuel system and cooler design.

 

Nice, thanks for the new documentation.

This is the old way, what i did when i bought mine in 2004: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ispreloading=1



Here is the old VDC info: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...on-center.html



Hopefully with all that you can see some things have really changed.

 

Great post!!! Congratulations on the new ride!!!

I am debating ordering a Cooper JCW, this was helpful.

 

All I can tell is they're now trying to hide information from you for "Security Reasons". Two years ago you could look up your car with your VIN on WW website, not anymore.