Well, my MINI was loaded today in Zeebrugge. On the Faust. MINI really needs to change their website. Until this morning, I thought I was manufactured in Oxford, and sitting at Southhampton waiting for the Faust. Due into New Jersey on the 19th. Then to Mini of Mt Laurel. My first MINI. Actually, my first non Mopar in almost 30 years.

 

I've read some threads regarding the VIN number and the 7th last Letter (T) relating to the vehicle being manufactured in Oxford. However my seventh last digit is a 2. Most people were believing this to mean that it was manufactured the new Netherlands plant. But my mini is in Southampton now. So I'm not sure why some are T and some are 2.

 

My 7th digit is C. Suppose it doesn't matter, but, I thought I was buying a British car....takes some of the fun out of it.

 

understandable. I kinda felt the same way when I thought mine was built in the Netherlands. Nothing against the Dutch, just felt the mini was kind of a pinnacle of 'britishness'

That being said the whole thing is German now anyway.

 

I was hot for the British heritage thing with my first MINI. Truth is, the more Cherman, the better it's gotten over the years, in terms of build quality.

 

Just checked the notoriously unreliable toll free number and it indicated my production completion was bumped from the 7th to the 9th. I think in going to miss that ship! This is only an issue insomuch as I'm trying to stall the sale of my current MINI. We're a one car family so the longer between sale and delivery, the more rental costs I incur. Problems to have tho.

 

I'm new here and to Mini, but have been patiently, or relatively patiently, waiting for my new BRG F55. Order was placed on 12/26/14. Vehicle was listed as arriving at Southampton on 1/29/15, and is on a boat to California as of 2/5/15. So if I'm lucky, she will be in SLC the first week of March. Btw, the boat is not a k-line or a ww boat.

 

Interesting - what company is shipping then?

 

I know what you mean by 'relatively patiently'. I ordered mine at the end of October. At least we won't have to suffer seeing our cars sit in EPA jail. I mean..hopefully.

 

Not sure which company, but it's on the Equuleus Leader. Last I looked it was past the Azores heading toward N. America.

 

I heard about that from my MA. Not fun.

 

Nice build KKelly! Mine will go from Georgia to Little Rock so not too far from Oklahoma City. My scheduled completion date still shows Feb 9th when calling the automated number, but its still in the paint shop. When I called Ask MINI today and talked to a rep they said it shows in their system as being scheduled for completion tomorrow on the 10th. They couldn't tell me though whether or not it was in the Plant Oxford facility in the UK or the VDL Nedcar facility in the Netherlands. Guess I will find out in the next few days. I emailed my MA to see if he could tell me anything further. Did yours get completed today?

 

I know what you mean. This is my first MINI purchase too, and I really liked the whole British pedigree/backstory that comes with it as part of the charm.

EDITED: In my earlier original post I mentioned other details about what I thought the 7th digit meant, but I had misunderstood that it was 7th from the last and not from the front so I have edited this post to remove that content since it ended up being incorrect and I wanted to avoid causing confusion. Apologies. I will leave the window sticker example though in case anyone is interested. Thanks.

The assembly location would be indicated on the window sticker like this one in the For this Vehicle Final Assembly Point Field in the Right Corner, but none of the dealer pictures tend to show them that are listed online and I guess you wouldn't know for sure anyways going in if you were ordering direct from the factory.

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/...ticleLarge.jpg

Above link is an example from the New York Times article.

 

Any updates on yours? Did they get it completed today?

 

The assembly plant code is the 7th last digit in the vin. Which would make it the 11th digit in from the left.

http://m.wikihow.com/Decode-a-VIN

 

Ahh, I totally must have skimmed over that 7th last digit in the vin part. I was thinking it was the 7th overall from the start and not the 11th from the left.

In that case mine is a 2 as well.

Sorry for the confusion in my earlier post.. and thanks for the heads up

 

No problemo. I suspect the only surefire way to see which plant built your car is to wait and see which port it gets picked up at.

 

I was at the MINI dealer yesterday and all the MINI's made at Nedcar in Born had a 3 as the 7th to last digit, all the MINI's made in Plant Oxford had a 2 as the 7th to last digit. I was extremely confused as well when I ordered mine back in August and was used to T being the signifier for Plant Oxford, thus when I received my vin a couple of days after production and saw a 2 as the 7th to last digit I was sourly disappointed thinking that mine had been made at Nedcar, until it arrived and I saw the Monroney sticker said it was made in Oxford.

 

Hopefully I get to find out soon. Mine actually did end up finishing assembly yesterday on the 9th after all. When I run the VIN decoder online it shows that as the official production date now. Current status via Ask MINI is "in transport to exit port"

Nice, thanks so much for sharing that as it is very useful indeed! I kinda feel the same way. I know regardless wherever it is built its still a Mini and I'm sure the assembly process is the same, but it is neat knowing yours was built in the UK. Sort of like if your buying an Audi/BMW you would expect it to be built in Germany, but I know even with Audi some of their vehicles are built elsewhere. The next gen Q5 will be built in Mexico and I think some of BMW's X variants are built here in the US.

 

Yes mine was completed the 9th. This morning when I called the hotline it said that my vehicle had been released to the carrier to transport to the port of exit. From what I can gather, the next boat to GA is the Asian emperor scheduled to leave on the 13th arriving in GA on the 25th. Hopefully we will both be on that boat!

 

Have you tried bmwarchive with your VIN? Mine shows an 'assembled in' field along with the production date. Does yours show that too? Mine shows assembled in Oxford.

 

Yep yep! Mine was finished yesterday as well, and is at the docks twiddling it's scuttles. My AskMINI guy didn't know which factory either, so I'll check that site. Back in the day it was always Southampton and then eventually an Austrian location for the R60/61 when it came out. With the F series I'm getting the impression they have concurrent output at different shops.

This being MINI no.4 it's less the agonizing wait anymore and more just vehicle sale logistics. I'm a 1-car family so I don't want to sell my CM too soon and then eat a bunch of car rental cost waiting for the new car to arrive. Port of exit just helps me estimate delivery time...

 

Hey, what a difference 10 hours makes. I'm scheduled for the Manon, leaving on the 12th, with estimated arrival at Port Hunueme (sp) on the 4th of March. That's three weeks earlier than I anticipated.

First green ship for me. The previous three were auspicious red!

 

I hope so too, that would be awesome. As of today, mine is still giving me that same message... released to carrier to transport to the port of exit.


Mine doesn't, it just gives model description, market, type, e-code, chassis, steering, doors, engine, drive, transmission, body color, upholstery, and production date which they have as 09.02.2015. After that it starts the option codes. But I did call Ask MINI this morning for an update and the lady I spoke with did tell me it was the Oxford plant and released to carrier this morning, but no info on ship/etc. yet.


Awesome! That's great news congrats... and three weeks earlier you can't beat that. How did you find out, did your MA email you, or did you just use your VIN in the cargo ID tracker to find out?

 

Yep cargo iD
MINI doesn't repair it yet. "Still in production" though the phone folks at least know it's at the dock