After hearing a shipmate in town has received his car a week ago and another shipmate who lives 400 miles further from LA also gotten his car today, I became very suspicious why I haven't seen my car yet. My MA found the car indeed suffered some damages during ocean transit. I am still waiting more details. I am aware of the fact that 3% MSRP or above damage needs to be disclosed to the dealer and customer. Any advise what I should do now? Thanks!

 

FWIW, when I was test driving cars, one dealer had a car which was almost ideal for me not that I look at it (but it was too soon for me to pull the trigger), it had a cracked windshield which I was told suffered in transit on the boat. The dealer offered to replace the windshield.

I hadn't heard of the 3% MSRP, but I'd figure the dealer would repair / disclose any damage to the car to the purchaser. It just seems right. But what do I know?

 

Ohhh sorry to hear the news. Hopefully its something minor they can fix quickly and to your satisfaction.


While I was placing my order two guys pulled back into the dealership in a new 2014 S that they were out on a test drive with. Not sure what happened but they came back with some front end damage. They were in the near by managers office for quite a while and I heard the figure $3500-$4500 worth of damage. Dealer was pissed because this was back in April and it was one of the first 2014's they had in stock at the time.

 

Small damages during ocean transit is not uncommon. Usually fixed at offloading center and no one is the wiser. I would wait and see what you end up with. There may be another reason altogether that you don't have your ordered car yet.
I know nothing of the damage over 3% of MRSP.

 

To answer the 3% question, please go to the bottom of this line below. One of the Lemon Law Attorney replied "CA has a rule there if the damage is less than 3% of MSRP no disclosure is required. NM law says 6%."

http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/wh...w--668129.html

 

This thread has the 3% information and photos of some repair/repaint job performed at VDC.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...on-center.html

 

@shao77 this is awful news - I'm so sorry! My MA told me that if there was damage in transit they would do whatever necessary to make it right. It might mean a longer wait but don't accept anything less than perfect... It will be worth it!

 

If it were me, I will try getting out of this deal. I will sleep better while owning this car for next x amount of years.

 

I would avoid jumping to conclusions because this could be nothing. My 2014 was held up at the port in April for a couple weeks due to damage while in transit. Once the distribution center finally shed some light on the damage, it was simply a broken visor clip. The delay was long because they didn't have any replacements available at launch. Certainly wasn't 3% of MSRP and they voluntarily gave me the information. Hopefully, yours is a similar situation!

 

Damage during shipping is extremely rare. I worked on a ship carrying Toyotas, we never had a car damaged. Ships crew can't even enter the cargo decks with tools in their pockets.

Dave

 

Thanks for all the inputs.My MA is as helpless as I am when it comes to deal with VDC. Hotline wasn't helpful other than saying "your car is waiting s hipping vessel at port".

I wrote the following to MiniUSA to express my discontent,
"what kind of repair require 7 days of works and counting? ...
Trying to stay positive by saying it could be just waiting for a small part to arrive but Mini should have known better to stock up inventory parts properly. If such delay can occur at VDC, can Mini owners rely on their local dealers to receive parts in reasonable time frame?"

 

I thought about giving up on this one and re-order a 2015 one. The MA said Mini won't release any 2015 until Oct. This confuses me. I thought 2015 has gone into production in June or July. Does that mean cars produced in July/Aug/Sep will be sitting in port/warehouse until Oct? What happen if all 2014 car are sold and dealers won't have any car until Oct? This is very possible based on my daily visit to the dealer which doesn't have many base model available and are disappearing fast. Any clue?

 

From MINIUSA A statement is suppose to be release today or tomorrow:
The availability of the 2015 model year MINI Hardtop has been pushed back to October as we await EPA certification results. Engineers are working diligently with the EPA to test the vehicle and to arrive at a certified MPG rating as soon as possible. We anticipate having results by late August which would delay availability until early October of this year. We are sorry for this delay, and are evaluating next steps for those affected.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. Does that mean Mini will roll back to produce 2014 model so that it can continue to sell cars between now and Oct? Otherwise dealers will have no car to sell after the remaining 2014 inventories are depleted. Didn't they have similar problem early this year when 2013 model production stopped/reduced and 2014 model launch got delayed? I'd be pissed if I am Mini's dealer that Mini leaves me no product top sell.

 

Having talked to my dealer extensively about this, yes, they are pissed about it. To quote my dealer, "we are going to be living on Countryman/Paceman and pre-owned car sales. We expect our lot to be pretty empty come September." My dealer had 15-20 F56s coming in August - and now they don't.

 

reject the car

 

Could be something as simple as paint damage. No need to over react until you have all the details.

 

As suspected it's a typical "we're the government and we're here to help" problem. It's the same engine you idiots. This will drag on forever I bet. It's like during Hurrican Katrina they make a ship that was sucking up oil off the ocean go to port so they could count the life jackets. They arrived too late on Friday and the counting dude didn't come back until Monday!