Thank you

 

So I was just on the MINI Canada website... and noticed that while playing around with the build configurator, the driving assistant option is no longer offered/listed for the Countryman, but it is for other models such as the Cooper hardtop 3 dr.

PS: 09BMW328 I really love the white/black combination with your new F60. Seeing the R60 with it in the one photo though makes me miss the more aggressive "bulky" look of the older model. When I ordered mine I told myself that I am driving from interior of the car (which is gorgeous and a massive upgrade from the old interior) and that I'm just being silly. Still-- curious if there are aspects of the old model style that anyone misses?

 

I was talking to my (very knowledgeable) motoring advisor this morning and he said the Oxford strike is really screwing up production of the Countryman. These cars were being produced both in Oxford and the Netherlands factories but now all the production has been moved to the Netherlands. Any factory orders of cars scheduled to be built in Oxford are now really delayed. My dealer (MINI of Las Vegas) has only sold 5 Countryman cars so far because they can't get the cars. I'm sure BMW/MINI is not happy about this situation. He said factory orders going in now wouldn't be delivered before July/August - maybe moving into the 2018 model year. He has a Works Countryman on order and it has been delayed too. I was lucky to get my car when I did - I bought it off the delivery truck to the dealer. None of the other Countryman cars are coming in with all the options I have - so (for a while at least) I have a unique MINI!

David

 

News to me. I have only read that the F48 contract went to Born, and that ALL F48 Countrymans were made there, and NONE in Oxford. So, I'd have thought that Countryman production would not be much impacted.

 

My CMS All4 is on a barge, and on it's way to Halifax! Very happy the wait is almost over. I ordered it in the middle of March, so from the time the order was placed to the time it was shipped-- a little less than 5 weeks. I also don't think any of the 2017 CM models are made in England. Pretty sure it is Germany or Netherlands, so while MINI may be affected by a strike, the Countryman specifically would not be?

 

Congratulations and that was quick. Mine was ordered 2/13 and into the 13th week. Delivery 'any day now' but not at the dealer as just drove by. Arrived in Brunswick port 4/12 (slow boat - initially scheduled for port 4/6...but slipped during crossing). Dealer's spreadsheet showed scheduled to arrive at dealer 4/17...but didn't make that truck so still waiting. Looked like as I drove by today they were prepping for delivery another CM that arrived on that truck. It really gets frustrating now in the 11th hour but soon....!

 

Oh wow! Sounds like you will have yours in the next day or so! Sometimes I wonder how badly things like colour choice and option packages effect the production timeline. I have a feeling my dealer was able to hijack a production slot that was part of their original shipment and tweek it to my specs. That might account for a bit of the speed. Also-- taking the driver assistant off my order shaved months off the wait.

 

Placed my order on March 18, 2017 for the following:

2017 Countryman S
Midnight Black Body & Exterior Trim
Fully Loaded Package including Coldweather/Technology/Premium/Convenience
Packages
JCW Exterior
JCW Interior
Active Driving Assistant

Based on the information in this thread, it sounds like I will be waiting a few more months, sigh.........

 

I had to weigh the pros and cons of the active driving assistant with respect to the wait time. I wasn't satisfied with the MA's answer to the expected delivery date. If the option is worth waiting for (for you) you shouldn't feel bad. You have an amazingly specc'd vehicle. I wanted that option for the insurance savings and autonomous braking since most of my driving is in town. My husband has it on his Volvo XC60 and he brought to my attention that there are cons to it-- on the highway, the adaptive cruise control leaves too big of a gap between you and the car in front. People will always see this as an opportunity to cut in front of you. This often causes the vehicle to apply the brakes. It's very irritating.

 

You should be able to adjust the distance that the adaptive cruise uses to follow behind the car in front of you. On our XC90 you have 1 to 5 lines to choose from which is about a one second to three second difference. So the faster you go, the larger the distance is because it's time based. It may be different in the XC60 though.

I don't believe the Active Driving Assistant on the F60 includes ACC. I think it's like the Driving Assistant Plus pack on our F31 which just adds the camera for lane keeping assist, speed limit info and high beam assist and doesn't add the front mounted radar that BMW uses for ACC. The front mounted radar module is over $1000 on its own and ACC is a $1250 standalone option on the 3er once you've already added both the Driving Assistant and Driving Assistant Plus packs.

 

I double checked on the MINI USA website (since the Canadian one is crap and has dead links and missing info) and here is the description of the MINI Active Driving Assistant:

The optional Active Driving Assistant uses video to monitor and automatically adjust speed to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle ahead, and even dim your high beams when oncoming traffic approaches. Of course, if you want to make any adjustments, just use your steering wheel controls to speed up or slow down. If you somehow do get too close to an obstacle ahead, a warning will be automatically triggered - and then your brakes.

That would mean it does have ACC (camera based) but interestingly enough it lacks lane keeping and blind spot monitoring. Funny that all of that stuff is standard equipment on many Toyotas. So, the $1000 price tag for the option seems to be lacking some of the things I would personally expect something called "active driving assistant" to actually have. Seems like a misnomer to me.

 

I was told by my Advisor that the ADA does include the auto cruise control using the camera in the rear view mirror (no radar or lidar). The Owner Manual confirms that.

I went in looking for the ADA because of all the city driving we do, but I would have had to factory order the car and would not be eligible for the $1500 factory rebate offered for the Countryman in March - so I passed on this option and bought a fully loaded model that just arrived at the dealer. The Advisor had the feature on his car and said it had saved him a couple of times - but he noted that it scares you when it kicks in - cinching up the seat belts and slamming on the brakes. He says that the system does have problems driving into the sun - the camera has problems and the system shuts down (you are notified when it does that). The system doesn't include lane control or notification of cars in your blind spot - which would have been something I would really be interested in. My left eye is weak and drivers love to sit in my blind spot just behind me - I have to be careful to check.

David

 

I've had the automatic braking kick in one time on our F31 and when you've never experienced it before it's definitely a wake up call. A motorcycle passed me on a two lane back road and cut back over right in front of me. I thought the transmission had just bit it the way the car slammed on the brakes and the sounds it was making. HUD was flashing at me and then a second later everything was back to normal as the motorcycle sped away.

Unfortunately both Blind spot monitoring and Lane Keeping Assist require lane change radar units and left and right radar screens. Looks like they're keeping that feature to just the F48 on the UKL platform. I guess the F60 is only using PDC for the parking assistant, does it search for parking spots for you or just guide you in once you've found one?

 

I have to have my Advisor demo the auto parking function for me on our "Second Date". Reading the Owner Manual, it appears the system can identify open parking spaces for you if you drive slowly. Then, you can stop and use the parking function. I'm not really concerned because I have parallel parked about once in the last three years. (Parallel parking was part of the drivers test I took many many years ago....) We have very little on-street parking in Las Vegas - everything is parking lots and parking garages - especially on the strip. However, since almost all the Strip Casinos now charge for parking (even for locals), we stay away from the strip as much as possible.

David

 

Not sure what he's talking about as Countryman have never been produced in Oxford. All the F60s are from Born, Netherlands.

Just as a heads up to people who have ordered or are thinking about ordering the Active Driver Assistance package (5AS) as I don't think I've seen this mentioned:
MINI is prioritizing Priority 1 cars (sold cars) with 5AS so they get made quicker. Dealer stock cars with that option are getting that option automatically removed so any Driver Assist hardware coming in is getting to sold cars the quickest.

If you've paid or are going to be paying a deposit on an ordered car with 5AS, it should be put in Priority 1 by the dealer and they are getting produced with minimal delay.

Again, only sold customer cars are getting produced to with 5AS - Active Driver Assist to minimize any delays.

You can indeed adjust the following distance for the Active Cruise Control, though even at its closest setting, some people find it's not close enough. IMO, any closer and you'd be tailgating lol

Park Assist user here: When activated (by flipping the PDC switch), it will start looking for a spot big enough for your MINI to fit. When it finds one, you are presented with a big "P" graphic on your display with instructions to put your turn signal on and stop. When you do, it will then instruct you to shift into reverse and it takes over steering - you still control gas and brake. It will instruct you when to stop, pull forward, and put it in park. If you're a good parallel parker, it's not faster, but if you're not a great parallel parker (or feeling lazy) it's pretty handy.

 

The Sales Manager at my dealership did in fact call me 2 weeks ago to let me know that there was a delay due to the Active Driving Assistant module, and that my car was indeed classified Priority 1 (tomorrow will be 5 weeks since ordering my car). Still no VIN #. Still don't think my car will be delivered within the 8 - 12 weeks estimated delivery time I was given.

As much as I hate to admit this, in my 44 years of driving history, the Active Driving Assistant would have prevented 3 accidents caused by my failure to pay full time and attention to my driving. I have learned my lesson and today am a more attentive driver; I will just appreciate having this extra bit of insurance.

 

Did you get yours yet? As of Friday, mine was still in NYC even though the the vessel arrived 6 days earlier.

 

Don't rely on the miniusa "Owners Lounge" for tracking. Mine still shows at the Distribution Center awaiting transport to Dealer. No...it is in my driveway since I took delivery 4/20. Better to check with the dealer as they typically have updated information, however even that is not totally accurate. The dealer spreadsheet showed mine scheduled to arrive at the dealer 4/17, however, mine did not make the truck where others on the same ship did. While my salesman normally had Thurs/Fri off, he had to come in for training on Thursday. The truck arrived, he got it into PDI "first priority over other delivered vehicles" and full delivery prep for me to take delivery that afternoon and enjoyed his planned fishing trip on Friday vs. coming in to deliver!

 

My info was from the dealer, I never used mini website. As for yesterday, it was still in NYC. It arrived by vessel a week ago. He said they'd call port to check on it since they were expecting it this past Thursday.

 

That just seems strange and doesn't make sense. Isn't the Distribution Center serving the NE in PA where real estate is far cheaper than NYC or is that just for BMW with Mini elsewhere? At any rate, NY port - and any port for that matter - isn't a long term parking facility. Logistically, they need the space to support off-loading incoming ships with cars from all manufacturers - and even space for loading exports, but suspect that would be a different dedicated area rather than intermingled.

 

Maybe it's at a distribution center in PA and not at port. I just know it's off the vessel. The dealer (I'm in Boston area) called me just now and said maybe it'll come up this Thursday or Friday to the dealer. That'll be almost 2 weeks after it arrived at port. He's said it's normal to sit there for like 7 days because there are other cars that have priority...I call BS. Hope nothing was wrong when inspected off the vessel. They likely wouldn't tell me if there was. I asked him to call to make it a priority delivery and he said oh, that's something we can probably do, but the way he said it was totally just giving lip service and he wasn't planning on even trying. Frustrating but nothing I can really do and it's just a few more days I suppose. Vent a little, then try to look at the bright side of it.

 

we placed our order on March 14, 2017

2017 Countryman S All4
Island Blue & White Exterior Trim
with the Fully Loaded Package
Active Driving Assistant
Rally Lights
Leather/Cloth Carbon Black Cord
Illuminated Piano Black Surface

Our Mini was finished with production on 4/24/17 now awaiting transport. by ordering The Active Driving Assistant it really didn't add any additional time to the original 8 weeks we were advised we would have to wait. I'm not sure how long it takes the mini to get across the pond but hopefully we will have it by 5/14.

 

Our mini production completed today. Anyone have any idea which port countryman will be shipped from?

 

Probably Rotterdam, but they may go out of Zeebrugge although it's about 40KM further from VDL.

 

Zeebrugge. Virtually all production is Born, Netherlands and that is the closest port with Bremerhaven the next closest but about twice as far from the factory. It is really immaterial as the same ship typically hits both ports before crossing the channel to stop at Southampton (Oxford production port for other Mini's)) before the trek across the pond. If you are lucky will be with Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (google their site) but they don't have an exclusive as mine was with K-Line. On their site, insert your VIN in Cargo (or partial VIN ending in % for wildcard search) and will be able to follow from initial receipt a day or two before the ship arrives, loading and unloading at destination. Other shipping lines don't provide this level of information. A wildcard search of just the first 4 letters of the VIN will show all Countrymen - both loaded and unload ports - they all originate in Zeebrugge.