I ordered my first MINI a few weeks ago. I have been informed by the dealership that it is awaiting transport. I've found a few websites that have some information about tracking your MINI and the ship it is on once you have the VIN number, but they are all about 4 years old and the instructions don't seem to apply. I'm wondering if anyone has any updated information on how to track it (other than through the MINI site itself, obviously).

Also, any idea on when I should expect my MINI to arrive if it is currently awaiting transport? I have to drive 5 hours to pick it up, so I need to plan to take off work. My dealership is telling me it should be here by the end of the month, but I don't know how much to trust the accuracy of this estimate.

 

In the 1st Gear forum, there is a thread stickied near the top with all the information you need to track your MINI

 

I know how you feel. I am 4 hours away from dealer and had to book and schedule a bus ticket to get there.
During shipment you will never be able to get better than +- 3 or 4 days. You will not be able to actually track the ship during the entire voyage. Most of the time you will only have an ETA.
You will have a better idea after it gets to the VDC - 1 or 2 days est.
You will not be able to make solid plans until your MINI actually gets to the dealer. They will want a day or 2 to look it over and install any dealer options etc.

I have written up my experience with shipping and tracking as some of the information in the 1st Gear and other online info is old.

This is a draft so there may be some errors:
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Tracking your MINI through Production and Shipping


Note this is what I did when tracking my 2010 MINI Clubman production and shipping (Dec.09- Feb.10) to the West Coast using the WWL shipping company. Information here may be useful for shipments to East coast and/or using other shipping companies as well.

To track your MINI production you must have your Production Number. A few days after you order your MINI, your dealer will give you a Vehicle Inquiry Report printout which will show you the Production Number and a list of all options you added to your MINI. The printout will also show the destination port: PHMPOA = Port Hueneme CA.

Once you have your production number you can sign up in the Owners Lounge area on the MINIUSA website. http://www.miniusa.com/ Current MINI owners can also sign up using your VIN number.
The OL gives a very general outline of where your MINI is in the production cycle. The OL tends to be several days behind reality.

Click the View Order Details to see info on your ordered options.
Soon after your MINI goes into the scheduled for production phase, your new VIN number will appear in order details. Use the VIN to get insurance and finance quotes.
Note that the info in the Factory ordered options box may not show up for several days. Sometimes the info disappears and reappears later for no reason?

For more up to date status and slightly more detailed info, call 1(866)275-6464 or 1(866)ASK-MINI. Have your production number or VIN. The automated phone system is about a day behind. The automated system will give more info than the OL such as the estimated date of completion when you are in the production phase.

Use voice recognition or if want to be more discrete, use the keyed responses.
For keyed entry instead of voice:
“ …..... road side assistance or vehicle production status”....Press 2
“ …....OK what is your P# or last 7 of VIN...”..... Key in your production number.
“ Was that a P# or VIN#?” …. Press 1.

You can also talk to a live person and maybe get better info but I never did that.

Another useful OL perk. You can download a PDF file of your owners manual. On the OL click Your Mini and then owners manual. Currently owners manuals for all MINI models from '02 to '09 are available. Supplemental manuals such as radio manual are not available.

Note I found that after the MINI got to the US at the BMW VDC then the OL was more updated then the automated phone system. In fact the live operator has no information past the time when the ship leaves port in UK.
The At VDC status showed up in OL the day after the ship arrived in port. The OL also showed an ETA to dealer which for me was 1 week after arrival at the VDC.

Shipping Schedules
Once your MINI is complete and in the waiting transport phase, it will be transported to the Southhampton dock and wait for a vehicle transport ship.

MINI BMW often uses the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics shipping company but has used other companies.
It takes bit of digging around and trial and error to find the shipping information. You should at least be able to find your ship name and departure schedule and ETA. A shipment to US west coast takes ~22 days.

Try WWL shipping first. If you can't find your MINI scheduled on a WWL ship, then look at the Southampton port ship schedules and see if you can find more information as explained below.

Ship Tracking MINI via Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics shipping company
Go to this web site:
http://www.2wglobal.com

If your ship has already departed then skip to track and trace below:

Customer Centre menu
Choose Schedules
Under Schedules options choose Search by ports.

Choose United Kingdom in origin Country
Choose U.S.A. in destination country – Search
Choose Southhampton in Origin Port
Choose Port Hueneme, CA in destination Port (West Coast)
or
Choose Port ? (East Coast).

Find the name of the ship that will depart closest to when your MINI was delivered at the port.
Click on the link next to the ship under Voyage.
Find your departure and arrival dates in the list.

Track and Trace
Click on the All users under Track and Trace
or drill down in Customer Centre menu and choose Track and Trace.

In the Cargo ID field (furthest right), enter at least the last 7 digits of your VIN and press Trace.
This will show more updated information and confirm that you are actually scheduled on the ship you found above.
You can also do 'wildcard' searches with the % character. To search for other MINI's on a ship: WMWML3C52ATX% Use more VIN characters to narrow the search or less to expand search.

Click on Voyage Number to see the current updated schedule.
This information in Voyage Number is updated as schedules change. Note that the ETA shown in the Voyage Details page is never updated once the voyage starts.

Once you know the ship name you can also get the latest schedule by going to Schedule options and choosing Search by Vessel.

Note that information may not show here until about a day before departure. If it does not show up by the day of departure you may have been bumped to the next ship. OR your MINI is being shipped via a different shipping company. See Southampton shipping movements below and look for any vehicle ships from different companies which are departing about the time your MINI is at the dock. Other known shipping companies: NYK Line. I don't know if any of the other shipping companies will show automobile tracking?
Your dealer may be able to get some information such as ship name and schedule.

Check back from time to time to see if the schedule has changed. Quite common to add a day or 2 due to weather or other delays.

Southhampton Shipping Movements
This site will show all ship arrivals and departures at Southampton. Ships will show up on list several days in advance of arrival.
http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/
Menu: Live Information
Choose: Shipping Movements

OR direct link
http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/shipping_movments.asp

Find the ship in the arrivals and/or departures list.
If you do not already know the ship name and company (agent), then look for vehicle type ships in the list. Find all the ships departing within a week or two after your MINI is at the dock. Note the shipping Agent company and if not WWL then you may need to search for a web site for that company and see if they have means to track shipments by VIN.

For real time ship tracking (AIS)
Gives ship movement plots of all ships shown on very detailed maps + satellite hybrid maps. (Google Earth).
This works when the ship is in or near a port or within about 50 miles of one of the land based AIS base stations around the world. Currently will not track ships on open sea but that may change in the future when satellite coverage is added. Other means of tracking are available for $.

You can track your ship just before arrival, at port, and after departure for about a day when in the English Channel.

In my case I was able to see a tug pull up along side and move the ship to the dock. The ship docked for about a day, then I saw a tug pull the ship away on departure.

You will not be able to track again until your ship is near a coast of the U.S. You may be able to catch a tracking around Porta Rico, my ship did not show up in that area. No tracking is available through Panama.

West coast ships will pick up tracking again off the coast of Ensenada Mexico about 12 hours before arrival at Port Hueneme CA.

Zoom out on the map to see the covered areas in shaded grid boxes.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

Click Vessels tab.
Click search all
Enter your ships name in Vessels Name field and click search
click current (last known) position link.

Another ship tracker:

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/index.html#search

Enter ship name and search. Note call sign and use that in the plot position by call sign field for more detailed information.

Another web site devoted to AIS and Southampton port:
This has links to same pages as above but has other useful information.

http://www.solentwaters.co.uk/

Southampton Shipping movements:
Main menu – shipping movements – Southhampton – Southhampton Arrivals and Departures ABP
Pop ups must be enabled for this site.
If popup box is blank then select the displayed URL and hit Enter.

AIS tracking:
From Main menu select AIS+Radar+Shiplist+Webcams
Select AIS- Worldwide AIS

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