I have a projected manufacture date of 8-8-03.

I also purchased out of state. I live in Ca but purchased in Utah. also I have vacation planned sometime in Sept Oct to the caribian for a week or 2.

here is the problem. I want to buy airfare now to utah but dont want to get the ticket so the car sits at the dealer for a month or so that I show up there before the car does.

any body purchase from utah. how long from your projected manufacture to delivery?

thanks so much

 

Depends on a lot but to the West Coast figure at least 30 days. However, cars have been delayed for various reasons departing Southampton, and even more common cars have been delayed immediately after offloading in the US. These delays are normally due to high volume at the Vehicle Processing Centers. Once your car hits the Vehicle Processing Center it is possible (but unlikely) for a further delay if there is any noticeable damage to the vehicle. By noticeable I mean flat tires, or missing seats, I wouldn't hold my breath that the VPC people will catch anything less than that.

 

shoot. mu dealer told me I probably wouldn't see it until OCT. but that was before the mini had a production date. that was also in may when I put down the deposit. but now with a production date of 8-8 it seems that is the date for projected production finish. so I might just be safe to assume mid to late Sept I could pick up my car. humm.

 

>>here is the problem. I want to buy airfare now to utah but dont want to get the ticket so the car sits at the dealer for a month or so that I show up there before the car does.
>>

Best bet? wait until the MINI is at the dealer. Then use priceline or something to get ticket for the next day. Otherwise you'll never time it right.

 

It sounds like your car will be "born" close to a full year after mine was. With that in mind, I can say that last year, there was a huge back up at the VPC (vehicle processing center) on the east coast. I don't think it was as bad on the west coast...but there the problem was the west coast dock workers strike.

I believe that what traditionally happens is that MINI (and maybe BMW too...which ships on the same boats as the MINIs. It's usually like 1/2 BMWs and 1/2 MINIs) pushes out a whole lot of cars right at the end of the model year (August). This generally clogs the VPC and slows everything down for a week or two.

My car was in Newark only about 5 weeks after it came off the line in Oxford. But then it took 2.5 weeks to get the 15 miles down the road to the dealer in Long Island. There were also problems with the certificate of origin paperwork getting from BMW in NJ to the dealer. The car arrived a good 4 days before its paperwork.

Point is, at this time of year things are pretty unpredicable. This is the one downside of buying a car long-distance and then trying to go pick it up yourself. Have you looked into shipping? I hear that it's not too expensive... maybe less than the cost of buying a more expensive, changable, plane ticket?

 

Mine took one month from the production date to the day it arrived in town.
Good luck! Happy waiting!

 

I also am buying out-of-state. Here's my plan, I have a Southwest Airlines voucher for a free flight (or two one-way flights). The voucher can be used with no advanced booking, just walk up and if there's room on the flight, you go. (Of course, call ahead to see if there's a seat on the flight before you drive to the airport.) One-way vouchers can be found on ebay for about $150. Southwest flies to Salt Lake from several California airports. Get your voucher and fly over the day your car arrives.

 

mine took two and a half weeks.

 

I'm in NorCal and here's how ours went:
5/16 - born
5/30 - sailed out of Southampton
6/17 - arrived Port Hueneme (SoCal)
6/24 - arrived at my dealer (Utah should take I would think at most a week longer)
6/26 - available for us to pick up (we couldn't get it until 6/28 though)

We had a 2 week trip planned starting on 6/29 and made our dealer aware of it in advance so they made sure they got all our options done first so they didn't have to keep it on the lot. Unfortunately, we picked it up on 6/28 and left 6/29! It sat in the garage until we arrived home last night..at which point my husband decided that he needed to go for a drive to "charge the battery". I've only driven it once, home from the dealer! But I'm heading out tonight to "charge the battery" while HE takes baby duty (human baby that is)

 

ordered from universal mini in cali

5 weeks from birth to dealer
and one more week before i picked her up