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1st GearNew members: make an initial post and introduce yourself as you shift from Neutral to First Gear. Current members: meet some of the new members.
It’s a journey that’s finally coming to a close, though not as lengthy as some!
Timeline and Info for Reference:
Convertibles are built at NedCar in the Netherlands, and ship from the Zeebrugge port.
I ordered a new MINI Yours S Convertible in late February, got a production number immediately for one of the dealership’s first 2023 build slots.
All MINI factories shut down due to chip shortage and model year switch over in March, but I expected that.
The MyGarage tracker popped to “Scheduled for Production” on April 5, at which point my motoring advisor gave me a May 4 estimated build week.
MyGarage moved to “Entering Assembly Line” May 10, Quality Check May 11, and dispatched from the factory May17.
My car sat “At Port” from May 17-May 30, when it finally updated to “In Transit” this morning.
If it’s on a Wallenius Wilhemsen, it’s either on the RoRo carrier Thermopylae or Morning Lisa. K-Line schedules are all wrong at the moment, so I’m not able to match anything up on the MarineTraffic tool. I also know that folks say the Garage tracker is always behind by a few days at this point, so I’m waiting for my MA to get back in on Tuesday to get me a ship name.
Next steps will be an unknown wait time at the US Port (ugh, customs), and any repairs or final installations that didn’t get done in Zeebrugge.
Then it’s a short drive to my Dealership in Burlington VT, hopefully before MINI Takes The States.
Note: a buddy also ordered their MINI at nearly the same time, got the manual transmission locked in, but has been +/- 4 days behind my car the whole way. His car still says “At port,” so even though they were build almost side by side, the wait time might be very different.
I’ll update this thread with timing details so any folks looking to obsess over timelines and tracking have a recent experience to reference!
Just called MINI Customer service and they’ve informed me that the name of the ship is “Morning Caroline,” which is operated by Eukor (subsidiary of Wallenius). It’s headed up to Sweden at the moment, but will hopefully be on its way across the pond soon.
My MA said the estimated arrival (I’m assuming at port in Baltimore or Newark) as 6/13. Factor in port shenanigans, and I’m hoping for end of June, right around the far end of my original estimate back when I ordered.
🤞
Morning Caroline is on its way to Halifax, NS with my car on board!
ETA at the next port is 6/10, then it’ll be headed to the New York (Newark) port. Definitely different than my initial report (on the build document in February) of port being Baltimore!
it took a little sleuthing to get the planned schedule, as Eukor’s schedule site seems to be broken. However, once I had the proper ports I needed (Gothenburg to New York), I was able to get a schedule through the Wallenius Wilhemsen site.
Sweet Caroline has unloaded my car and departed for southern ports.
Journey seemed to be smooth (tracked live on the myshiptracking website, and vesselfinder when out of range), she made it well within the estimated time frame and wasn’t held up at the port. The MyGarage tracker updated instantly when the ship entered the port, even before it moored anywhere.
I waited til Tuesday morning (when the ship had clearly left port entirely) before contacting my MA for transport updates.
I was flabbergasted when they said it’ll be at the dealership some time this weekend. My buddy’s dealership (many states away) gave a similar estimate, suggesting that not only are customs procedures more streamlined, but trailers are scheduled and/or at the ready for transport from the port. That’s some positive news during this time of constant supply chain issues.
Almost there!
Will update if anything changes or once my baby is home. Hope to give a full picture for folks to compare to in the weeks/months ahead.
Sunday 6/12, Ship arrived at Ny/NJ Port, tracker updates to “At Port.”
Monday 6/13, MINI unloaded, ship departs.
Tuesday 6/14, MA says MINI will be at dealership by the weekend.
Wednesday 6/15, Tracker says “in transit.” We’re on a truck! It’s nearly time to finalize this process!
The final days looked like this:
MINI Tracker said my car was at the dealership Wednesday night, 6/15, but my MA said it was actually Thursday 6/16. This is apparently due to other drop offs and truck driver tracking phenomena, but aren’t typically too far off the mark.
6/17 I’m able to schedule pickup for the upcoming Monday. Because of the volume of cars that came in for the dealership, they were quite backed up in the service department. We scheduled for Monday afternoon.
6/20 My baby made it through service and detailing, they added a ceramic coating inside and out, and I finally signed for the new baby.
She’s incredible. Perfection. Gorgeous and POWERFUL. Not my first MINI, but my first Cooper S. Vroom Vroom!
What is the status of your buddy's car? I also ordered s manual trans conv on 2/14 and my MA had been less than helpful.. i have my vin and have been tracking. My mini garage half works for me. I am currently sitting at port. Sounds like we could possibly be on the same boat?
What is the status of your buddy's car? …
Sounds like we could possibly be on the same boat?
Congrats on your soon to be new one!
His just landed at the dealership, and was only about 4 days behind mine the whole process.
It was a Sidewalk edition, so I’m not sure if any of that bumps the production up sooner (it shouldn’t- they usually do it by VIN).
I wonder if your dealership had already used its production slots for that quarter and they had to wait - did you get a production number right away? This seems to be the case right now - they just don’t have the build capacity to handle more than a few custom jobs per dealership at a time.
