My car arrived in port in California on February 23rd. I was told it would arrive in Albuquerque on March 5th. Well .. It didn't. I waited and waited 'til finally I was told it would arrive no later than March 14th. March 14th came and went and now I'm being told March 18th, give or take a day. In the mean time, I detailed my current car to sell on March 5th, then again for March 14th. Also, I transfered money from a good interest bearing account on March 2nd (not to mention the $2K deposit they've been holding since December 12th). This is FRUSTRATING beyond belief.

Sorry .. Just had to vent.

 

Hmmm... I've heard most cars clear the Vehicle Distibution Center in a week or so.

Not to make you fret too much, but I would chek in a little further with your MA and see what's up. Allmost sounds like they found some issue at the VDC that they're dealing with. Could be mechanical, or shipping damage. They have the ability to completely rebuild or respray a who;e car at that place (provided they can get parts).

Then again, someone could have simply misplaced your shipping paperwork or parked your car in the wrong lot or somthing completely benign.

Good luck (fingers crossed for you brother).

 

I would be shocked if your MA doesn't know precisely the problem. The VDC is run by BMW/MINI so the communication should be spot on.

 

Ask MINI said they hadn't seen where there's any problem with the car. The MA and Sales Manager both say they are frustrated at this outcome (they say that two other cars slated for Albuquerque are also stuck at the distribution center - on a truck trailer I believe).

Maybe this has to do with cost. I don't know who pays for delivery (dealer or MINI) but three cars to Albuquerque is maybe seen as not cost effective (waiting for more cars to fill the truck?).

I keep fighting the temptation to just tell them to forget it. Heck, my current 2004 Prius is in pristine condition. Some of my friends and family think I'm just plain stupid to get rid of it in the first place (they haven't driven an MCS).

I'd better discipline myself to say no more. I can get pretty worked up sometimes.

 

If its around the 18 then the trailer should be loaded and on the road by Sunday. I don't have any real first hand knowledge of your problem, but you could give your dealer some sort of deadline? This might prompt a clearer response. Transparency is almost always the best policy. In this case there seems to be none between MINI and customer.

 

Delivery is the least of my worries. My dealer (I'm in Germany) called Munich so see if they could still squeeze in my order for week 9, replacing one of their stock cars. No problem, I'm told. 3 days later I get an email telling me that it's going to be week 11. Now I kind of figured that would happen, so no big deal.

Now I'm waiting for my VIN so I can finalize the loan, and this week (week 11), I'm told my car will be built week 13! WTF?!?!? I raise hell about it, and they call Munich again. Ok, we can get your car bumped to next week (week 12). They pull up the BMW intranet, and there's my order with confirmation from corporate for week 12.

Now seeing how they've forked this up twice, I have no faith that my car will be built next week (especially since I should have a VIN this week). I've already sold my car based on the contract I have for a week 9 build. Another month of sharing a car with the wife... yeeeeeehaaaaaaaaw!!

At least I only have to have it shipped across the English Channel, and not the Atlantic.

I'm also seriously considering telling them to forget it.

 

Thanks Loui. It sounds like you have some experience relating to this sort of thing. I'll work something out. If my car doesn't arrive by March 18th "give or take a day" I'll definitely take a different tack.

 

Did your car have the wood steering wheel? My dealer had a hard recall and all the cars ordered with a the wood steering wheels were stopped at the VDC until they could be replaced with leather.

 

Yes, and I asked at the dealership if maybe that had to do with the delay. The answer I got was, "No .. no cars left the factory with wood steering wheels".

 

Not to alarm you but did you see this:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=21112

Maybe shipping damage? Also does NM get their shipments from west or east coast?

 

West coast I'm told. Yeah, I'm pretty concerned. Shipping damage to me sounds like a real possibility. The comment in your Distribution Center link by 05JCWS does get me wondering a bit. It's kind of alarming.

 

Well, Ken Cooper do you have your car? Hope So!!

 

My Mini reached the NY port on March 5 and I was told to expect delivery on March 10. So, I sold my old car and had a check for about $25K ready on March 9.

But my Mini reached the dealer today, 2 weeks after reaching the NY port. I'm taking delivery in the evening today but I've been paying interest on $25K since the 9th.

No transit damage was reported on the car and no explanation was given to me for this delay.

My MA did say that the delay was unusual and he gave me a loaner R53 while I was waiting for delivery as I had no wheels. I have to say, if it wasn't for my MA, I would be very unhappy right now. Another case of an MA making up for Mini's faults.