I ordered a mini cooper conv back on 7/31. Its now 9/28 and still no car. The dealer tells me its sitting in the port in New Jersey awaiting an update from BMW before it can be released. Is the dealer lying to me? Ive patiently waiting but now Im getting pissed.

anyone hear of this happening. Is there a place I can find additional info?

thanks
Carl

 

Yes it happens, but if you want more info then call Miniusa (toll free no.) and have the vin number ready (or the tracking number you get when it first starts being built).

 

I'm going through the same thing, although you ordered yours a week before mine. MINI messed up the VIN numbers on 147 convertibles, and it's introduced some significant delays, as well as some difficulties in tracking the cars. This is what happened to mine, and I bet it's what's going on with yours, too.

Look through your old paperwork for the car's VIN number. If the 10th digit is a '7', you're one of the unlucky ones. All of the affected cars have recently been assigned new VIN numbers with a '6' in the 10th digit, so you can't go by anything you've received in the past week or so. Go back to the very first document you received that listed the car's VIN and check there.

It's taken BMW a while to figure out if they could change the VIN numbers, or if they would have to rebuild the cars, or if they could apply for a waiver and use the original VINs. Since yours was probably already on the ship when the problem was discovered, that makes the solution harder, since they couldn't easily send yours back to the factory, and they had to wait until the ship docked and the car was unloaded in New Jersey before they could update the VIN.

A bulletin that MINI put out has said that they've figured out a legal way to "re-VIN" the cars, but I'm not sure what that means, since the VIN is stamped / printed / engraved all over our cars. I'm really curious to see how the cars look when they arrive here. We may very well end up with 'collector's items"!

Scott

 

A black perminant marker that has a 6 written over the 7

 

I kept hearing Mini was going to sweeten the deal for those of us it effected...MA mentioned it twice too but I have heard NOTHING...

:(

I was only in production when my convert. VIN mistake was caught....

 

collectors item? ha ha... that would hilarious... Im more concerned it ends up being a mark on the title and if I go to sell it and someone does a carfax it gets nuts..

 

Yep - depending on what exactly MINI did with the VIN markings on the car, I may have to tell the story to the DMV every year as to why my 2006 MINI keeps showing up as a 2007 based on the VIN. But you'd better believe I'm saving EVERY piece of paper I've received with the old VIN, the new VIN, the Bulletins from MINI, the letters from my MA, and printouts of the discussions/articles on the web, in case I need to document the car's history and explain the VIN mixup to anyone.

It would have been *really* neat if this had happened to a batch of coupes instead of convertibles, since the 2006 and 2007 coupes are completely different cars. With the convertibles, the 2006/2007 differences are going to be minor.

Scott

 

Im seriously thinking of cancelling my order if this is the case...When the day comes and I go to sell my car, who is going to buy something with mismatched VIN #'s? Ive been trying to call my salesman and he never returns my call, anyone have mini's customer number?

 

I had heard the "sweeten the deal" thing from my MA as well a few weeks ago, but nothing since. Honestly, my attitude will depend on how long it takes the car to finally arrive. Mine was originally a Week 36 car, and those have only just now begun to arrive at the dealers. My MA originally told me "late September / early October", so in reality, I won't consider mine to be "delayed" unless it's later than the first week of October or so.

Scott

 

You can call 866-ASK-MINI, but I don't think they'll know exactly what was done to fix the VIN numbers on the affected cars.

Regardless, don't cancel your order yet, you're in the home stretch! Wait to see the car when it arrives at the dealership, and if you're not happy with how they resolved the VIN issue, refuse delivery. Start doing some research to find out where all of the VIN markings are, so you know where to check on your new car.

But first, have you confirmed that yours is one of the affected convertibles? Your car *could* be delayed at the VDC for entirely unrelated issues. My MA told me about a lady whose car was actually totaled at the VDC and had to be re-ordered!

Scott

 

PARealtor

Same Thing happen to me . Ordered MCSC 7/31. My mini is on the Patriot which arrives in Charleston tomorrow. MA told me they are changing VIN at VDC. This will delay mini by up to two weeks.

I received an email from MotoringFile 9/21 which confirmed this.

 

no mine is one of the ones affected.. I have a new vin# now and they say they are going to change it in the 20+ places on the car. My question to the dealer is how are you going to make me whole? The car has a blemish on its title in my eyes. Im going to have to hold on to paperwork to prove that no funny business occured and even still a buyer may be a little concerned. Once I take ownership the problem is out of bmw's hands and now becomes mine if anything should pop up in the future.

The dealer told me that they are trying to find out from bmw what can be done to make up for it to the customer. I told him try knocking some money off the price and giving me free service for as long as I own the car. Im none too happy about this, especially since I was told the car would be in the week of september 10th. It was supposed to be my suprise anniversary gift to my wife... Thanks for F'ing that up mini.

Oh well we shall see.. The dealer says it will be two weeks max to get my car to the dealership. Considering the port is about 1.5 hours away from my dealership and house then I imagine it will be a little less than 2 weeks.

thanks for the info guys..

 

The change in VIN shouldn't a problem since new cars aren't titled until you buy it and apply for a title. A new car has a Certificate of Origin with the VIN, manufacturer, etc on it. That is the information used by the state motor vehicle depts to issue a title on new vehicles. The Certificate of Origin is basically just a piece of paper with the info needed for you get a title. Once the car has new VIN info, they will give it a new Certificate of Origin with the correct numbers for the car, and the Title will be issued with that info. The old--incorrect--VIN probably won't be anywhere on the new paperwork, and the old Certificate of Origin will be destroyed.

I would be more concerned about the VIN stamped on the car. How are they going to "unstamp" the existing number, in its many locations(including frame and engine compartment), and stamp new numbers.

 

I ordered my Mini 8/29 and it was delivered to New Jerssey yesterday on the Undine. My original VIN was a 2007 and when I found out about the cabrio VIN problem I called ASK MINI and was told that somehow my VIN was changed to a 2006 # prior to production. Since my dealer is Princeton Mini it should only take a few days for delivery from Nrwark and I'm expecting the car next week. I'll really be ticked off if all of a sudden they decide the car has the original VIN# and it has to stay in port for a few weeks. That would suck! I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

That makes sense. If your car arrived yesterday, then it probably left the UK around the 19th, which mean it probably went into production around the 10th, which is right around when they discovered the error. So, even though yours was originally scheduled to receive a 2007 VIN, they probably never actually stamped any parts of your car with it. So, your car's life cycle has probably been pretty normal, and they didn't actually have to change anything besides maybe the Certificate of Origin.

That's still great that you ordered your car a month ago and it's already in the States - that's one of the quickest I've heard so far! And definitely the fastest of any of the "problem convertibles". Mine was ordered on Aug 9th, and I'm not even positive it's on a boat yet.

Scott

 

I'll have to look on my wife's car, but someone in another thread brought up the possibility that the drivetrain parts might only be stamped with the Chassis Number and not the entire VIN. Since the chassis numbers on the affected convertibles weren't changed when the rest of the VIN was corrected, that might make the re-VIN a little easier.

Scott

 

thats where I purchased my mini from.. let me know if they offer to do anything special... who is your salesperson?

Mine is Jeremy

 

i dont remember selling you a MINI, but who cares, wheres my commission

 

You're right. That might have been me on the other thread. When I posted in this thread I had forgotten that the engine/transmission are usually stamped with only the (production)sequence number(last six digits of the VIN).

 

my mini was pulled from the assembly line on Sept 7th and then after not being able to track it, was told it was on a boat on the 15th!! I was told mine was destroyed and rebuilt...but I don't know if I buy that. :(

it got off in SC yesterday and I should have it later next week.....we'll see.

i suppose it doesn't really matter...but I am torked that they SAID mini would do something for the hassle but not following through will only give them a black eye in my opinion...

 

I think the "destroyed and rebuilt" thing came about because initially, that's what BMW thought they would have to do. I'm with you, though - I don't think any of the cars actually had to be rebuilt after all, now that BMW has figured out a way to legally re-VIN the cars.

So, has MINI or your MA officially come out and said that there's not going to be any "sweetening of the pot" to make up for the delays? I'm not really that upset, personally, although a lot of it will depend on how long my car is actually delayed beyond my MA's initial estimate of "late September/early October for an August 9th order.

I know that some people's cars are already a week or two beyond the original estimates, although I think some people were given overly-optimistic delivery estimates from the beginning (like PARealtor).

Scott

 

I realize that now. I've been reading about 2-3 month waits or longer before people see their Minis. It's funny because I would have ordered my car from Main LIne Mini but they didn't have a production spot open for a few weeks. Princeton had one right away. I think my car was produced a week after I ordered it and was shipped two weeks after I ordered it. After 10 days on the ocean it's here and Newark is right up the road from Princeton.That's about Aa month from ordering to delivery. I really lucked out(I hope-haven't seen the car yet) Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up this week. My MA at Princeton is Rob Morris.

 

I would walk away from this mess. Those VIN's and changes made to the originals on the car will come back to haunt you. It happened to me with a new Honda once. It wasn't as bad because carfax was not well known at the time. If you look at a carfax on a Mini it shows the import data even before the vehicle was titled. So now with two VIN's showing up, you have to ask yourself what a future buyer will think. Rebuilt, Salvage, etc?

 

I just looked at four CARFAX reports on MINI's, and for three of them, the first entry was either when the original dealer had the vehicle inspected or when the first private owner got the car titled. For the fourth car, there was an entry when the car cleared US Customs, but none of the four showed any activity prior to arriving in this country.

I'll run a CARFAX report after I've had the car for a few months, and see if anything looks out-of-place. Regardless, I'm not too concerned, because this VIN mixup has been *extremely* well-documented, and I've saved all of the related paperwork, bulletins from BMW, letters from my MA, etcetera.

I really don't think this will ever show up on CARFAX - in fact, since the mistake was caught before any of the cars made it to the dealerships, and even before most of the affected cars left the UK, I don't see how it even *could* show up on CARFAX. Even if there was a CARFAX entry out there somewhere for my 2007 VIN, there's nothing to link it to the 2006 VIN - at least, nothing that would be reported to CARFAX.

Scott

 

Jeremy G? or another Jeremy?