I've read to counteract the high price of gas, the ships are going slower...resulting in a week delay.

 

I had to have an oh eight. I was born in 1958. It's my birthday present to myself, dammit.

Hey, we're cousins! (or are we half brothers?... or half brother/sister?...) I peed on the poop deck there.

Congrats a5!

 

I ordered mine the morning of 4/7 and my sales person ( MA? ) told me I got the last slot for 4/16 production. I do have a prod number, curious to see if it does start tomorrow.

I guess I've grown old enough to savor the wait.. Shopping for aftermarket parts, educating myself via the web on the ins and outs of the new Mini, and spending a good chunk of time here @ NAM.. Great Site!!! It's all good..

Bill in Pacific Grove, Ca.

 

mine was loaded on a ship on 3/23,but the boat stay at the pork until 3/29

 

Me too. And after an eight month wait... it has been entirely worthwhile.

I

Love

This

Car.

 

Ordered 3/30, currently on the ISOLDE coming across the pond. Due in Port Hueneme on 5/5. Guess I better figure out what to do about financing soon.

 

I was sockin' money away from order time till arrival at Oxnard. Your MINI dealer will be kind enough to remind you that you should probably make payment arrangements as delivery time draws near.

(Unless you're that poor teenage guy whose parents bought him a MINI outright and can't afford premium...)

It sounds like you'll have a happy Cinco de Mayo.

 

Heh heh. Don't I wish! Nope, I'm just an old fart and this was one of the cheaper mid-life crisis remedies I considered...

 

Hey, there's a west coast vdc! For some reason I just assumed they all shipped to the east coast and then were trucked over. I guess this makes more sense to boat them right through the canal. I learned something new from this thread.

It would be cool to have our MINIs on the same ship. I only ordered 2 days before you but I had a production number when I left the dealer. So hopefully they have it and have placed the order!

 

Yeah! I'm on Isolde too! Hello shipmate!!

 

Ordered 2/18, delivered 4/02 -- six weeks and a day? If you look at the Week 10 thread, and the Toronto thread for my posts you can pick up a lot of info on tracking your baby.

Clue: the Owner's Lounge is good for getting your production number and VIN. That's about all it's useful for.

Once you're booked on a ship, that schedule will be pretty accurate. Panama canal passage can take longer depending on the queue, but even though the Toronto went through the canal a day later than scheduled, it arrived at Port Hueneme a day earlier, so I'd guess the shipper builds in some slack around the canal.

Of course, once your car is offloaded at Port Hueneme, you lose visibility into the process until it shows up at your dealer, and then they have to spend some time futzing with it.

Take advantage of the time -- get an owner's manual from the Owner's Lounge and read through it (a couple of times) and figure out how you want to program all the options. Make space in the garage for parking. Figure out how you're going to get through the break-in period without taking the engine over 4500 rpm too many times...

Cheers--

 

Hi to HelloimPaul and Porifera! I live in the CA bay area and my sweet new MINI is on the same ship with you guys! In fact, just an hour ago I checked the status on the owner's lounge and it said awaiting transport (although I knew it actually left on the 14th) and I checked again just now and it updated to en route. WOOHOO!!!. Even though I knew it was enroute it still was nice to finally have the MINI site updated.

I test drove one on 3/30. After some thought and reading many posts on this site, I decided to put a deposit down on 4/3. It went into production at 6:44 am the next morning and was born on 4/10. Now it is on it's way to the USA and is due on May 5th. Let's hope and pray that there will be no hold ups in Panama or anywhere else!

I also hope the time at the VDC is short. I wonder why it takes so long there? In any case, my dealer told me 8 weeks, which would be May 29th. Unless something goes wrong I should have it at least a week and a half before that. And like I told my boss, when my car comes in I'm taking a vacation day!

Where do you both live? Anyone in the bay area? My dealership is East Bay MINI.

 

I am in south Orange County. Got mine through Irvine Mini. I do have a sister up in Redwood City. Does that count?

 

Im in San Diego. Mine completed production on 4/10! I think the robots answering the phones in ASKMINI were like... YOU AGAIN?! hehe. Once I saw it made it in ISOLDE I calmed down a bit. But now I'm impatient all over again.

Did you hear about how the MINI plant is shutting down for two weeks or so? I wonder if its true... I would hate to be caught in that number...

 

O there's an "All aboard the ISOLDE" thread... we can all wait together.

 

HAHA! It definitely counts. Especially since I got the Redwood Red interior! Boy is it a thing of beauty. There is a guy at work who has a dark silver MCS (with JCW kit) and he has the Redwood Ped interior. NICE! I peeked into his car three times today, longing for my Pepper White baby to come home to mama.

 

Paul (I am assuming that is your name)- I imagine you and Porifera will get your cars a wee bit earlier since the VDC is in SoCal. The bay area is a 5.5 to 6 hour drive away by car (although don't know how fast those trucks drive) so that adds some time (maybe even a day) to my delivery. Oh well, at least our cars have been manufactured before any plant holiday.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

I am too, and if you haven't already checked it out (same for you, IvyGirl), you should look into West Coast MINI, a great group of MINI owners from SD county (and a few stragglers elsewhere). We get together for some fun drives through the local twisties and plan outings to further-away places like Vegas for AMVIV, MINIs In The Mountains, trips to Cambria, a Christmas Toy drive, and have various parties throughout the year. It's like a family where we all happen to drive the same brand of car. You can find info about it on Yahoo Groups.

 

I sent an email that was listed on the West Coast MINI website. Haven't heard anything...

 

If you haven't heard anything by the end of today, let me know and I'll see what I can find out (sometimes the guys in charge have other things going on).

 

I got some flyers in the mail today. Thanks for the offer!

 

Hey West coasters! Is there a similar thread for East coasters? My MCS AB/AB prem,sport,convenience,cold,lsd,xenon beauty was born 4/11/08. ASKMINI is still saying its at port waiting for ship. Its been waiting since Sunday! or at least thats when ASKMINI said it was at the exit port. Any chance that it has sailed and ASKMINI just hasn't updated yet? I am wearing the phone out calling ASKMINI. Any advice, opinions or educated guesses are welcome. I know you understand.

 

Once the boat is in port and your car is at the VDC, your best bet for tracking is generally your MA. Although I used to think it would be ok to check with others at your dealership, based on what I've read here, maybe you should just ask your MA and keep the others out of it.

 

I would start by poking your VIN in at http://schedule.2wglobal.com/AppTrac...trackType=Auto and seeing if it shows up in there.