Hey Everyone!

I'm new to the MINI community and have a 07 MCS Chili Red/Black w/ Bonnet Stripes making its way across the pond as we speak! The Ship tracking website tells me that it should be arriving at the Charleston, SC VDC on February 10, 2007. I heard that the launch date is on the 16th or 17th for the U.S., so when exactly will my car be processed and ready to board onto a truck to Houston?

 

I wish I knew. The best I can tell is that my MINI will be in port on 2/7 at Charleston and I highly doubt it will make it to my dealer by launch.

 

Some others heading to Houston are coming into Charleston on Feb7th. I figure we will get our cars sometime in the second half of Feb. I'm not living for a release date purchase, although it sure would be nice since I have Presidents Day off from work.

Which dealership? MotW here. Yeah MA Art!

 

I have a question into my MA regarding how the VDC determines which cars to send up to the dealer first. Is it organized by order date (earliest gets sent first) or is it sort of haphazard?
I'm thinking either dealers may not be able to handle all the cars at once or the VDC will not be able to prep them or get transport for all the cars all at once. I really think that just because the VDC could have ever car physically ready does not automatically mean they will be available for pick-up at the dealership even if the VDC is a short drive to the dealership.

 

Momentum Mini here!

 

I have a feeling it's based on the allocation to the dealer, with X vehicles arriving in their first delivery, Y vehicles on the second one, etc.

Remember that our orders replaced slots in the dealer's pre-configured allocation, too, so I expect it's more or less first-in-first-out based on what comes off the ship, but what comes off the ship probably isn't in the same order it went on the ship, so I'd imagine (read: I have no idea what I'm talking about) that you could have vehicles on older orders possibly arriving at the dealer after vehicles on newer orders, based on how they organize things at the VDC. It would seem that aligning them by arrival date at the VDC would be easier to manage than aligning them by order date, as they arrive in batches with various order dates from the ship (especially the first shipments), and are delivered to dealers in batches.