I sure hope MINI has it's act together more than it seems now. After reading that someone else ordered a car the same day I did and it's already being shipped, I wonder why mine is still sitting on "On Order." I called my MA, who said as of now it's scheduled for week 14 production, but that could change and go into production at any moment. When she first looked, it said the stereo upgrade was "blocked." But when she looked 2 minutes later, it is "available." Turns out the alarm will not be available for until the 15th. If my car still is "On Order" then, I will probably order it. Otherwise, I'll have the dealer put it in later. Anyone know if adding the alarm could enganger the car to being pushed even further back in production????

 

It has to do with dealer allocation. Say the dealer has 2 cars on order for his normal inventory. One is scheduled to be produced week 10, and another is scheduled for week 14. You and I go into the dealer on the same day, and I order my car first. Trying to keep me happy, he reconfigures the week 10 car with the options I want. Now that you show up later, you're stuck with week 14.

The same concept applies across different dealerships. If my dealer has one allocation that will be produced week 10, and your dealer has one allocation for week 14... I can order after you and still get the car quicker.

I was told that they can change the cars until 3 weeks before the production week. When I ordered my car, they had a week 9 available, but couldn't get BMW to change that car as it was too close to actual build. Their next allocation was week 11 (not 10), which is when my car is scheduled to get built.

 

Thanks for the info. MY MA, however, said I could change things as long as it hasn't "gone into production."

 

Bear in mind that my MA is German, in Germany, and calls BMW in Munich directly. Vee vill only give you sree veeks to make ze changes!!!

 

Right, going into production doesn't have much to do with the allocations, however. What dneal is saying is that if a dealer gets a lot of business, they may use up their allocation further out in advance than another dealer's. Some dealers out west have things much further out on order (sometimes up to a YEAR) because of the higher demand.

Once your order is attached to an allocation, then you can make changes as dneal said) up to 3 weeks prior to that drop-dead date set by the factory. Part of the pre-assembly line process includes getting all the components together from your options as they don't want to start building and then realize "oh crap, we're out of XXXX paint," or seats or whatever. Once they start the pre-build stuff, you're locked in (usually).

The alarm, as far as my MA knows, is an unknown. If you have heard week 15, that's good news. I hope to get it installed by the dealer aftermarket, along with Sirius. My car was built last week, and despite wanting to order it back in November, he couldn't put my order in until late December because I ordered the automatic transmission and the satnav system, and those weren't even in the system until then.

Cars sit "On Order" until they go into production. You get a production number once it is on order, and you can call "Ask Mini" to see if they have more info about a build date a few days after the dealer places the order. Once the car starts production you will get a VIN and at that point things are pretty much locked down. it will be "scheduled for production" until it is done, and then go to in transit. Once you have a production number, you'll also be able to access the owner's lounge, where you can track things (with a 2-3 day delay) on the site.

Now if someone ordered a car from your dealership on the same day, then you just have bad luck. They apparently made the Week XX cutoff, and you didn't. Welcome to another tradition of Mini ownershp (apparently): the waiting!