I hope you all don't mind me posting here (I have a hardtop) - but the turnaround times for the VDC shouldn't be anywhere near what you guys are experiencing...my car came in on the Topeka on 3/23, and was at my dealer (just outside Philly) on 3/26 and I took delivery 3/28...and my dealer had tons of cars already on their lot.

I say cancel your order and make the trip to Otto's in West Chester PA, ask for Holly. You won't regret it!

 

This still doesn't explain WHY the dealer would want this kind of situation, or even tolerate it. They WANT you to get your car, because they don't get any money until you take delivery.

As far as cancelling the order...well, that means a few things to me:
1. Losing my deposit (or so I assume),
2. Either picking a car on the lot (which hopefully has the features I want) or starting the build process again, and
3. Having a dealer 2 1/2 hours from my house. I'm already concerned about my dealer being 1/2 an hour from me as it is.

 

My Mini was also on the Topeka as well, but had two more stop to go after NY. There was also a 3 day delay in crossing the Panama Canal, but it finally made it to the SoCal VDC on 4/8. I could not track the Topeka on the internet. Were you able to do that?

 

If you look at some of the forums it will tell you that convertibles are being held back because they screwed up at the factory when installing the wheels.The new convertibles are standard with 16inch wheels they were putting on 15's.How that happens is unsure but it did.so instead of getting sued they are waiting to replace them.

 

Enchanting should not have to learn about this by searching through NAM, MINI2 or any other sites. Someone paying $25-$30k (on average) for anything should not have to do legwork to find out the status of a company's product. The minute Prestige or any other dealer knew of the delay, they should have drawn up a list of customers affected and notified them.

It is not Prestige's fault that her vehicle is delayed for delivery, it is their fault that her customer interaction / experience has been a failure.

 

When I spoke to my MA this morning, he insists that his manager is contacting the VDC daily, but the VDC refuses to give him any details.

 

I do believe That.if they had any information there wouldn't be any reason why they wouldn't tell the customer.

 

I just got a call from my MA confirming this. That whole ship -- the Don Carlos -- was sent w/ convertibles with 15 inch wheels. Great. Now more weeks upon weeks upon weeks upon weeks until this is resolved.

Never again. Next time I buy off the lot, or nothing at all.

 

I just got this emailed to me from my dealer.

 

Date: April 1, 2009

15 Days too late IMHO.

 

Z-

April 1, 2009- yeah 15 days!! That's exactly what I thought when I opened the email!!!! So these past 15 days of "I don't know's" and "next week, next week" have been flat out lies. I don't understand why this information wasn't made available from the get go. What's the point of keeping customers in the dark????

 

Really good question. I'll be looking for answers myself.

 

Well, misery loves company, allow me to join the club...
My dealer was informed that if they wanted Black Star Bullets on any future cars they'd have to wait or order stock, demo and even customer R57 vehicles. This notification came after my order was mysteriously postponed from build week 15 to 17. Yep, I ordered those same wheels as part of the sports pack. Why couldn't they just come out and tell me, " dude, your orders been delayed due to a parts 'fubar' issue" or something like that...

So, I had my dealer rep confirm that my order was indeed going to be made, and we finally got confirmation last week that they were using the last bit of stock of Black bullets for client orders....But no builds this week, cause most of the plant has off (as well as the German Mercedez Benz Plant[just a side note]).

So Plant Oxford has had TWO wheel issues, this one and the one affecting NotPortlyNJ, etal.

I thought I'd get mine sooner than people in the states, but no so at all. By the time my order is finished and sent to Germany, it will be early to mid May. SHOCKING, because my dealer told me in September 2008 that I'd have one of the first R57s from Military Sales in Germany... Come to find out, someone elses order was successfully made and delivered last week...but they didn't have black bullet wheels. While I am glad for that owner, it makes me think MINI has poorly planned the release of these vehicles across the GLOBE.

 

I know somebody who also got a major run-around at Prestige. He waited six weeks for his MINI tracking it every day. He had a better idea of where the car was than the dealership. He too saw that the vehicle was at the VDC but Prestige knew nothing. Finally after a week of hearing nothing, he called Prestige. They informed him the car was totalled on a TEST DRIVE! Then they tried to sell him a different one on the lot.

Then he had to wait 6 more weeks until a second car was built for him. Once again they had no ability to track the car while he was able to follow online. Again it sat in the VDC (about 20 miles away from the dealership) for days. Finally he lost it and screamed at management. Voila. The car was ready the next night.

Thank God I bought my MINIs in Morristown. Right now they have cars out the ying-yang. Must be close to 100 cars on the lot. They have a bunch of demos and MINI exec company leftovers for sale with some real nice pricing.

 

hahahaha this a joke.You must work for morristown mini.everyone in their right mind knows prestige sells more cars and services there customers much better.

 

Says someone with all of two posts here on NAM (including the one above)? As you can see from my signature, I bought my car at Prestige, and didn't have that bad of an experience, but hands down Morristown has been better in every way when I have interacted with them!

 

They better be, They need all the help they can get!! Hope everyone who is waiting on the convertible enjoys them after they have waited so long!

 

I WISH I had gone to Morristown!

 

Yes because they would have magically changed the wheels.Good luck and trust me it will be well worth the wait.Wether you get the car from prestige or morristown the car is awesome!!

 

Well, WHETHER I had gone to Prestige or Morristown, perhaps Morristown would have had better COMMUNICATION.

I don't care what the problem is and I fully understand it's not the dealership's fault; however, the memo was released on April 1st that there was this problem. I was not informed until 2 weeks later after presistence on my part.

 

Your idea of "everyone" is apparently much different than the rest of the World's. This whole thread features a number of gripes about Prestige. Search the rest of NAM and you'll find plenty more. In fact, I decided to go to Motown when my internet research indicated that Prestige had far more incidents of complaints than Morristown.

You're welcome to throw around your money wherever you want, but the theme of this thread is about a guy being disgruntled by Prestige's contstant runarounds. I work too hard for my money to put up with that kind of BS. I'd be looking for a lawyer if my dealership pulled some of the stunts I've read about at Prestige.