We can only hope....

It would definitely be nice if I was able to pick it up next weekend if it makes it out to the dealer this upcoming week. That may be overly optimistic with the holidays coming up (don't even know if my MA will be working next Saturday).... either way it's good to at least know that it made it this far.

 

I just got the good news! I am going to be picking up my MINI TONIGHT!!!
apparently the vdc does work on the weekends

fyi my dealer is Long Beach MINI

 

That sounds like good news. Fill us in on the details once you pick it up.

I haven't heard anything yet from my dealer or MA (Crevier MINI). Yours did seem to get out of the VDC and to the dealer a bit faster than usual so I won't read much into this yet. Plus I got the iPod adapter (port install) on mine so I'm guessing that may cause some additional delays if it has to queue up for that. Actually the OL tracking tool still shows the car "On Route" but from what I'm hearing that is pretty far behind the VDC process.

I'm promising myself that I won't call them until Friday (what I'd consider a reasonable timeframe after unloading) as I don't want to give in to the urge (yet) to call them every other day for updates.

 

My MCS is supposed to be delivered the 23rd.

Zach,

Lets see some pics!

 

Just checked... looks like the OL has been updated, mine's scheduled to be delivered the 24th. Which now has me wondering, is that the date they estimate it will be delivered to me, or is it the date they will be trucking it to the dealer?

 

OK where to begin
the delivery went well, I picked it up last night at 630, went through all the paperwork, took it on a brief test drive, then they had to finish detailing it.
I didn't really get any chance to inspect the car or anything because it wasnt ready for me untill after I signed all the paperwork so by the time it was ready iit had been two hours, and my MA (and me too) were ready to get it over with so he showed me how to work the controls and stuff on varrious cars parked on the lot while mine was still being preped. He showed me the different menus accesible from the turn signal stalk, and said everything I would need to know to set my specifications would be explained in the owners manual.

Attached is the only good picture my dad took with his digital camera. The others were all blurry. As soon as I can I will post better pictures. I HAVENT EVEN SEEN MY CAR IN THE SUNLIGHT YET!!!! ( i picked it up last night, drove it to work well before the sun came up, and didn't get done with work until after the sun went down)

I am in the drivers seat for the first time about to take the test drive in MY CAR! my MA is in the passenger seat and my parents stayed at the dealer

 

Congratulations on the new car. Looks like you have the same color combo I'm getting (DS/B). Just post those pics up whenever you have time

I actually got some good news today as well as my MA emailed me to tell me my car has been released by the VDC to the trucking company. The only thing is that due to Thanksgiving it won't actually be delivered to the dealer until Friday or Saturday morning. Fortunately my MA sounded fairly confident that they would be able to schedule a Saturday pickup for me. So it is looking like I may be getting the car this weekend after all.

 

Yeah, same color DS/B
I just put a few pics in a new thread here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=120740

Hopefully they have it all cleaned up and ready to go for you on saturday! the sooner the better

 

Looks good Zach!

Like the hypersport body kit, just need to get those arches painted to match.

 

Just got an email today from my MA to let me know the car has arrived at the dealership. I've scheduled the delivery with them for tomorrow morning.

 

Well I took delivery of my Mini on Saturday at 10am. Everything went pretty flawlessly with the car and the delivery (except for the Santa Ana winds here in So Cal which were really starting to annoy the crap out of me due to all of the dust that was being kicked up).

They pretty much gave me the keys and let me inspect the car inside and out as much as I wanted before going through any of the paperwork with them. There were no issues at all with the car and once I was sure everything was in order we moved on to the paperwork. They were pretty good about sticking to the original plan, throwing in all of the promised goodies, and going over the car's features. They did of course offer all of the add-ons like CilaJet and Lo Jack, but never insisted on anything. There were no unreasonable fees tacked on at the end and in general the whole process just went pretty smoothly. I think I was out of there within an hour and a half. Actually the only issue was with the Sirius lifetime activation where it shows up on the Sirius system as being for 1 year only (this has been covered in another thread). My MA is in the process of following up with them on this and hopes to have it resolved very soon.


I didn't get a chance to drive around much due to the fact that I had some other stuff to take care of today, and also that I haven't really driven a stick shift full time for about 10 years and I wanted to get some practice time in just to get a feel for things again before taking the car into any potentially hectic scenarios on crowded streets. So I went from 4 miles at delivery to about 17 or 18 at the end of the day.

So far here are some quick impressions.....

- There is a lot to get used to (most of it good stuff) if you are coming from Japanese cars to a German one (as the Mini seems to inherit a lot from its bigger BMW cousins). These are mostly neat little bits of attention to detail and well thought out features, however one needs to relearn a lot of the "conventions" they may have been used to.

- I really like the feel of the Sport seats (punch carbon leather).

- The NAV is very cool, and adds a lot to the car as far as features and depth of functionality. The control scheme can be quirky and will require some getting used to, however, once you get it down it becomes pretty easy to deal with.

- When it comes to the Audio package the Hifi system sounds pretty good, and HD radio is great too here in Orange County. The iPod adapter was also a very worthwhile investment (it goes very nicely in the "secret compartment"). However, the Sirius is so-so. I would imagine it could be a nice fallback if you are sick of ads, and your playlists, and want to listen to something different for a change. However the sound quality on Sirius is fairly mediocre when put next to iPod, HD Radio, and CD. To me it sounds like a the bitrate is just a bit too low and compression too high.

I'll go over any other notable details or facts as I come across them the next few days.

 

Ajabbari,

Great to hear you got your mini! We really need some pics.

Looks like I'm the last one on the Teal, haven't heard anything yet, maybe because they're installing the JCW Tuning kit.

 

I'll try to get some pics up ASAP

The weather down here in So Cal has been weird the past couple of days and it isn't exactly the ideal weather for the best pictures. The wind and all of the dust and leftover ash it is kicking up basically wound up dirtying my Mini within 1 day. Still dirty or not I'll put something up.

 

I hear that. I washed my car yesterday morning, did some around town driving - correction: "motoring", and by this morning the beautiful black roof was covered in a thin layer of dust.
I would still love to see some pictures of your MINI

Edit: I forgot to mention on this thread but I put up some of my pics on the "show us your r56" thread found here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...=93550&page=62
My pics are the first ones on the page: enjoy

 

I was just motoring myself this afternoon and I must say the car is a lot of fun to drive

However, one issue has surfaced... there is a fairly obnoxious rattle coming from the passenger side of the dash. Now, I'm not the kind of guy who will go hunting down every minor rattle in a car, but this one is loud and persistent enough to get my attention. After some experimentation I've narrowed the source down to the the storage box (or "secret compartment"). This also happens to be my iPod box as I had the iPod adapter installed at the VDC.

I'm contacting my MA (who at this point I expect will introduce me to the service dept) to get the issue resolved. Being localized to the storage box should make it a pretty easy rattle to fix, but I must admit I am a bit worried about the possibility of other rattles/issues being introduced when they open the bottom of the dash to get to the storage box.

 

BTW, here are some pics.... Sorry, in advance, for the crappiness of these photos. It was night, and I was taking them in a very small garage. But I figured these would be better than nothing until I have a chance to snap some better ones.

 

And three more...

 

Well, guys the last of us is finally in about a week after! Here's a pic!

 

nice! looks good.
Are you guys loving every minuteof motoring as much as I am?

 

Absolutly!

 

This thing is definitely a lot of fun... actually more fun than I'd care to find out during the break in period (another 600 miles to go). I was marveling at how easily it can go from 65 to 80 on the freeway. I've promised myself I'll avoid playing with the sport button until after the break in period is over.

Now if only it would stop raining every week (we apparently have more rain coming in SoCal this weekend) so that I can actually have a clean car for more than a couple of days that would be great.