Let's see if this works

 

@ brownisland: Thanks! COKESTR's more than I ever dreamed. To me, the leather dash was worth the extra $1,000. The only dash I saw that beat it was in the MINI Goodwood, which I got to see up close at the dealership when we were placing our order.

 

@brownisland, from what I have been able to tell, there's no way to check k-lines inventory. We can just have to infer that we are on a particular k-line ship by the shipping schedule and the fact that we are not showing up on WW's tracker. Being that several of us on here were put in transit to VPC over the weekend, I think its a safe bet we are all on the Chesapeake Highway.

 

Am I obsessed? I think not.

But I thought that I'd just mention that the BESS is closing in the Panama Canal at a rate of approximately 12 knots. It's bang on time! Its next stop will be Port Hueneme on the 12th. YIIIIPPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!! Yowza yowza YOWZA!!!!!

Thank you for listening, I feel better now.

 

@ spinlock and brownisland: check with your MA's for updated info on which K-line ship your MINIs are on. From what ASK-MINI told me (live voice), the MA should have the most updated info from now on, esp. if your MINI is on a ship already. You can also take an educated guess via K-line's shipping schedule. Once you know the ship, then head to marinetraffic.com to track the ship. Hope this helps.

 

My MA doesn't know how to check what ship I'm on, but was kind enough to send me a screen cap of the "Vehicle Inquiry: Status" screen. "In route to final vpc"

 

All please check out this new thread and share your experience. Thanks

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...xperience.html

 

Thanks people for the info on tracking. My 2013 Countryman S is awaiting transport as of yesterday, so it's not on a ship yet - NOT that did not already enter the VIN number several times on the WW web site!

How does one avoid checking every five minutes? It's gonna be a long 6 weeks remaining....Good to know I'm not alone in this.

One small question - what's an MA? It sounds like the Mini salesperson, which if so, a lot of you are in frequent contact with him/her. Actually, I thought my "MA" (If I'm using that right) would be providing me more regular updates, but she's only responded to a couple of inquiries I made within 48 hours of purchase.

 

The Owner's Lounge says the Rhoadster has been delivered to the dealer Sat/Sun, which is what MA expected as of last week. I wish the dealership hadn't moved from 2 blocks from my work to the waaaay far side of town with a 5 MPH freeway in between.

Knowing that it is this close, and just waiting for the call is hard. They want a couple days to process and QC it.

The MA emailed on Thursday, and we told him to add tinting to the windows (max legal), and asked if that would be done by the time we picked it up... and haven't gotten a response from him since, even with an additional followup email. ACK!

 

MA = Motoring Advisor I believe, which is your contact (usually your salesperson) at the dealership. They have access to the BMW mainframe with the official status, and can print out your Mini's current status.

 

Aha! It worked! The MA called and said it will be ready tomorrow morning, they are just waiting for a Navigation unlock code to put into the system, and to tint the windows. It will be ours tomorrow night, paperwork willing.

They still have us "approved" for 3.9%, so I asked him to re-apply for the 0.9% they are advertising on the site. I'd hate to pay such a high rate.

 

Wanted to share with y'all our experience with the negotiation part of purchasing COKESTR.

To start, we ordered a 2013 MINI JCW Hardtop on October 1 with Priority 1 status, so no discounts off the MSRP for that model :( October 1 was the day before the start of the Not Normal event. So we missed out on the $750 Not Normal discount due to order date and Priority status. And we weren't told about the event or terms and conditions by our MA. In fact, we only found out about it via this NAM thread support group.

Our MA called us on Friday, November 23 (day after Thanksgiving) to let us know COKESTR had arrived at the dealership and they would try to get it ready for us by end of that weekend. We'd always intended to pick it up on December 1 and told them to take their time and get it done right. And then we negotiated during that same phone call for free window tint to compensate for missing out on the $750 Not Normal offer. MA consults with general manager = we got free window tint, which is worth about $500 via the dealership. So far, so good.

Then we read up in Consumer Reports about "destination charge" vs. "dealer prep charge", look at our paperwork, and realize both are same amount: $700. Consumer Reports encourages people to pay for one or the other, but not both. We find out from our MA during the final in-person negotiation that MINI mfg does not pass along any $$ to the dealer via the destination charge. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. But we didn't like the idea of having to pay $700 for dealer prep, so we negotiated it down to $350.

If the dealer had balked at reducing the dealer prep charge, then we would have pushed for the clear protective coating for free or reduced price.

There were the customary "goodie" accessories provided to us at no charge.

One can always argue that vehicle purchase negotiations favor the dealership. In our case, we think we got a fair deal considering the market we live in (Seattle-Tacoma).

 

866 Mini doing their best to give me a stroke today. Called them for my weekly Monday checkup and was told that it’s still in production with no ETA. Ok all well and good. No worries, nothing I can do about that but was worth a look into. Jabbering with the guy a bit and asked if he thought, based on his experience, if I would be lucky in making the boat on the 9th or would I be closer to the departing boats on the 14th and 17th.

He tells me to hold on a sec and puts me on hold. I’m on hold maybe 2 min, and he comes back and says that he’s looking at the shipping schedules and looking at what they have already booked, he thinks I’ll probably be on the “Courage” departing Jan 2nd via WW.

(dafuq?!)

I protest a bit thinking that he might be off a few weeks on that estimate. But he swears up and down that due to the fact that it’s the end of the year Mini is trying to push what they can out as soon as they can, but that also means pre-booking the boats up that they have the ability too, WW being one of them. At this point my BS meter is going off a bit, I thank the dude for his time and hang up.

Now even though my BS detector when off, I wonder how many people you have at 866 mini that are giving people bad info like this. Seems like one hell of a big problem that you’d think they would want to address. I mean if you don't know tell me that don't make stuff up. I called my MA to get further verification on the matter (just in case) but he’s off today.

Has anyone else had any experience from anyone on the 866 number giving obviously bad info like this?

 

My guess is that they do their best, but, in the end, tell you what you want to hear. As several people have noted in the past, it is best to call several times and talk with different people and compare notes.

Have you gone to the shipping site and input your VIN to see if it is Cargo?

 

Very nice! When are you expecting it to come in?

 

My MINI is still at the VDC/Port. I hope it wasn't damaged.

 

Congrats. great looking car!! Last of the Topeka class....enjoy.

 

My MA is on vacation till Friday, can any one confirm that "In route to final vpc" means that the car is on a boat?

 

spinlock... that's way too long. that's one whole week you're gonna be in the dark.
Isn't there anyone else in that dealership who can access the same information? You should ask someone else to look up that information.

 

I called them a little while ago and said it was finished on the 1st which isn't true, it was at the docks on the 24th. I think they were at the end of the day and just wanted to go home so they just threw me BS. Will try again tomorow morning!

 

tpthrshr your MINI looks great.. Loving that dash!

 

Here is the Blue MaGoo.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...aGoo_day_2.png

More pics in my gallery.

 

Love it

 

Thanks! That one pic shows the cars I need to sell now that I bought my Mini.

The Miata is on eBay. It's a sweet car too. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-...#ht_574wt_1021

 

My Mini arrived at the VDC last Friday. I have this irrational fear of it getting to the dealership and all sorts of people test driving it before I am able pick it up. Is this something dealerships do? How can I make sure my MCS is treated like a creampuff before we are united? After waiting so long I think I'm starting to crumble. help...


Ordered: Oct. 16, Prod. Start: Oct. 30, Born: Nov. 8, In Transit: Nov. 17, VDC: Nov. 30, Est. Delivery: ?
2013 Cooper S Hardtop - Eclipse Grey w/ Black Stripes