Scamp, I just started a longshoremen's thread. The strike is delayed for at least 30 days. If it does happen it might not impact offloading cars; they seem to be targeting the container deliveries. The dispute pertains to some bonus pay for crane operators offloading and loading those containers.

 

Well, this isn't a final pic as they still have to put the fixed rear spoiler and side stripes on but my dealer shot a picture of it after they got it in a bay and sent it to me via email so here's the official first look...

 

Way to go. Looking GREAT!!!!

 

****Thud****

Just fainted.

That is one gorgeous car, Kurtster.

YOU are a LUCKY MAN.

 

So lets try getting on a ship for the second time.

Im booked for the Turandot leaving Southampton on the 31st and should arrive at the NY port on Jan 10th.

 

Kurtster, beautiful car!

It just shows that some ships do come in...

 

I'm picking up on Wednesday, YAY!!!
(I should take an extra day off from work after this holiday break so I can play with it all day )

 

I can't pick up mine yet just because my MA is on vacation, huh? She comes back on Monday and then...you know, it's NYE, etc. She sent me an email letting me know that she was out for the holidays and that she would take care of it upon returning to work on Monday.

 

Kurtster: SWEET! Really SWEET!!!!

 

My Argo Mini Countryman is near Acalpulco as of yesterday, on the Zenith Leader. Now, the "vessel finder" site is proving to be more up to date, not other way around. It should be in Port Hueneme January 1 or 2. I think I'll have it in San Francisco 7-10 days after that, though I'm not sure really how long that part of the trip takes.

I hope someone posts photos of their new car before I get mine. I'd hate to be the one that follows Kurtster's car!

 

Kurtster, that is an awesome looking Coupe. I can't believe that I put down a deposit fifteen days ago and won't have my production number for a few more days. Getting anxious!

 

Question all. My convertible mini was order on 11/24. I received a production number the next week for a delivery date of 2/6. then 25 days later I received a new production number for a delivery date of 3/19. Has anyone else experienced this kind of delay? MiniUsa still shows my car on order without any type of production date. I'm so frustrated. Any thoughts/suggestions??

 

Beautiful!

 

Yes I guess I'm about right there with you. Mine was ordered 11/9 and I received a production number right away, but it wasn't built until 12/18 and the next ship leaves on 1/1/13. So by the time I get it, it will be about 11 weeks, about the same as they are telling you. Maybe something to do with convertibles?

 

I can relate but I wonder how they can give you a delivery date? I would first call your Dealer's Sales Manager (and possibly other dealers and MiniUSA if you don't get the answers you are looking for from your Sales Mgr) and ask how your production # can be changed after the fact. Sounds like they swapped your # with someone else, kind of like putting another customer in front of you in my opinion but I could be wrong. I placed an order on the 14th of December without a production # (I didn't know anything about the "Allocation" thing) and realized after doing some investigating that it could be early Feb or even March before I would get a production#. So I met with my MA's Sales Manager and expressed my concern and upset that no one had explained this before I gave them $2,000 as a deposit. The Sales Manager was very nice and down to earth and after we spoke he went out of his way negotiating with other dealers to trade for a production # for my car that I had ordered.

Keep in mind that you ordered a "Convertible" which is a special car compared to the more common MC and MCS hardtops. Although if you watch MINI's Factory tours they show that they can switch between models without slowing down the production lines but based on research the less common the car ordered the longer it seems to take. Occasionally I've seen some exceptions based on the dates fellow NAM subscribers show in their profiles.

The allocation thing is a mess and according to some research dealers have been asking for it to be changed since early 2011. The more cars a dealer sells the more cars they can order (down the road) but if you happen to order your car from either a dealer that has no allocations left for that month or maybe just a dealer that does less business normally but suddenly gets hit with a bunch of orders for whatever reason, the dealer will run out of allocations very quickly. Keep in mind the dealer only gets more cars buy selling cars but ultimately the customers suffer by having to wait weeks or even months before their order can even get into the system to be scheduled to be built. This is something that most car companies do if not all of them but in my opinion it hurts Mini more than any other as they are designed to allow for a great deal of customization and as such this creates a lot of custom ordered cars compared to other car builders.

Good Luck at getting this figured out as I think we all know the anxiety can drive us all nuts.

 

I ordered mine on Nov 26th. I was built Dec 6th and landed on US soil - Maryland on Dec 26th. It will be at my dealer next week :-)

 

Sapps,

Congrats!
For all of us that must chew our nails waiting...please post photos as it helps. As we know it is just a matter of time before we will be posting our photos.

Thank You.

 

Cars look great everyone. Im really hoping mine makes the boat tomorrow.

 

Thanks! waiting has been rough but the busy holiday has helped the time go. Ill post many pictures!

 

As it is the New Year aka 2013 in less than 24 hours if anyone hears about the financing offers, please post them. I am crossing my fingers that Mini/BMW simply extends the 0.9/1.9/2.9 offers by a few months at least or runs a comparable deal this year. A rebate would be great too as interest rates are already pretty low without those deals but any way to save some cash is always a bonus. Plus Mini has to know that customers that ordered their cars in Nov and Dec are most likely not going to take delivery until Jan or Feb at the earliest.

If anyone hears anything just post here so we can all know what is going on with that part of the deals. Thank You.

 

I applied for financing online and was approved within the hour. The approval said it was good for sixty days but the dealer said they are given 90 days. I put my $1,000 deposit down they said it should be delivered by the deadline.

They also guaranteed that the deposit was fully refundable; if I decide I don't want the car when it comes in they would put it in their inventory. Pretty low risk!

If your dealer doesn't know if the 0.9 percent is being extended you could apply for it today...

 

Thank you I wasn't aware of that as my finance guy is lacking compared to my MA and Sales Manager but I did go through financing and was approved for the 1.9% (was out of work a few years back so credit isn't as nice as I'd like but still pretty decent). My finance guy didn't promise anything like that as I think he was doing the CYA thing which I get but there were a few things they didn't explain upfront. As for the deposit mine was $2k non-refundable although I do know for a fact it use to be $500 refundable. Plus I've heard if something goes wrong or they goof up they will refund it worse case (although they don't like to and would prefer to reorder your car), I think they've jacked up the amount and call it non-refundable to keep people from walking away from the deals as the ordering process as we all know can take a long time between the actual order and when you take delivery.

I tried to find a car that had what I wanted but after driving the JCW and the Cooper S several times I had to have the JCW and they had one on the lot that I really liked but it didn't have the mini-connect which I could have lived without but it did have the cold weather package and I really didn't want to pay for that as I live in Florida. Seriously I can't ever imagine needing to heat my backside in Florida even in the dead of winter ...If you have never been to Florida it is one of the few places you can walk outside on Xmas day and break a sweat just by stepping outside. I even searched the entire country and what the H3ll is up with people putting Automatics in the 2013 JCW Hardtops? Plus many dealers seem to love that cold weather package...it must have a really nice mark up or something.

 

I went ahead and applied on the Mini Financing site and received the approval right away, but no rate information was included. Guess I will have to see what they want to offer when the time comes to finalize everything. The approval did say it expires 2/28/13.

 

From my understanding if you have really great credit they will offer you 0.9% on most Minis up to 60 months (5 yr deal). If you credit is good but not perfect 1.9% for up to 60 months. If you want to lower the payment you can add 1 more year and bring it up to 72 months (6 yrs) but the rate goes up to 2.9%.

Hope this helps, did they tell you what your credit score was? I am in the high 600's which got me the 1.9%. I believe you need over 700 or 730 (don't remember 100%) to get the 0.9% deal.

 

I'm in the high 700's; that may account for the 0.9 percent. As for the non-refundable $2K; that might be due to your ordering a JCW. If the dealer doesn't need them in stock they may be reluctant to refund it.

I'm also not sure if there are differences based on areas of the country, and frequency of orders not being completed thru sale. Here in Annapolis it might be low.