Originally Posted by seabeast

Ha, in addition to our MINIs having almost identical builds, we also have sequential VIN numbers! Mine is WMWSV3C58DT477568, differing only in the last and check digits.

I'm a little bummed yours was first.

I'm guessing they cluster cars by paint color, so this probably is less of a coincidence than it seems.

Originally Posted by weaf27

Chris, I thought I'd have some spare time in my life after selling one of my businesses but you obviously have a lot more. Thank you for finding out all this great information as I am one of those that loves to know the method to the madness and find the VIN info very interesting. I wonder if the first letter is more for where the highest percentage of parts come from if the Countryman are built in Germany as our Minis are currently built in England unless W is England? I haven't seen a Countryman VIN yet.

I wonder if there is an application out there (on the net) that deciphers VINs? I used to have an app that I could put some basic info in about you and it would tell me your FL Drivers Lic #,.

Originally Posted by seabeast

Wow, you must have a really great MA to volunteer to do that for you.

-Brett, feeling cranky that his MINI is sitting in Southamptom...

Originally Posted by weaf27

OK Chris and Seabeast...I am REALLY impressed. So I can list tons of cars with Cargo IDs but how do I see my car sitting at the port? And Seabeast, every 3 mins !!! D@mn!
I'm a computer guy by trade but not at writing python scripts or anything else beyond basic VBS and Batches. I'd love to have a script like that just to check once an hour or even ever few hours. WMWSU9C50DT722126 This is all I have until my baby is home.

I even searched the Internet (I know this may sound easy bit better than most with all the crazy word groupings I use as I have a decent background in SEO (trained two people that now do it full time as their day jobs, funny I train them and they got the jobs ) for Web Cams and Security Cameras accessible by the public to see the cars sitting at port but no luck.

WARNING: I put my VIN in but don't click on it as NAM tries to decode it and the webpage just hangs. At least it does that to me.

Originally Posted by ///Chris

On the VIN topic - here's what I've been able to ascertain:

WMWSV3C56DT477567 - typical VIN. Happens to be mine.

First three characters identify the manufacturer:

W - Built in Germany
M - it's a Mini
W - Company specific identifier

Next numbers give model specifics:

S - from what I can tell, second gen Mini (first gens had an R here, S is logically after R)
V - Model? What I read online said that this specified the model for first-gen minis. I'm a Cooper S. My wife's Justa has a U, however, and so is Weaf's JCW. So it must be something else. On the WW site, I've found S, U, R, W, X, Y, and V
3 - Not sure. The first-gen info said that 1 was for diesel and 3 for gas, but Weaf has a 9, my wife's Justa and my MCS have a 3. Perhaps it's because he has a JCW? I've seen 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. Of all the cars loaded on the Gentle Leader, none had a 5 - but there were 5's on cars headed elsewhere.
C - Unknown. Sources seem to think this specifies US destined car. Every car loaded on the Gentle Leader had a C here.
5 - Safety restraint info (cars pre-2005 had a 4)
6 - Checksum digit
D - Model Year (2010 = A, '11 = B, '12 = C, '13 = D; 2001-2009 cars used 1-9)
T - Plant of Origin

Last six are the serial number:

477567 - vehicle serial number - I know that something in here is unique to each model, because you can give RealOEM the last 7 of your VIN and it will get your specific model based on that. For my car, RealOEM only recognized up to VIN T477023 - which must be the final car in the MCS 11/2012 production month.

For reference - my Wife's '12 Justa - Auto, sunroof, base. WMWSU3C5XCT539991

I'm surprised there's not more info out there about this...!

Originally Posted by gilmoregirls999

Goodness, I am impressed!!!
So what does my Z stand for?
WMWZP3C57DT297572

Originally Posted by seabeast

I'm guessing they cluster cars by paint color, so this probably is less of a coincidence than it seems.

Originally Posted by ///Chris

Maybe convertible? It still doesn't explain why a JCW HT and a Justa HT are both U, while the HT S is a V...

Nope, I was reading the wrong position - I honestly have no idea what a Z in that position means! I'll do some more digging.

Originally Posted by seabeast

Ha, in addition to our MINIs having almost identical builds, we also have sequential VIN numbers! Mine is WMWSV3C58DT477568, differing only in the last and check digits.

I'm a little bummed yours was first.

I'm guessing they cluster cars by paint color, so this probably is less of a coincidence than it seems.

Originally Posted by weaf27

We need to find the website the port uses. The program we are looking to interface with is called ePortation and it is used by most Ports to track inbound and outbound products including cars.

Originally Posted by mbabischkin

Nope- MINI doesn't batch produce cars. It's more likely that the dealer allocations were close together.

Originally Posted by seabeast

...and also because Spice Orange is best.

Originally Posted by seabeast

Yes, I know they don't batch them in the sense of "this week we build Pepper White". But I was speculating that if they have, for example, twenty Pepper White and two Spice Orange MINIs to build, they might do the Spice Orange cars first and then all four Pepper Whites together, in order to minimize the number of times they have to flush the paint system while changing colors, and also because Spice Orange is best.

But I did watch the fascinating video about the MINI factory, where it's pointed out that they use the same painting stations for all colors and the production system automatically loads up the proper color as each MINI arrives to get painted. So maybe their painting system doesn't have to do anything special when changing colors and the build order is totally unaffected by color.

-Brett

Originally Posted by ///Chris

Excellent point.

Originally Posted by gilmoregirls999

Woaha hold onto your pumpkins boys.....Chili Red is the best!!!!!

Originally Posted by weaf27

WAIT...WAIT! We've already been through this but to help clarify.

Chili Red is the fastest
Lightning Blue is the 2nd fastest
Spice Orange is just an overheated Chili Red needing to cool down a bit so speed would be comparable to the Chili Red.
In other news I found out my Midnight Black has the ability to teleport anywhere within a reasonable range each night at the stroke of midnight.



Also found out why my Mini missed her boat...I wasn't in 3rd gear yet.

Originally Posted by weaf27

WAIT...WAIT! We've already been through this but to help clarify.

Chili Red is the fastest
Lightning Blue is the 2nd fastest
Spice Orange is just an overheated Chili Red needing to cool down a bit so speed would be comparable to the Chili Red.
In other news I found out my Midnight Black has the ability to teleport anywhere within a reasonable range each night at the stroke of midnight.



Also found out why my Mini missed her boat...I wasn't in 3rd gear yet.

Originally Posted by weaf27

WAIT...WAIT! We've already been through this but to help clarify.

Chili Red is the fastest
Lightning Blue is the 2nd fastest
Spice Orange is just an overheated Chili Red needing to cool down a bit so speed would be comparable to the Chili Red.
In other news I found out my Midnight Black has the ability to teleport anywhere within a reasonable range each night at the stroke of midnight.



Also found out why my Mini missed her boat...I wasn't in 3rd gear yet.

Originally Posted by Kimpossible

How about Reef Blue? Besides being ridiculously expensive...

Originally Posted by ///Chris

- on it, it says that my expected ship (the Tombarra) is scheduled to leave on the 10th at 2100UTC. It's also the only ship leaving Southampton for the Panama Canal on the current schedule, so that is the next ship to the US west coast. It isn't scheduled to show up until 0730UTC on the 10th - so they are going to fully load and leave in one day. Here's a list of all live info that the port of Southampton makes available: