I placed my order on Dec. 30 for a MCS HB/S with premium package, front fog lamps, chrono, DSC and LSD. I called ASK-MINI on 1/5 and spoke to a representative there who told me that Duke is scheduled for production the week of Jan. 23. The automated system also tells me that the car is scheduled for production with no firm production date. Regarding the price increase, logically it should follow the production date as the window sticker should be produced at manufacturing time. Living in central NJ, I'm hopefull of taking possession by the end of February. I am currently living vicariously as my wife and I purchased a 05 MCSa EB/W with premium package, front fog lamps, checkerboard sunroof and DSC in June for her. She has been good enough to allow me to drive Twiggy to work a couple of times a week and I have grown to really enjoy my time behind the wheel.

 

As far as the window sticker is concerned, I think they are put on at the Port of Entry, not at the factory.

 

My delivery date was for mid Feb. My MA told me that I was still on shedule.
I'll have to send him an email and ask if I beat the price increase. I knew about the increase. I was hoping that I beat it.

 

I fiiiinally got a scheduled, confirmed, actual, real, locked down production date from ASK MINI of Week 4, Monday the 23rd. We "knew" this all along, but its nice to hear it

In honor of Grimace's arrival, I've purchased 18" OZ Superlegerras, aero side skirts and painted trim. Plus I'll be swapping some stuff over from my current MINI. Come onnnnnn February.

 

Ordered Dec. 14, I too have just been told that production is scheduled for
Week 4. Delivery should be less four weeks from then. Nice to know it won't go into March.

 

i too was scheduled for production with no confirmed date. talked to a person at ASK MINI today and I am scheduled for the week of Jan 23rd. guess that makes me a week 4 guy! I cant wait

 

I checked with both ASK MINI and my MA and both confirmed I am scheduled for production for week #4 (Jan 23rd).

 

More grist for the mill...

So if it's really an extended holiday shutdown for a total of 3 weeks...
and the Production Week is given as the end of production...

Shouldn't some of us be getting VINs this week?

Just obessing,

--dwf

 

More information to confuse everyone....

On Friday at work I checked on my MINI with ASK MINI and was told (as I was every day since Dev 16) that my MINI was in the paint shop....

Decided to dial it up today while sitting around at home and got the wonderful message "Your vehicle is en route to the port of departure".

Wow !!! I ran downstairs to re-play the message for wife and kids - what a wonderful feeling to know that your car actually exists and is heading towards you !!

Anyway, this confuses me greatly against all the news of the plant shutdown, which I heard from many sources was happening from the holidays until the third week of Jan. Seems like something is going on there - at least regarding my MINI !!

I guess the next few weeks will be the hardest wait, knowing that your vehicle is done and just being transported to you. I expect that I will probably be checking all the weather reports for the North Atlantic until the boat reaches terra firma....

Bill

 

Bill,
Congrats , you had a long wait from the time you placed your order - I'm envious. I am anxiously awaiting some sort of status change. From calling ASK-MINI and speaking to a person, I know that my car is scheduled for production the week of Jan. 23. I'm not sure why there is no production week 3 if the plant was supposed to start up again on Jan. 13.

 

I just called ASK MINI today and was officially informed that my build date (week) is Jan 23rd. Finally some light at the end of the tunnel. This is going to make it just that much harder to wait for it.

I ordered a Chili Red/W MCS, Prem, Sport, HK, LSD, Athracite headliner, chrome int & ext.

 

Well guys, looks like we'll all be here for quite awhile. We might as well get to know each other.

I'm Stefanie from Michigan.

I ordered a 2006 MCS from Classic MINI in Mentor, Ohio.

Spec is:
2006 MCS 6spd
PH/PH
Premium
Cold Weather
Auto dimming mirror
Anthracite trim
Gray two tone leatherette
Front & Rear fogs
Xenon lights
DSC
LSD
NAV system

I think I'll name him Grimace.

This will be my third MINI. I purchased the first, a 2003 CR/W Cooper, in Feb of 2003. It was totaled in an accident. That was replaced by a 2003 CR/B Cooper in November of 2004. This is my current MINI. He's for sale in anticipation of the 2006 MCS.


What about everyone else? New MINI owners? Current MINI owners that are moving to a new car?

 

Just got off the phone with ASK-MINI. The rep told me that my Mini has begun production this morning. He gave a date of 1/27 to be out of production (which sounds long) but added that I should call back this Friday to check on status. Finally, some movement. I placed my order on 12/30 from Princeton Mini. Might just beat the price increase!

 

My '06 MCS was ordered on Dec. 14. The automated line tells me that it's scheduled for production, but with no specific date......the human there says that it's still On Order......the Mini USA Owner's Lounge says it's just On Order......my dealer tells me it's scheduled for Week 4 production. I guess I'll pick the last choice!

My '02 MCS was totalled in an accident on Dec. 12. It has now been more than a month since I've driven a Mini.

 

Cool! Who is your MA there? I ordered my MINI from Princeton before Thanksgiving but didn't get a production number until the December allotment came in. Things also seemed to take forever in the paint shop, which I attribute to the plant shutdown / slowdown this month. You should be falling after the plant work and before the price increase (which is a good place to be). I was hitting the ceiling this weekend to hear that my MINI has been hatched and is on the way to the boat.

Now I can REALLY bore the people at work by posting a daily map of the ship's travels across the pond....

Bill

 

Bill,
Ordered both Minis from Debbie at Princeton but for status I have called ASK-MINI and spoken to a live person twice now. The automated system still told me 'scheduled for production with no firm date' so when it was finished, I asked for a rep.
Have you managed to figure out a clean way of determining what ship your car is on?
On the topic of boring people at work - as the guy who sits across from me was leaving to go home tonight, he says 'Did you see the story on CNN about the delays at the Mini factory?'. I just laughed and told him 'good one'.

 

Here is the definitive description on how to track your MINI, including a list of "status codes" that BMW uses to gauge where it is in the production process -

http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?f...q_tracking_usa

Now, about the ship, the above article approaches that a couple of different ways - by checking on which WW (Wallenius Wilhelmsen) auto carriers are leaving from Southampton for your port of arrival some time after you get a "vehicle complete" status (I understand that a popular carrier - The Patriot - is leaving Southampton tomorrow for NYC but it is almost too much to hope that my 2 day old car is aboard...) The other way is to use your VIN number to track it directly with the shipping line. I believe that by going to the "Tracking Auto Carriers" at the following site, you can enter your complete VIN number once the line takes ownership of the MINI and it will tell you which ship and departure details. I believe that ALL tracking systems stop when ships arrive in the US - from then on you need to rely on your dealer for updates -

http://schedule.2wglobal.com/AppTracking/cargoTrack.do

Now, the site the I plan to use to track the vessel, once I know which one it is, is the following -

http://www.sailwx.info/

This site will pinpoint any named vessel on the ocean with GPS and track its course over time - really cool. I am ready !!

Hope this helps -

Bill

ps - My MA there is Jeremy and this is my first MINI so I am hoping for the best from the dealership. Would love to get your impressions of having dealt with them with your first one - service, responsiveness, that sort of thing.

 

WOW !!

I just followed my own directions above and discovered that my MINI is booked on the Elektra leaving on Wednesday for New York - and will be arriving on January 27!!

Your booking receipt will only tell you the name of the ship - you can go back to the WW home page and pretend you want to ship a car to the US and ask for what the next vessel is (between two dates) - you will then find out when your ship is leaving and arriving.

Hmmmm...... Elektra might be a good name for my MINI..... Nah, probably been done....

Bill

 

Mine:

MCS CR/B, Sport, Premium, Cold, Convenience pkgs, LSD, Web spokes (what's the R code on these, BTW?) w/ perf run flats, Front & Rear fogs
HK audio, CR dash, Chrono pack, Red/Black Cloth/Leather seats

Planned mods: checker mirror caps, Icelink+, Parrot 3100 Bluetooth + MFSW harness, and maybe the areo grille mod on the stock bumper (we'll see).

Did I miss anything?

I didn't get around to calling today as I didn't want to jinx it. My Miata just passed 178K miles over the weekend and it's got to last me another 6 weeks or so. OK, ok. I'll call them tomorrow.

It looks like there's an LA bound boat (Don Carlos) leaving Jan 31st. Let's hope my car is on it.

As for names, it's tough. Though I've ordered a CA plate: CPRSIZE. But until it arrives, I have this one!

--dwf

 

Bill,
Congrats on your Mini making it to a ship quickly. Thanks for the great instructions on ship tracking - I had seen a faq on mini2 about this but it wasn't as complete as your description.
As far as Princeton Mini service goes, I haven't had much experience with them as (knock on wood) Twiggy has been quite solid and trouble free. The initial delivery of the car was done professionally and every thing was fine there. We had purchased the checker board decal for the sunroof when we ordered the car but it was on back order still when the car arrived. It took a couple of months to come in but when the dealer applied it, they did a very nice job - it looks great! I am currently in the process of trying to get what seems like a small, stupid item fixed. There is a Mini emblem on the steering wheel (over the horn/air-bag) that caught on my jacket when I was getting out of the car. The right hand corner of it now sticks up enough to constantly catch on coats. They have to replace the entire air-bag cover/assembly to fix this. I had it in last week for this but the unit they had in stock was defective some how - I'm in the process of trying to get rescheduled now. In short they have done good by us - they seem pretty busy and it sometimes takes awhile to get scheduled for service if you require a loaner car.

 

REPORT!
As of 13 Jan my car made it into production and they gave me my VIN#.
I am still on schedule for a mid to late Feb delivery through Brian Harris MINI.
I was also told that I didnt have to pay the new fee even if it delivered after March 1st. Totally excellent service so far from Brian Harris MINI.
This thread sure has picked up!

 

K4KAS - when you talk to ASK MINI, are you using the automated service or speaking with a rep??

Congrats on your update in status!

 

Just called ask-mini. They said it is in Production and scheduled for completion on January 25th. Can't Wait!

 

I am going by my MA not MINIUSA. I did call MINIUSA once to confirm a change in my options,dern configurator is the devil!
Other than that my MA has been keeping me up to date! Way to go Brian Harris MINI!
Its not as hard for me to wait because I am still in Iraq. But I will be back in the states soon and then the fun waiting will really hit me! Good thing I have another car!

 

I would guess my car is scheduled for week 4? The Owners Lounge shows my car MCSa in "on order" status. I called 866-ASK-MINI yesterday and the computerized voice told me my car was scheduled for production but gave no production date. Today I sent an email to my motoring advisor asking for an update but couldn't wait to hear back from her and called ASK-MINI again. The voice told me that my car was in production and scheduled for completion January 27th. I'm one happy guy!!!!!