Category: My MINI

My new MINI is still at the port waiting to be processed, my MA says she hopes it won’t be more than two weeks but there are still several thousand cars to be processed; mine could be #1 or #5000. Anyone know how many cars a day they can usually process? Oh, my car isn’t even at the VDC yet, this is some post-arrival delay before it gets there.

Looks like I have Sarah sold, deal should go down Thursday or Friday if all works out. It will be sad to see her go but sometime you have to let them go.

We all know that the wait for the new vehicle can be frustrating but MINI does try to Make Waiting Fun (tm?) by sending out emails, brochures etc to fill the void. But in the last three weeks I’ve been unable to get my dealer to return an email or a phone call with questions about accessories, delivery dates, trade-in values etc, simple questions really that I didn’t expect to have to fight for answers. From changes to their web page, it looks like they have had a bit of a reorganisation but when you’re spending $30k you kinda expect not to be ignored when you ask the basic questions.

I almost see why its worth paying the markup – perhaps the $3k goes towards customer service?? If it wasn’t for the fact that I think I am almost at the end of the wait (but without anyone returning my calls who knows!) I think I’d cancel and buy a Miata.

[Update] Corresponded with my MA – she says that since July 21 the VDC has received 6900 cars and is struggling to clear the backlog. Bottom line, my car is there waiting to be released but we don’t know when they will get to it. She hopes to tell me tomorrow what to expect. I say clear the MINIs, let the BMWs sit there an extra day or three.

Might have a buyer for my MINI coming on Sunday so I needed to get my vanity plates turned in for regular ones. The local DMV was very efficient for a Friday lunchtime and so please spare a moment for the passing of UK PYLOT.

Well, probably. According to the ship tracking page the ship has left Houston but is now north of Florida. Er, guys, LA is the other direction! So, a little bit of digging found this route map which explains it all. The ship only goes as far as Houston, the other ‘ports of call’ must be by truck or rail. So I think it is fair to say that my new baby is in the USA. I don’t know where but it’s here somewhere.

• ASK-MINI still says that my car is at the port awaiting a shipping vessel
• The KLine web site no longer lists my ship on their schedule
• South Bay MINI haven’t repsonded to an email in three weeks

I smell conspiracy!!

Fortunately the ship tracking webpage does show that the OOCL Faith is, as of this morning, just off the coast of Texas so the ship does still exist even if I have no idea if my MINI does any more!

I wasn’t expecting my ship to dock for a few more days but today ASK-MINI says my new MINI is “at the port awaiting shipping”. This sounds like its back in Southampton which clearly can’t be right so I am thinking this means its waiting to be transported to the VDC. Or maybe the ship really did turn around and dump it back home? Owners Lounge still says ‘en route’.

I’ve said before that my family live fairly near the docks in Southampton, on a couple of visits to see my mother in hospital we got a view of the MINIs stacked on the quayside waiting for the next ship. Too bad I didn’t have my camera.

[Update] Well, I listened again with a little less jet lag and the message actually says that the vehicle is at the port awaiting a shipping vessel and no shipping information is available. So who knows where it is!

Whilst driving in to San Diego this morning I had about a mile of clear road ahead of me on the inside lane before the next car, the outside lane was bumper-to-bumper, brakes on every 5 seconds, and I was reminded of the old saying “Only a fool breaks the three second rule”. And then I remembered that it was later changed to “Only a fool breaks the two second rule”. Did the population get quicker reaction times in between time? And, now, is it down to one second?? Too bad Jimmy Saville isn’t around to let us know [*].

Got a parcel yesterday: european parcel shelf, aux input and glove box organiser now joining the seat covers in the office. Now if only I had the vehicle to put them in. I’m going to have to get the XM Direct real soon, too. Going to be quite the ‘install party’ first weekend I have it.

[*] Apologies to all the American readers who probably have no clue what I am on about. Speaking of England, I am flying out tonight to spend a week there so there probably won’t be any updates for a while.

[Update 2:]Now the schedule page says it will arrive August 12th, maybe by the time it gets here it will be back on track. Either way, it looks like maybe an August 20th ribbon cutting ceremony at South Bay MINI.

[Update:] The schedule page for the OOCL Faith now shows her arriving in Los Angeles on Aug 15th – a full 6 days later than previously announced. Argh, the first real delay of my order process.

Today I got the form from South Bay MINI on which I can choose what programmable options are available on my key. I had been expecting more for some reason but there were just 4:

• Day Running Lights – want the low beams on all the time when you’re driving?
• Pathway Lighting – how long do you want the high beams to stay on after shutdown?
• Central Locking – do you want the doors to automatically lock when you start moving?
• Selective Unlocking – first button press unlocks driver door, second unlocks passenger door

Conspicuous by its absence its the ability to open/close the roof from the key. According to the MINI forums this is no longer a standard option as there have been ‘liability’ issues (some people need to get some self-responsibility) so you have to ask for it. And even then, some dealers are refusing to program it. I was told that if I wanted it, to write it on the form: I did.

Ever since choosing Dark Silver I’ve just assumed that the bonnet stripes have to be black, but today I saw a picture of white stripes and dark silver and have to say it looks real good. Methinks I will have to wait until it comes and experiment with some mockups.

My seat covers came at the weekend, they smell awful (gotta love new neoprene!) but look real great, I think they are gonna be gorgeous in the car.

With the ship supposed to be in Hamburg, Germany today, I’ve been thinking about accessories. On the list so far:

• Some alarm system or other – standard alarm is $567 installed, maybe I should do Lojack or something else?
• Aux input – $245 installed!!!! I’ll order that elsewhere and do it myself
• Glove box organiser
• Cubby hole organiser
• Auto-up window circuit
• European parcel shelf
• Wet Okole seat covers – already ordered

Anything I’m missing??