Category: My MINI

According to ASK-MINI, MNIAV8R is now in transit but didn’t have any shipping information to share. The only boats I know about are a K-Line ship that left last Friday and a WW one that left yesterday. There is still no information on the WW shipping line so maybe it made it on last Friday’s K-Line ship?

[Update:] Looking at the K-Line schedule page I see that last Friday’s sailing got bumped to Sunday so I am feeling hopeful that I am on the OOCL Faith. It arrives in L.A. August 9th. You can see its most recently reported-position here (but it shows the ship arriving at Southampton last week).

Wow, I had read that it might take a week for my new delivery to make it to Southampton but according to ASK-MINI it is already there waiting for a ship, though no shipping information is currently available. Maybe it will make tomorrow’s sailing of the OOCL Faith after all?

Not sure if I ever said somewhere else but I am retiring UKPYLOT with this purchase. The new MINI will be ‘MNI AV8R’ and, very possibly, named Louise but that’s still under discussion….

I’ve seen a couple of dark silver cabrio MCS’ this week so I am going to need to make mine a little more individual from the get-go. I’ve always planned on putting a decal on the rear window but maybe I will get it now rather than wait a while. I want to put an England flag in the back but, as I said earlier, I don’t want people thinking I’m a Red Cross vehicle or an ambulance (for midgets?). The England flag regularly appears with the word “England” across it so thats what I will get. Here are some candidate designs that I’ve stolen off the web – your opionions please!

Yes, my new MINI was born today!!! It is now awaiting transport. As I said earlier, it appears that MINI no longer uses Wallenius Wilhelmsen for shipping to CA so I probably won’t be able to track my baby’s progress across the Atlantic. Doesn’t mean I won’t try though 🙂

Update: Given the likelihood of my MINI being on a K-Line ship, I took a look at their schedule. They have sailings to LA every Friday. I can’t see it making on the OOCL Faith which leaves this Friday, but maybe the PONL Sidney which leaves on the 22nd (arrives Aug 15) or the Cape Charles which leaves on the 29th and arrives Aug 22nd. Its going to be painful if I don’t find out which one!

My new MINI is still in production, still due to be completed by July 12th. Now, to me,’ due by’ means before but not including so it should have been done today. Hmmpf! Now, this may be splitting hairs but we’re talking one less day’s waiting if it were true. Perhaps tomorrow.

My MINI is still scheduled for a July 12 production date, I’ve tried the VIN on the WW website but no joy yet. However, I was reading tonight that MINI uses two other carriers for most sailings to CA and neither of these companies allow you to track your vehicle. Wah!!! I was looking forward to following it around the seas. Of course it might yet get on a WW ship but the more I read the more unlikely it seems.

The new MINI is now scheduled for production on the owner’s lounge, I have a VIN and a date of July 12th! Unfortuantely I have found out that I was not able to get the change to cloth seats made in time so it is coming with the leatherette. I have been offered a rebuild for a late August production date but I guess I will stick with this. I had always planned on putting some Wet Okole seat covers at some point so perhaps that will be my first ‘mod’. Mind you I am so angry at South Bay MINI for their general inability to get in touch (I am still yet to receive a receipt) I am tempted to cancel the whole damn thing. But my sales contact is back from vacation and she is pretty good, its just the person she put in charge who is either incompetent or just hates people with Kentucky accents 🙂

The owners lounge still says ‘On Order’, the phone line still says ‘Scheduled but no date’ so I’m thinking I got excited for no good reason. Upside, though, is that I get to go through that excitement again when it really does happen. Its only three days until production month, so I have fingers crossed to see something change soon.

When I ordered the MINI I put some accessories on there, figured they were small and inexpensive. But according to this posting over on dbmini, just installing the aux input might cost me $125!! So I think I’ll remove all the accessories and do them myself. Only thing I’m not sure of yet is an alarm system. I say they don’t stop anybody from stealing the car but my wife thinks they make a great deterrent to the ‘casual’ thief. $499 plus install might be worth it?

Coming into work this morning, car alongside me beckoned me to open the window. “Hey, does the UK on your plate mean Kentucky??” I gave him my ‘are you mad’ look and said that it was for the United Kingdom. He said “too bad” and drove away.

I met him again on the bus from the car park and he explained to me that the University of Kentucky is referred to as ‘UK’ so it wasn’t as crazy as I thought. Well, maybe not. But just in case there is still confusion here is a description of the United Kingdom which you will see has no resemblence to the University of Kentucky.

So of course I am checking the Owners Lounge every day to see if my new MINI is progressing any, and each time I go there I see the picture of the cool blue convertible on the login page. It surely is a beauty, makes me wonder if I have made the wrong colour choice…. I do need to call my sales advisor and make a couple of changes, going to change to cloth seats, many people have pointed out to me that when its 110F (as it was yesterday), it is not going to be possible to sit on the leatherette without getting first degree burns to delicate parts.

I did email my advisor a couple of times but she doesn’t seem to be an email person as I’ve had no replies. Its been almost two weeks and they haven’t put the deposit on my card yet or sent me any receipt, confirmation, brochures as promised. I guess I need to get on the phone and see what’s happening.