Delivery Spreadsheet - Let's Track These Inbound SEs

My Mini's ride (Grand Duke) has been slowly making its way across the Atlantic. It is kind of painful waiting for it to come back in range of land for tracking. Left Southampton on 10/3, passed the Azores on 10/7 and is not yet in range of tracking. I presume it will soon pop up near the Caribbean on its way to the Canal. Due in Oxnard on 10/28. The anticipation is actually worse for me since it embarked.

Rob

 

Mine’s in the paint booth now, too!

Nobody’s told me what ship mine leaves on, but I see that there’s a K-Line ship the “Olympian Highway“ in Southampton on 10/16 that’s going to Baltimore and then Brunswick, Ga (my port). That might be my ride.


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I seem to have gotten to the bottom of it.

Decided to call other dealers further away from my home to check for other options. Ended up chatting with a dealer much larger than my local one, and they speculate that my original dealer was selling build slots that they didn't actually have, or wasn't putting my order into the slots they did have.

Conveniently they had an abandoned order that's a bit different than mine but even cooler-looking:



This is a completely blacked-out iconic including the HK system, active cruise... basically everything but roof rails.

It's currently "in the paint booth" and they expect it around Thanksgiving. (Given the shipping situation out there, that may be optimistic.)

The fun part is I'll need to fly out to the dealer, then drive 400mi back. That'll be a nice getting-to-know-you trip.

 

Sorry for the frustrations but how awesome looking is that?

 

Congrats! If ever a MINI screamed out for black belt-line trim, yours is screaming the loudest. You should celebrate your good luck by ordering a set of black beltline trim pieces now. I got the shorty antenna for my SE and your car should have one, too. Just my opinions. You'll love this car!

 

Thanks! I am going to get the shorty antenna -- my original build specified that but on this one I'll have to do it after.

I'm not familiar with the beltline kit, is there a link to that? I found this but it sounds like it's just tape?

The spec sheet says “piano black waistline trim”, maybe that’s it?

I also want to get the smoked side markers... I hope those are easy enough to pop in on my own.

 

That beltline kit seems $$$.
I definitely want to delete chrome on mine. There's a lot on etsy to murder out your mini. Here's a beltline kit for under $20.

 

The experienced modder, @Tifosi, wrote "I just installed the OE beltline kit last night, took 30 minutes. Much better than the vinyl/tape wrapped silver trim!"

 

Oh yeah, I was definitely following that thread. I want to find those taillights too but haven't been able to.

 

$500 vs $15, yeah, it better look better!

For that price difference, I'm giving the $15 version a shot first. (Went through Out Motoring for it.)

Looks like they might be these. There are a bunch of different sellers with similar items. Might want to confirm they'll fit 2021/22 (listing just says 2014-18, not sure why that'd be).

 

does this mean my MINI is on a boat and heading out to sea, or is it waiting somewhere?

 

It means its on it way to Southampton to await ship assignment

 

It's either on a truck or train from Oxford to Southampton. It should show as being at the port tomorrow. Might be at the port for a week or so before it ends up on a boat. You'll probably find out that it's on a boat 2 days after it's actually on one. Once you know that it's 'In Transit' the people at Ask MINI can tell you what boat you're on and then you can see it spin around for a day waiting to dock in Zeebrugge and then wonder how much waffles and beer these people have eaten now that they've been there for 2 days. Get on with it people!!!

 

The Grand Duke made it to the Panama Canal late yesterday and is transiting today. Using MarineTraffic.com and the Panama Canal Authority website and live cams, I caught it entering the Pedro Miguel lock just now!





Rob

 

I placed an order for an Island Blue Electric Collection on 9/25. I am super pumped to finally join the MINI family.

When I placed the order, I got my confirmation number immediately. I still have yet to see a charge on my credit card for the reservation or get any build number/build date from my dealer. Considering I did this over a month ago, should I be concerned?

 

Welcome!

I didn't get my build number from my motoring advisor until my car was already built and waiting at the embarkation port. Getting that build number depends a lot on your relationship with your motoring advisor. But once you have it, you can follow progress on mygarage.miniusa.com and also get info from 866-ASK-MINI (assuming US).

 

This happened to me with the first dealership. I was losing patience and another dealership contacted me and I was asking them questions about slots and availability etc. turns out they have one unclaimed so I was able to jump on that and have an order number to track right away. And I was charged immediately for the $250 deposit unlike with the first dealership keeps telling me we have to wait for slots to be available and deposit was never charged.


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It took six weeks to shake a production number out of my sales guy and by that point I had a VIN and was already in the production queue. Just give your dealership a call and act really excited about your car. They may have the number and just haven’t been motivated to give it to you.


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Thanks all for the advice! I reached out to my motoring advisor (lol....still think that's hilarious) today to see if he had any additional info for me. If he doesn't get back to me soon, I will turn into the most annoying version of myself and call them super excited.

If I don't get a number soon, I may switch dealers. Have to give them a chance first.

 

My MINI has been “At The Port” in South Hampton since Thursday. This has been the longest and most frustrating part of the experience so far. Lack of forward progress sucks.