[ozzie]

Hi everyone,
First time posting here, however Ive been following the various threads closely since last April when I decided a mini is in my future.
Last December i decided to pull the trigger and placed an order on a 2015 cooper, the order was placed on December 19th, and I have not received any information since then. Unlike the USA and Europe, mini Canada does not seem to have any information regarding the order status of the vehicles, and my dealership doesn't even know if the vehicle has been built shipped or anything, for all I know I might have just donated my deposit to the dealer fund lol. I requested to get some info about the vehicle with no response back, also asked if they had the VIN and all I got back from then is
"The vehicle is in production yes. But how far along I have no idea my friend." so least to say very unhelpful, and the wait is killing me.

I'm wondering how long it took people in Canada to get any information about their mini, and if anyone has placed their order around the same time frame and has any information to pass on.

regards

 

[LilTy]

I ordered mine mid November and it was put in for the December production run, it wasnt completed until near Christmas. No mini lounge or whatever here (sadly) but I called the dealership at the end of December and they gave me the VIN. I used that VIN to track the shipping from England to Halifax (that was the only trackable part of the process). It arrived in Halifax on January 12th (I believe it left on Dec 27th-ish) I just had to wait for the call telling me the car arrived in Alberta. It just arrived (over 3 weeks after getting into Halifax). Not a transparent process by any means.

If yours made the January production run, it should be done by now and being prepped to ship or already on the boat. I would keep calling asking if they recieved a VIN yet.

 

[Wheee!]

I'm sorry to say that my dealership was not much help. I received my VIN number by calling them. I ordered last June and my car got held up in port because of the EPA delay. I knew it arrived in the port because I used the thread from the northamericanmotoring site that someone recently posted a link for in another thread here (sorry I don't remember which one). My dealer never acknowledged that there was a delay. I got my car October 11. I only knew what was going on thanks to the knowledgeable people here on this site. Communication does not seem to be Mini Canada's forte! Keep bugging for your VIN and then you can track for yourself. I hope your experience is better than mine!

 

[DigitalChilly]

I will confirm what others have said as well... 3 months from order to delivery. Dealership was able to find out the production week for me, gave the VIN and I was able to track it to Halifax. Mine took 3 weeks on the train to reach Victoria. Dealership was as helpful as they could considering how little MINI Canada seems to offer us as "customers".

 

[MsGTS]

My dealership in Vancouver had no news for me until my car was ready for pickup! Then when I arrived the cloth seats that I had ordered were not present -so verify that your salesperson has ordered every option carefully ahead of time.
Of course the leatherette vs cloth option was therefore decided for me as I was taking the car home that day after the 3 month wait! Actually, the cloth seats I don't miss /rarely think about, but had the dynamic damper control or HK sound system been missing I would not have accepted the car.
These are utterly "must haves" for me....

 

[Dromedary]

Same as above. Mini Canada keeps us in the dark. If you input your vin into this decoder- http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html

If it returns your mini information it means your car is built. Then you can track using the vin as the cargo ID assuming your mini is shipped by Wallenius Wilhelmson

Here https://att.2wglobal.com/gstattweb/

To give you a time frame, mine was ordered in November, finished production Feb 2. Was on the ship Feb 9. Scheduled to be in Halifax feb 17. Then probably a week or so to get to toronto and then a few days dealer prep. Currently it's still floating across the Atlantic.

 

[ozzie]

order status

After a couple of back and forth between the sales rep and myself that didnt lead anywhere, i decided to call the dealership and speak with the sales manager directly who was incredibly helpful and was able to give me the status of the vehicle, the order number and the VIN number which I used to track it on the site that Dromedary provided (much appreciated).

Even though I order the vehicle on Dec. 19th, the order didn't go through (dono why dont care right now) until Jan. 5th. Production was done in early Feb. and it is now on the boat heading this way, estimated arrival is Feb 23rd to Halifax NS.

Now not sure how he was able to figure it out, but he was able to tell me when the vehicle went into production and when it was done, not sure if its possible for people to call Mini Canada directly with their order number to get the build status info. Just a thought.

 

[tandberg]

After a couple of back and forth between the sales rep and myself that didnt lead anywhere, i decided to call the dealership and speak with the sales manager directly who was incredibly helpful and was able to give me the status of the vehicle, the order number and the VIN number which I used to track it on the site that Dromedary provided (much appreciated).

Even though I order the vehicle on Dec. 19th, the order didn't go through (dono why dont care right now) until Jan. 5th. Production was done in early Feb. and it is now on the boat heading this way, estimated arrival is Feb 23rd to Halifax NS.

Now not sure how he was able to figure it out, but he was able to tell me when the vehicle went into production and when it was done, not sure if its possible for people to call Mini Canada directly with their order number to get the build status info. Just a thought.

Factory closed for three weeks over Christmas and new year ;-)

 

[Dromedary]

After a couple of back and forth between the sales rep and myself that didnt lead anywhere, i decided to call the dealership and speak with the sales manager directly who was incredibly helpful and was able to give me the status of the vehicle, the order number and the VIN number which I used to track it on the site that Dromedary provided (much appreciated).

Even though I order the vehicle on Dec. 19th, the order didn't go through (dono why dont care right now) until Jan. 5th. Production was done in early Feb. and it is now on the boat heading this way, estimated arrival is Feb 23rd to Halifax NS.

Now not sure how he was able to figure it out, but he was able to tell me when the vehicle went into production and when it was done, not sure if its possible for people to call Mini Canada directly with their order number to get the build status info. Just a thought.

I think that's the same ship mine is on. Originally was supposed to arrive on the 17th, but the arrival date is pushed back until 22 or 23 I think. It's the FAUST that mine is on. Along with 50 something other minis. Can't seem to find any concrete timelines for the trip from the Halifax VDC to the gta.

 

[Hrafn]

Its funny how much the experience can vary.

I ordered mine in August and took delivery in October -- 2 months start to finish.

I was in contact with my sales rep every week and got status updates all the way through. Was told when the production status was confirmed, the start date of the production run and the VIN number -- all as soon as that info was available. Got a heads up the week before the dealership expected to take delivery and was able to book the day and time of my choosing for collection.

Like everyone else, once I had the VIN I was able to double check all the ordered specs were correct and find the right ship manifest (even got some Halifax webcam screengrabs of my car's ship pulling into port!)

In short, the process doesn't have to be totally dysfunctional. The dealers DO have access to the information we want; you just need to luck out with someone who can bother their arse to find it and communicate it...

 

[ozzie]

I think I'm getting a bit obsessed with tracking the mini... found this site that allows you to track the ship (http://www.vesselfinder.com/), you'll need the IMO number which you can get from the Wallenius Wilhelmson website (https://att.2wglobal.com/gstattweb/). once the ship is close enough to NS you can use the webcame Hrafn mentioned to see it pull in.

Now if there is a way to track it from NS to ON, that would be awesome lol.

 

[Dromedary]

I'm not even sure how they are transported from Halifax? Truck? Train? At least we avoided the CP rail strike if it's by train..

 

[Balypu]

There seems to be no difference in timescale between the UK and Canada. I was told mine would take 12 weeks and I live under 200 miles away from the plant.

 

[Dromedary]

Well mine landed in Halifax yesterday. As far as I know, no more tracking is available. Now just wait. And wait. And wait.

 

[ozzie]

I've been constantly checking the tracking, and not sure if it is still being updated, but the vessel is in Halifax as of Monday the 23rd, however under status details it still doesn't say that the car has been unloaded from Vessel!!!

 

[Dromedary]

My ship was there for two days as well. Each day it was at a different dock. Maybe it depends on where your mini is headed. Mine in going to GTA as well and it was unloaded the second day. But after that, there is nothing more to track. Just waiting for the dealer to call.

 

[ozzie]

mini status

so I decided to go to the grand river dealership today to finish the paper work and decide on the tint etc... according to the people there, the cars are expected on march 13th which is a Friday, which means that it wont be until after the weekend before they release it, as each mini needs to go through a "quality check" before handover. they attributed the wait to bad whether slowing down deliveries from Halifax.
However I looked at the weather for the last week and it didn't seem that bad when put in Canadian weather context, so I'm hoping they are exaggerating a bit to control expectations.

while I was there couldn't help myself for a quick test drive >, took a beautiful BRG base mini, just awesome cant wait for mine to arrive.

 

[Dromedary]

so I decided to go to the grand river dealership today to finish the paper work and decide on the tint etc... according to the people there, the cars are expected on march 13th which is a Friday, which means that it wont be until after the weekend before they release it, as each mini needs to go through a "quality check" before handover. they attributed the wait to bad whether slowing down deliveries from Halifax.
However I looked at the weather for the last week and it didn't seem that bad when put in Canadian weather context, so I'm hoping they are exaggerating a bit to control expectations.

while I was there couldn't help myself for a quick test drive >, took a beautiful BRG base mini, just awesome cant wait for mine to arrive.

Thanks for the info. On one hand.. It's been 4 months. What's another two weeks. But on the other hand.. ANOTHER TWO WEEKS??????!!!!!

 

[tandberg]

Odd reading halifax in posts as i live in halifax uk ;-)

 

[Dromedary]

Yeah. Canadians weren't too creative when it came to city names....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locations_in_Canada_with_an_English_name

Must have been something to do with those early homesick settlers