[MINIgirl]

How do I find out where my MINI was built?

I just assumed it would be built in Oxford, England. I just saw that it is on a ship that left Zeebrugge. A place in Belgium (I think). Does that mean it was built there?

I emailed my dealer and have not gotten a response yet.

How can I find out for sure where it was built?

Thanks

 

[profiteroles]

put the chassis number (if its built you should have it but ask your dealer if not) into


http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html


and it is stated on there


I believe if the chassis starts with a "T" it's Oxford. If it's a number it's the other plant which is in fact in Holland:


https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/glob...lId=6&id=T0186026EN&left_menu_item=node__5247

 

[Pmcg16]

I think your car was probably built at the Nedcar car plant in the Netherlands. Previously, this factory was used to assemble Volvos and more recently Mitsubishi models. If you search on line for Mini Netherlands there are a few press releases giving more details.

 

[Chathamgirl]

I think your car was probably built at the Nedcar car plant in the Netherlands. Previously, this factory was used to assemble Volvos and more recently Mitsubishi models. If you search on line for Mini Netherlands there are a few press releases giving more details.

My number is 2A09... It was built in Holland. It looks exactly the same as one built here. I am not bothered.

 

[profiteroles]

My number is 2A09... It was built in Holland. It looks exactly the same as one built here. I am not bothered.

I wouldn't be - I had a nedcar-built Mitsubishi Colt and it was solid as a rock.

 

[Mini Pel]

vin decoder now shows my car 3A08553
still can tell where it was built
can anyone let me Know?

 

[QMark]

vin decoder now shows my car 3A08553
still can tell where it was built
can anyone let me Know?

The VIN code checker used to tell you where the car was built, but it looks like it doesn't anymore.
I think Profiteroles is correct about T-numbered cars being built in Oxford, so considering that yours starts with a number, is a Mini One and Chathamgirl has already established that her One was built in the Netherlands, there's a good chance yours is from there too.

Maybe all the Mini Ones are being built in the Netherlands? Otherwise it seems a bit odd to build UK based cars in the Netherlands, and ship them back?

As Chathamgirl says, I don't think that it will make a lot of difference to the finish, etc: I am sure the standards must be similar, and the Dutch plant has been making cars for a long time...

 

[profiteroles]

Explanation here: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5475585_explanation-vin-number.html

the eleventh character refers to the assembly plant in which the vehicle was manufactured

BMW manufacturing sites (can't guarantee this but it seems to match up with my previous Regensburg-built 1 series as well as both MINIs): http://www.bmwland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=715684

A: München
B: Dingolfing
C: Dingolfing
D: Dingolfing
E: Regensburg
F: München
G: Dingolfing
H: Rosslyn
J: Regensburg
K: München
L: Spartanburg
M: Spartanburg
N: Rosslyn
P: Regensburg
R: Toluka (Mexico)
S: Shenyang
T: Oxford
U: Goodwood
V: Leipzig
W: Graz
X: Berlin
Y: Berlin
Z: Berlin

I guess they haven't added Nedcar to the list yet but given they have used up all the letters, that's probably why they are now on numbers

If anyone has a Countryman on the forum they could check if theirs begins with a "W" (Graz, Austria) to verify the above?

 

[Sag]

On the system my vin number starts 2A09 so assume it will be built in Holland (scheduled for build next week), it is a Mini One. I assume that it will take a little longer to get to the dealers than if built in Oxford. I'm a bit disappointed (nothing against the Dutch) but I had hoped that the maximum amount of my spend would be going into the UK economy. Also slight worry that the workers in Holland have only just been trained on Mini production and quality standards so danger this early into production of the Mini in Holland could lead to higher % of problems.

Still looking forward to finally getting the car soon.

 

[MINIgirl]

It looks like my car was built in Germany, Netherlands, or wherever, but for some reason my dealer does not want me to know that!

So here's what I found out. I got a response from my dealer saying that my car was built in Oxford and will be shipped to Los Angeles.

I then called MINI USA and asked the same question. The guy put me on a long hold and then came back and said the car was built in Germany. When I asked where the car was going to ship from, he put me on a long hold again and this time came back and said the car was built and would be shipped from Oxford. I told him you just said it was built in Germany and he said that he had made a mistake.

I then emailed the dealer again and asked for the shipping information so that I could track the voyage. He directed me to the MINI owners lounge, knowing full well, the information is not available there.

I emailed him back and he said he has no way of knowing the shipping information and can only give me the information available on the owners lounge.

CONSPIRACY!!!!

If the dealer tells me the shipping information, then I will find out where the car was shipped from and built, right?

I already know that it is being shipped from Zeebrugge, not oxford. So it seems obvious the car was not built in Oxford. What is puzzling is why the dealer and MINI USA don't want me to know that.

I told my dealer I would get the information and provide it to HIM. It will be interesting to see what he says when I tell him the car is not being shipped from Oxford.

Any idea what's going on???

 

[MINIgirl]

Btw, my chassis number starts with 3A. The site no longer tells you where the car was built, hence my CONSPIRACY theory!

 

[JVondel]

Last year indeed the plant in Born, the Netherlands was opened for building Mini's.
Born has a longstanding tradition, 1932, with DAF. Some of you know that from the trucks you see on the road. They came up with the variomatic gearshift, that is still in use in some modern cars. But as with many car manufacturers it was not big enough to stay on their own, and Volvo took over. In Born they have highly skilled people creating Volvo's, Mitsubishi's and now Mini. SO don't worry about the build quality of your Dutch Mini

In regard of the remark of @Sag - the production capacity of Mini's at Oxford was probably not enough and then it was cheaper to use the plant, incl skilled people, buildings, supplier infra, etc in NL than to build/extend a new plant in Oxford.

Have the guts to go Dutch and get the "Orange" Mini

PS Holland is not the same as Germany, it is like Portugal is like Spain, USA is like Canada.

 

[profiteroles]

Last year indeed the plant in Born, the Netherlands was opened for building Mini's.
Born has a longstanding tradition, 1932, with DAF. Some of you know that from the trucks you see on the road. They came up with the variomatic gearshift, that is still in use in some modern cars. But as with many car manufacturers it was not big enough to stay on their own, and Volvo took over. In Born they have highly skilled people creating Volvo's, Mitsubishi's and now Mini. SO don't worry about the build quality of your Dutch Mini

In regard of the remark of @Sag - the production capacity of Mini's at Oxford was probably not enough and then it was cheaper to use the plant, incl skilled people, buildings, supplier infra, etc in NL than to build/extend a new plant in Oxford.

Have the guts to go Dutch and get the "Orange" Mini

PS Holland is not the same as Germany, it is like Portugal is like Spain, USA is like Canada.

I had a Mitsubishi Colt built at Nedcar and in the 3 years I had it it didn't have any issues. Fantastic cars. I wouldn't mind a Nedcar MINI at all. In fact given it's going to be VO might even call it Edam

 

[Hrafn]

It looks like my car was built in Germany, Netherlands, or wherever, but for some reason my dealer does not want me to know that!
...
I then emailed the dealer again and asked for the shipping information so that I could track the voyage. He directed me to the MINI owners lounge, knowing full well, the information is not available there.
...
I already know that it is being shipped from Zeebrugge, not oxford. So it seems obvious the car was not built in Oxford. What is puzzling is why the dealer and MINI USA don't want me to know that.

I told my dealer I would get the information and provide it to HIM. It will be interesting to see what he says when I tell him the car is not being shipped from Oxford.

Any idea what's going on???

I suspect this is the company trying to soft pedal as 12 years of marketing comes back to bite it in the backside. Especially in North America, the MINI has been hyped as this wonderfully quirky "British" car. Bulldogs galore, and what other car can you order with Union Jacks on the roof, mirrors and body inserts? And very successful it has been for them, too.

As this site is dedicated to the F56, I'm sure most of us appreciate that, moreso than any previous MINI, our cars are really just rebadged, compact BMWs. Not going to hear many complain about the benefits of German design and engineering, with the added benefit that all the iconic Coopers were built in Oxford at the same site that has been making them since 1959.

But what do you have when your German designed/engineered car is built in Holland? You still have an excellent, well built car, but one that completely puts the lie to the car's entire British brand image. That's a dangerous game for MINI/BMW to be playing and I suspect they know it is -- which is why they are not falling over themselves to tell you that the "British" car you bought is anything but...

 

[jimmyt]

... with the added benefit that all the iconic Coopers were built in Oxford at the same site that has been making them since 1959.

Not true. Coopers were also manufactured at Longbridge up till 1971 and then again later on - it is where my 2000 Cooper Sport was made.
Coopers were also manufactured in Italy, Spain and Belgium during the 1960s and 1970s

 

[Hrafn]

Sorry, ambiguity of wording...

I was referring to the fact that all of the modern (BMW) Coopers, up until the opening of the Holland plant, had at least a tenuous link to their heritage and some legitimacy to their British-themed marketing by being built in the same spot the first Mini was 55 years ago. (The modern Coopers are iconic in that, if you were to tell someone you just bought a MINI, a Cooper/MCS is almost certainly what will pop into their heads as the exemplar of the brand.)

Unless one considers the Hams Hall engine plant as some sort of oblique geographical nod to the Longbridge days, Oxford is the only site currently in play and relevant to the point I was making.

 

[profiteroles]

Sorry, ambiguity of wording...

I was referring to the fact that all of the modern (BMW) Coopers, up until the opening of the Holland plant, had at least a tenuous link to their heritage and some legitimacy to their British-themed marketing by being built in the same spot the first Mini was 55 years ago. (The modern Coopers are iconic in that, if you were to tell someone you just bought a MINI, a Cooper/MCS is almost certainly what will pop into their heads as the exemplar of the brand.)

Unless one considers the Hams Hall engine plant as some sort of oblique geographical nod to the Longbridge days, Oxford is the only site currently in play and relevant to the point I was making.

The Countryman is built exclusively in Austria and that has been a success?
Also - I believe there is a third Swindon plant that makes the body (http://www.miniplantswindon.co.uk/)?

 

[jeremybingham]

Yes you're right profiteroles body panels made Swindon. We were told on our factory tour in no uncertain terms that Oxford is prime mini production and its spiritual home but demand is so high that after huge investment at Oxford they have run out of space. Hence Holland . If you saw how few people make the body shell you really l y wonder how many jobs the uk factory supports anyway BUT isn't the design etc the most important thing. The Japanese aren't moaning about receiving uk built Honda's and Toyotas. Car's these days are a global business. You can't get too territorial these days. Merc ml was made in the USA jaguar is owned by Tata . Some bmws are made in the usa etc etc. It is normal practice.

 

[Hrafn]

The Countryman is built exclusively in Austria and that has been a success?

Correct. And how many Countrymans (Countrymen?) have you seen advertised with a Schnauser in the back and an Austrian flag on the roof?

Also - I believe there is a third Swindon plant that makes the body (http://www.miniplantswindon.co.uk/)?

Also correct, but (I believe) the Swindon plant has no connection or history relating to classic Mini production, like Oxford does.

As enjoyable as these various exchanges on the minutiae of mini production old and new has been, my last comment will be to bring it back to the original point and leave it there. The question was asked about why MINI USA did not appear to be forthcoming about a car having been built in the Netherlands. I was simply putting forward the idea that, given how heavily the marketing and brand image has been established around an identity as a British car, having it become common knowledge that some of the core, mainstream models are being built outside the UK, could undermine that.

Cheers.

 

[MINIgirl]

Thank you all for the info. it is helpful.

The dealer emailed me and said he suddenly became aware that the car can be tracked on its voyage over here. A fact he claims he was not aware of before. However, he is still saying that he cannot get any specific information until the car is loaded and the ship sails.

I have emailed the dealer the information clearly showing that my car has been loaded and is waiting to leave Zeebrugge. Let's see what he has to say.