If I have got my VIN right, there is a 5 week (!) delay between arrival and the dealer's estimated delivery date...
Also, does anyone know which Brisbane dock the MINIs come into - is it Fishermans Island (RoRo vessels) or Hamilton (PCTC vessels)?
I have also been trying to track the actual current location of the ship - in addition to the shipping information from Wallenius Wilhelmsen. I have the call sign for the vessel and tried looking at the marine obs data on the Oceanweather, Inc website but can't locate the ship's call sign - the graphics aren't all that clear though. I also found another website (vesseltracker.com - AIS Schiffspositionen live Tracking und elektronischer Schiffsmeldedienst) which has a GoogleEarth vessel dataset but it really only seems to have good data for the Germany- France region. Does anyone know of any other websites that have current vessel location data?
all new cars into Brisbane now arrive at Fishermans Island. Some of them use to be at Hamilton, (see my album for pics). Tracking a MINI is part of the fun in ownership. Hope your MINI arrives safely...
I agree that tracking is fun - would be more fun if I could find it in between port stops better though.. It feels like it is taking forever to get here. Grub
Just been looking at your gallery 21Blue and saw there are some great computer screen shot showing the port and shipping tracking websites, if anyone wants to see exactly what they look like.
When you start wanting to track your order, the whole thing is a complete mystery and this would be quite helpful..
Well I didn't have a lot of success trying to track the ship live eg using googleearth software data sets such as vesseltracker.com - vesseltracker.com - AIS Vessel Data live in Google Earth or even some of the more graphically simplistic call sign based marine observation websites eg sailwx.info Ship locations or oceanwealth inc (a public/private sector company) Oceanweather Inc: Current Marine Data . I had the ship's call sign but I don't think it was calling in - I think calling in is just a voluntary activity.
Anyway, I have been keeping track of the ship's progress when it reaches various port stops through the Wallenius Wilhelmsen website (with the full 17 digit VIN) and also the various websites for the actual ports. The ship has just left Freemantle and is continuing on its way around to Brisbane - should be here in about a week and the dealer said it will be about another 2 weeks for delivery because of the import process etc.
Some of the Australian port websites are much better/more informative than others. The Freemantle port website Future Visits provides expected shipping data up to 2010! , Melbourne for about 4 days Shipping movements and Sydney for about 3 days Sydney Ports . Most also have live webcam shots of their ports as well. Qld's port information is coordinated through the state government website Shipping Information but only has information for the current and next day. I checked out the Port of Brisbane website as well and there was no webcam available on either website... which is a bit disappointing - Q is certainly not leading edge in providing port information.
Seems like ages since I signed up in March for an April build. The ship left England on 1/5 so it has been sailing for over a month now and will still be another week - 5 weeks on the boat to get here. But not long to go now though!!
Finally the wait is OVER!! About 10 days after the ship docked Brisbane, I was got the phone call that the car had finally arrived at the dealership.
I picked it up yesterday - but haven't been able to drive with the top down yet because of all the rain. I tried it with the sunroof open but got a bit too wet. The rain is predicted to last another 2 days and then - unfortunately we are likely to come into a cold snap. Just not having much luck yet.
However, the car is great - it doesn't seem to leak anywhere and it hugs the road like a dream in the wet.
Unfortunately I haven't really had a chance to enjoy its cabrio features properly yet - first the rain and now the icy cold winds.
I am hoping it will still be fine this weekend - I am thinking of going for a drive somewhere - anywhere - other than the daycare centre and the grocery store. I catch the train to work and have 3 kids at home, so this has been the extent of my fun - unless you count the rainy trip in 5pm peak hour traffic when I picked up the car from the Gold Coast.
I have used the sunroof a bit though - very nice!! Perhaps I should have got the tin top with the large glass sunroof instead?? Maybe for my next MINI purchase...
I got some great news today that my Baby was born!! I now have the VIN number so I guess it is a waiting game till it gets on the ship. I think that I will be hassling my dealer weekly about updates - the fact that his is getting built at the same time should help! Mid August just seems so far away...
Grub - You must be glad that your car is here! Do you appreciate it more than any other car that you have owned (and has the wait contributed to that in any way? ;-)
Yes I am glad it is finally here but the wait was fun too. Tracking the order always gave me something related to the MINI to do - and you get really good at typing in the 17 digits - after a while it is burned into your memory. (My dealer said I was the first customer she had that knew their 17 digit VIN off by heart.)
I sold my old car today - had it 14 years (Mazda 121 bubble) which was really sad. It was a great little car and in some ways very similar to the MINI - but of course the MINI is heaps better - handles so well, it feels much more solid - and has lots of electric automatic bits which are a bit of a novelty... I am really chuffed with the MINI so far.
Have fun tracking your order - the wait will be over before you know it!!
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Tracking a MINI is part of the fun in ownership. Hope your MINI arrives safely... 
If the world didn't suck we'd all fall off! 
