[Slide-o-rama]

Well guys thought i'd post my experience thus far and also let you know that at this stage whilst i've enjoyed my brief time here amongst you it may be short lived.

It seems that whilst my order was taken on monday the 24/1/2005 and the dealer had quoted an approximate delivery date of april or may (I thought his was a long time), it seems that supply problems have pushed my expected delivery date back to August.

August...7 months away...are you kidding me? I could build a house in this time....I believe they are calling a number of people from our area and pushing back delivery dates due to the unavailablity of vehicles.

I'm going to get on the phone and make a hell of a lot of noise about this to bmw australia as I believe this situation is just untenable. 2-4 months is pushing the friendship but 6-7 is just a joke. If they are unable to do anything for me I believe I will cancel my order and start the search for another car.

I have been led to believe the problem lie's in the dealer's being told that the addition of the mini cabrio would give them more cars to sell as they would have both the cabrio and the hardtop and that they would receive an allocation of hardtops and an allocation of cabrios. I am led to believe this has been revised and both models now compete directly against other in the supply chain and build process.

I can't believe this happening....I'm very bitter right now and very lucky there isn't a bmw exec close by for me to throttle. The dealership has been professional, courteous and helpful through the whole process, but I fear I may not join the mini ownership ranks due to manufacturing incompetence.

how can i improve this situation? what can be done to ensure get a car in a 3-4 months instead of 6-7? Any help or thoughts greatly appreciated.

I really hope BMW Australia are listening as i will make damn sure a hell of a lot of people hear about my plight. How can you expect to run a business like this?

Sincerely
Slide-o-rama

[minigolf]

Try calling a few interstate dealers and see how their allocations are sitting. It may not pay any dividends, but what do you have to lose? Hey, if you buy from Perth you can cut a couple of weeks of straight away!

Sorry to hear about that, hope it works out for you. If it is any consolation it will be worth the wait.

[gazah]

BUGGER! BUGGER! BUGGER!

make sure you make 1 hell of racket slide, there simply must be someway MINI Aus can sort this sort of a catastrophe out, there must some dealers with allocations available or MINIs on order... good luck!

[Todd!]

That sounds like alot of pork pies... but Minis are very popular right now!!

The head guy at my local BMW has said he has sold his quarterly quota of Minis in mid Jan...

The thing is that they are a great car to have, well worth the wait... If the dealer had you sign up expecting the car was here by April and it is not going to be - they have obviously lied! They know - no matter how ignorant they act!

Todd

[Tit]

Mate that's sad news....

Would you consider starting looking for a second hand mini?

Or, you could use this to your advantage, and threaten the dealership with a withdrawal of your order....if you can stand the wait, you may end up with a nicely specc'd up car for not much extra....

I know a guy in the south side who's trying to sell his 02 IB/W MCS with 32000km on the clock for around $36k (prolly less now, as he just wants to pay out his lease)....it's fully specced out with blue/black leather, lamps, 17in s spokes etc....I can get you in touch with him if your'e interested....

[Frosty_Boy]

I'm in Melbourne and ordered a Cooper S Cabrio on 11th December and was told February build for April delivery.

Mid January I was advised that my build date was locked in for Feb and Apr delivery was still valid.

I understand that the Cabrio and Hardtop models share the same production line. Is it feasible that they've over promoted the Cabrio and are cutting back on other production to deliver Cabrio's?

Rest assured if I'm told my Cabrio is going to be later than promised I'll be very upset as I've lined up the sale of my current car.

You've been made a promise and I recommend pushing to hold them to that. It will unfortunately mean that some other ppor bugger will have to accept (or reject) a several month lead-time, but then it might also ensure that promises in future are not made if they can't be kept.

Go for it! Possibly even consider the (soft) arguement that you have made arrangements based upon their delivery "commitments" and that failure to deliver will cause you compensatable losses - it's a long bow but I reckon enough of a reality jolt to get the salesman thinking and acting rather than just reading off the script!

I assume you've placed a deposit, as I have. That in itself is leverage but I just realised that my deposit has no attachment to a delivery commitment - mmmmm must act on that!

Good luck and keep positive!

Cheers

Frosty

[MickyD]

I guess that's always the problem with getting a car that's effectively built to order. The opposite is that if you're willing to take a car that's on its way here, but not sold, you can get it alot quicker. When I got mine I was offered a car with similar specs, but no xenon's and a woodgrain dash and could have had it in 2 weeks, instead of 3 months, and yesterday I was told there is a BRG MCSC arriving in about a month that's not sold yet (hmmmm.......)

[Frosty_Boy]

Spot on Micky.

The combinations and permutations of interior choices I'm told enter the 9 figures - brave move for a dealer to choose wood-grain but then again may be a cancelled order. Given that the MINI is so customised to the person who orders it it makes you wonder what discounts could be available to an informed purchaser who knows he or she is practically sacrificing choice that's offered to a grass roots order. Assuming they know that, but I guess there's a percentage of purchasers who just walk in off the stree and are convinced to buy the one on the floor.

Makes interesting thoughts regarding resale too!

Cheers

Frosty

[poki]

That is a pretty ridiculous wait time considering the trade in values BMW dealers are offering. Logically if they cannot sell new MINIs cause they cannot get them, they should be taking better care of the second hand market.

There seems to be a lot of people who simply cannot wait for whatever reason and they are walking away and buying something else. Its a real shame because a MINI is so much more than a car - it is a whole lifestyle if you want it to be.

[AndrewH]

Quote: Originally Posted by Slide-o-rama

August...7 months away...are you kidding me?

August!!! Jesus As others have said, try other dealers. There are some good ones in Sydney. Not sure about other people’s feelings but when I started looking into Mini's, I went to Alto BMW in Artarmon and they were really good. Also had a visit to the Alto service department and they were absolutely top notch.

[Magictux]

Slide-o-rama,

I sincerely am really sorry to hear about the August date. I didn't expect that and thought it would be May like mine. I spoke with the sales manager today myself and he told me the same info that you have reported...He didn't mention anything about August delivery though. He said he was really frustrated and they are making representations to the powers that be to do something about this situation.

As I've stated elsewhere my order date was 23rd December and it will be built March and delivered May. I sought a commitment from him that my car would definitely be a March build and there are a few behind me apparently...of which you are one I guess.

Please don't bump me off the list as Frosty suggests... I don't know what I'd do with my glove box organiser!!

Seriously though I thought of cancelling but this waiting business is really whetting my appetite..though I'll be pretty hungry after the wait.

Something else to think about is that August will come and go and you might regret not waiting...It's hard and it's wrong but it's how it is. Like Tony Soprano says, " What ya gonna do?"

Mick
Goulburn

[MickyD]

just remember, it's worth the wait

I never thought I'd be willing to wait 3 months for a car, but I think it makes it all the more sweeter when it arrives
(my previous car I picked up 8 days after ordering it...)

[ChilliRedS]

I ended up buying my MCS from unallocated stock on the boat. Didn't get a couple of things I would have liked, but I ordered on the 17/02/04 and drove it away on the 09/03/04.

[Slide-o-rama]

guys,

thanks for your suport and comments. I'm really going to take BMW to task over this. I'm hearing what your all saying and I agree with most of your comments in particular mickyd that 3 months is a long time to wait for a car...think what it must be like to be told you have to wait 6-7 months....for a +$50k car....

I will follow up other avenues as suggested, but the underlying problem is that any manufacturing process that takes 6-7 months from order to delivery is a joke imho. If my customers were asked to wait this long for a product to be delivered I wouldn't be in business.

If they can't meet production demand why introduce a cabio to complicte things even further? I really don't understand.

Thanks for listening guys and also for you feedback.

Anyone have a decent contact in BMW Australia? Or Mini Australia?

[minigolf]

Slide the trouble is Australia is such a small market, If the Americans are asking for more production slots where do you think they're going to come from, the smaller markets I'm afraid. That saidm if you were told April I can completely understand your anger.

It may not be what you want, but the suggestion of a used MCS may be timely, Rolfe just got a used MCS MC40 traded in the otehr day, has been with them for less than a week. It might be worth a look. I think it should be an okay buy, Cameron told me the owner traded the MINI and bought an M3. As you do!

Good luck anyway.

[Tit]

Quote: Originally Posted by minigolf

Slide the trouble is Australia is such a small market, If the Americans are asking for more production slots where do you think they're going to come from, the smaller markets I'm afraid. That saidm if you were told April I can completely understand your anger.

It may not be what you want, but the suggestion of a used MCS may be timely, Rolfe just got a used MCS MC40 traded in the otehr day, has been with them for less than a week. It might be worth a look. I think it should be an okay buy, Cameron told me the owner traded the MINI and bought an M3. As you do!

Good luck anyway.

I think I have a photo of that car:

You'll have to change your name to Rod though

[IML337]

try a Sydney dealer

[play fife]

Slide,

I waited almost 4 months for my cooper, im not sure i could wait 8 months, maybe its best to buy second hand.

I know my next car MINI or not will be second hand, there is some good deals out there on second hand cars.

My advice, just take a look around see whats on offer before walking away from the brand that is loved so much ' MINI '.

Daniel

Ps: If you do decide to walk away, what will you be looking at buying ?

[Slide-o-rama]

well guys finally after much messing around, discussions with a number of dealers and great deal of help and assistance from Babes through these forums, I have finally cancelled my previous order with the local dealership and placed another order for the same spec car with a Sydney dealership that are able to get me a car in May!

So finally I feel like I'm getting somewhere and the Mini of my dreams is only a few short months away!

Thanks to everyone for your support, advice and offers on second hand cars. I look forward to meeting you all on some runs and track days in the near future.

Cheers,
Slide-o-rama

[poki]

Congratulations If you need to know anything about tracking your order around the world there are a few of us that have done it that can assist.