[swamos]

My Fellow Australians,

My dealer shunted back my estimated delivery time today by at least a week. Apparently my S is still on the dock, and has been since the 29th.

How long can it take to get a car off a boat, get one of Basil's mates to sniff it for drugs, and send it to a dealer on the Gold Coast (1hr from the Brisbane port). I'm starting to worry that it's been damaged, and the delay is to allow the paint to dry.

Can anyone tell me how long it has taken from the time the ship docked with your Mini, to the time the keys were in your hands? Three weeks seems like a long time.......

[Spazz]

Sorry about the delay Steve. Sure its just a case of the dock being a bit busy.

My dealer, or maybe BMW (if thats where he got the date from) has added 15 days from landing to estimated delivery. I think this could be a little pesimistic. A fella at work had a car arrive at the dock on monday, Ill be sure to tell you how long it takes his to be delivered, but Im sure you will have yours by then!

Hang in there mate!!

[Spazz]

Just checked your cargo status and it says the car was "discharged" on the 29th, I think this means it left the boat, and it was then "delivered" on the 2nd, which I hope means to the transport company who take it to the VPC. So I think it may have left the dock, but I am only guessing.

Anyone know exactly what "delivered" refers to??

[swamos]

Thanks Spazz for looking this up for me. We had an aniversary on this weekend, so were really hoping to have the car as arranged, so had booked accomodations etc. This suprise delay caused some consternation.

My dealer did offer me a Cooper for the weekend, but I think it's all too much hassle. We'll just take the Lotus, lots more fun. Less aggrevation

[Spazz]

Who knows, you still might be in luck, and if not, I think the missus will be relieved, cant have the new baby taking all your attention away from her!

Congrats on the anniversary, enjoy the weekend!!!

[swamos]

Quote:

Originally posted by Spazz
Who knows, you still might be in luck, and if not, I think the missus will be relieved, cant have the new baby taking all your attention away from her!

Congrats on the anniversary, enjoy the weekend!!!

Actually, it's as much if not more her baby!!!

[Basil]

How frustrating.....

Where's snoopy when we need him.

[swamos]

Quote:

Originally posted by Basil
How frustrating.....

After being told "don't ring us, we'll ring you" yesterday, It is now becoming apparent that I'll be lucky to pick it up by the end of next week.

That means that the car will have been in Brisbane for nearly three weeks before we get it. And that appears to be best case. I'm speachless.

BMW are you listening? NOT GOOD ENOUGH.


Aaaah, now I feel better.

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by swamos

After being told "don't ring us, we'll ring you" yesterday, It is now becoming apparent that I'll be lucky to pick it up by the end of next week.

That means that the car will have been in Brisbane for nearly three weeks before we get it. And that appears to be best case. I'm speachless.

BMW are you listening? NOT GOOD ENOUGH.


Aaaah, now I feel better.

Thats ridiculous. My dealer is adamant that my car will be an August delivery (to me that is), and the Ship does not arrive in Brisbane until 16th August !!. The dealers know by now how long it takes to get the cars, as the Cooper's have been rolling off the docks since March '02 !!.

[snoopy]

Hello did some one call me.

Sorry can't give you facts. But I can say that it normally takes about three days for the Car to get off ship then go thru VPC (on site at the docks I think or the holding yard off to the side) and then on to the dealers.

Now SE Qld dealers have been getting stock for the last few days. (Seen car leaving dock area and have also seen new cars at some dealers).

When they get to the dealer they still have to do most of the prep work. All that is done for them is I believe is the car has the protective wax and sticker taken off the paintwork and the cars fitted with the ARD complaint plate.

The dealer has to then do the rest. Which can take up to 20 hours to do if no faults are found.

So I guess you will have to wait, after all it not better getting car with out all the little problems than getting one with the problems, because it was rushed thru PDI.

[Sejanus]

Different country I realize, but over here while most cars seem to roll from dock to VPC in two or three days at least three of us had our vehicles sitting on the dock for 8 or 9 days.

[swamos]

I don't want a car that has been rushed through Pre Delivery. However, I still think that two plus weeks just to travel 50 minutes to the dealer is ridiculous.

The thing that I can't work out is how BMW can afford to have pre-sold cars sitting around waiting to be delivered. I guess I've known this all along, but they must have heaps of financial fat in their operation.

A friend of mine works for another well known brand, and he says that they can't afford to leave pre-sold cars sitting at the dock.

The only thing that's keeping me from panicking about damage is that a guy at work had a peugot on the same boat, and his hasn't turned up either.

[Basil]

I checked in with my dealer today (about the central gauges) and he confirmed between 5 and 10 days from docks to being ready to pick up.

[snoopy]

True it would cost a lot of money just to have cars sitting around. But looks like their happy to do this under the current conditions. Must be the cheaper option for them.

[Basil]

Well, MOST people have been waiting nearly a year for delivery, a few more weeks on the dock is hardly going to affect their financial situation, in this case anyway. A LOT of UK customers are only waiting a few weeks for their cars, so I guess thats where BMW aare getting their cash flow from. Although I should imagine the MINI concern would be like petty cash compared to their BMW vehicle operations.

That said, they should be letting Steve know what the problem is. All their non-actions create is ill feeling. MINI have a LOT to learn in this respect. These little cars are SPECIAL, and consequently their potential owners should be treated accordingly. There is little evidence of this that I've seen on these boards.

[dsc68]

I was talking to my dealer today about the delivery date and all he could tell me was 'sometime in November'. When I told him about the tracking feature on the MINI USA website he thought it was bizare that anyone would want to follow the production of their car. I don't think MINI quite understand the type of cult following that has developed - it definitely has little to the with the various fashion accessories they've made available. Which is ironic because my dealer also sells LandRovers and they have a cult all of their own.

My Mini is NOT a fashion accessory.

[Darryl]

With regard to cars sitting around in dealers yards, I was taken to a dealers holding yard to look at colour combos not in the showroom, while no MCS were present there was maybe 10 coopers, unsold, just sitting around.

[rich]

Quote:

Originally posted by Darryl
With regard to cars sitting around in dealers yards, I was taken to a dealers holding yard to look at colour combos not in the showroom, while no MCS were present there was maybe 10 coopers, unsold, just sitting around.

Anyone heard anything about sales levels in Aus? I get the distinct impression that the Cooper isn't selling well here

I think the main problems are:
- Price / value-perception, due to..
- Lack of strong marketing launch, and...
- Preference for more grunt. Plus...
- Maybe some suspicion over this being another New Beetle

Which is a shame cos it's a good car, and it's true virtues seem to be being overlooked

Sadly, I think Australia more than many markets is a bit one-dimensional in terms of performace criteria, judging mainly on the kick-in-the-back of straight-line acceleration. One can speculate that this may be due to the fact that we are one of the most urbanised countries in the world, so most driving is done on city roads, stop-start, bumper-to-bumper. This tends to make people a bit trigger happy at the traffic lights, looking for brief moments of freedom when they can floor the throttle... "Handling" rarely comes into it

[PghArch]

Rich, I'm confused. What do you mean that Australia is one of the most urbanized countries in the world??? I was under the impression that it was by and large empty really. Do you mean that a greater proportion of Australians live in cities? When I hear urbanized I tend to think of land use...

[dsc68]

Something like 80-90% of Australia's population live in the major cities along the coastline. Only a very small proportion live in the country (> 100km from the coast).

The standard Aussie sports car is the family sedan or ute fitted with a V8. Pure straight line performance is the goal. The European concept of a well balance sports car has never really been popular here. The main car racing championship here experimented briefly with a two litre format but quickly changed to the current dull V8 format because the main Australian manufacturers, Ford and Holden, didn't stand a chance against the European imports.