| Tracking DUCTTAPE II - The 2005 MINI Cabriol get's built! |
| I called Westchester MINI and spoke with Laurie sometime in July, 2003: "I want to Cabriol". No problem, except they haven't been released yet, no one knows the date, no one knows the price and no one knows how many will be available. Did she really think that was going to deter me? She wrote up the order. In May of 04, I went to Prestige in Mahwah, where I've had my MINIs serviced. Laurie had since left Westchester, and all the guys at Prestige are great, so I canceled the one order and placed another. Again, no price available yet. (This must be a car makers dream. People walking in and ordering a car not knowing how much it will cost. In all fairness to myself, I'm not a blithering idiot. I know the aproximate range and Prestige agreed to sell at "invoice". MINI is the only marque I have every bought that isn't at "cost", including my BMW 525i! But, at least I'm not in LA. There it's invoice, plus 20%, plus a year's wait.) I asked for late February delivery, after the Hudson Bay Arctic Run. Seemed like the wise thing to do. Yeah, I can wait. I moved delivery up to January. Then to, "when can you get it here?" Finally, the day came: 25/10/2004, at 4:48, they started building my MINI! |
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| Now, the wait. Ok, wait's over. It was booked with Wallenius Wilhelmsen lines before it was even made! On 04/11/2004 (November 4th) it was received at the Terminal in England, ready for transport. It is going to ship on the Jingu Maru, voyage EA-444-JGM |
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| Voyage Details for the Jingu Maru: Bremerhaven, Germany leaves November 4th Gothenburg, Sweden (gotta pick up those SAABs!) leaves November 6th ZeeBrugge, Belgium (gotta pick up that chocolate) leaves November 8th Southhampton, England leaves November 9th New York, NY ARRIVES November 17th! Baltimore, MD leaves November 20th Charleston, SC leaves November 22nd Brunswick, GA leaves November 23rd |
| (BTW, It's Hot Orange, like this page color) |
| This is an interesting article on a tour the LA BMW car club took of their local Vehicle Processing Center. Click the link. |
| November 17th, Jingu Maru lands at Port Elizabeth with my MCSC! November 19th, Augie at Prestige calls: My MINI is IN! |
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| Just waiting for Monday, until I can drive it home... |
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| Humma Humma Humma... I don't know what to say! |
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| 11 miles on the clock |
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| The Nav Ring |
| Under the Bonnet |
| This has got to be one of the world's best ad campaigns |
| Please click each of the above pics for larger images |
| Return to my main MINI page Return to my home page |
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| The Delivery! |
| It was a long weekend. Monday, November 22, 2004 I drove in with Jacob and everything was ready. If I haven't said it enough before on the boards, I'll say it again here. Prestige is a great dealership. Augie was ready, emailing me several times durintg the day. Dan, who had nothing to do with the sale, took time out to deliver the car to me. He went over all the paper work, which isn't a slight thing, and the predelivery presentation, which was, because I pretty much knew the car and wanted to drive. Billy, the service manager, rearranged some schedules to fit the prep into my pick-up timeframe. Even Amanda, who picked up the phone when I called said "David Rose? We're expecting you!" |
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| 1st look, second time Jacob and the plate First Sitting First dreams... dream on |
| Dan |
| Augie |
| The Ride Home |
| Hannah Approved! |
| Roberta & Hannah going for a fast drive, in the garage |
| Home |
| Please click on any of these pics for a larger, clearer image. The Hannah approved one is precious! |