# 2 Months for a 'd' to get into Production?!?!



## ace sierra (Dec 12, 2010)

I went into my BMW dealership the first weekend in December, to place my custom order 335d. At the time, I was told by my CA it would take 8-10 weeks for delivery (west coast). Everything at the time went smoothly, and I thought (at that time), I'd be ready to drive my new diesel-powered torque monster home in a few weeks.

Well...it's been almost 7 weeks now, and I'm still waiting for my damn production number. I've asked my CA on many occasions what the hold up is, and I keep getting the run-around. "Very soon", or "shouldn't be much longer", "the diesel is a limited production, that's why it takes longer", blah blah...

So, my question is, does it seem normal for a special order 'd' to take almost 2 months (and counting) to get into production? How much longer should I expect to wait? Did any of you guys who custom-ordered the 'd' have the same issue? I posted to this board a similar question in thinking the BMW Munich plant closure(?) could have something to do with it, but that assumption was nixed by other forum members.

To me, for a car to take this long to build and deliver (could be 4 months!) is pretty ridiculous. I know BMW is a very popular car, and special orders take longer, but this doesn't seem normal to me. Or maybe I'm way off, and this is perfectly normal and acceptable.


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## Jim E. (Apr 23, 2002)

ace sierra said:


> I went into my BMW dealership the first weekend in December, to place my custom order 335d. At the time, I was told by my CA it would take 8-10 weeks for delivery (west coast). Everything at the time went smoothly, and I thought (at that time), I'd be ready to drive my new diesel-powered torque monster home in a few weeks.
> 
> Well...it's been almost 7 weeks now, and I'm still waiting for my damn production number. I've asked my CA on many occasions what the hold up is, and I keep getting the run-around. "Very soon", or "shouldn't be much longer", "the diesel is a limited production, that's why it takes longer", blah blah...
> 
> ...


First question is what do you mean by "custom order" and "special order"? Are you talking special ordered options which are not part of options generally available to customers? Or are you talking about a BMW Individual option or some combination of the two?

This would delay the order but I doubt this is your situation. Especially since you don't even have a production number for such a long period of time. This makes no sense to me since dealers know their allocations in advance. Getting a run-around for 2 months is unacceptable. It seems like they don't have the allocation and they are just trying to hold on to you until they have one.

When I place an order, my dealer tells me on the spot whether or not they have an allocation and I have a production number not too long after that. My delays usually involve special orders/BMW Individual options because they require special approvals. Hence my first question above.

Good luck.


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## JMK (Apr 6, 2002)

but doesn't the factory shutdown for a few weeks in January? That is why production is being held up...


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## Flyingman (Sep 13, 2009)

ace sierra said:


> I went into my BMW dealership the first weekend in December, to place my custom order 335d. At the time, I was told by my CA it would take 8-10 weeks for delivery (west coast). Everything at the time went smoothly, and I thought (at that time), I'd be ready to drive my new diesel-powered torque monster home in a few weeks.
> 
> Well...it's been almost 7 weeks now, and I'm still waiting for my damn production number. I've asked my CA on many occasions what the hold up is, and I keep getting the run-around. "Very soon", or "shouldn't be much longer", "the diesel is a limited production, that's why it takes longer", blah blah...
> 
> ...


Based on your timing I'd say you are about right. I ordered mine in Aug-Sep of 2009 and it was deleivered by end of Nov. Once you have a production number, it gets built pretty quick, shipped and delivered. Perhaps they are having a shortage of some key components, maybe the diesel engines?

The car is worth waiting for , believe me.:thumbup:


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## anE934fun (May 10, 2008)

The dealer took the order without having a production slot allocation. There was another BFer who was in a similar circumstance. No allocated production slot means any quoted time to get the car is basically a fairy tale. You can count 6 weeks from the date the car was built for it to show up at the dealer on the west coast (my d was built 9/15/2009 and was in the dealer's inventory on 10/26/2009), but absent a firm production slot, you have no way to know when the car is going to get built.

Absent an allocated production slot, the OP won't even be able to guess when their car is going to be built. No production slot = no car.


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## F32Fleet (Jul 14, 2010)

I've heard this with the diesels. The allocations are limited. Last year my neighbor told me the dealership said 4 months and this was during the spring.


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## SteveGu (Nov 3, 2010)

I'm voting with the idea that the dealer didn't have a build slot available.

When I ordered my car in late October, I was told by the salesman that his dealership might have one October build available, but also that it might be assigned by the time my order reached Germany, so I should expect a November build and mid-December delivery. 

In fact my car was assigned a build time on November 2, and finished November 9. It took another 5 weeks to reach the dealer (primarily sitting in Bremerhaven for 2 weeks), but this matched the dealer's estimate almost exactly.

My impression is that the dealer knows whether he has any build slots available for any given current/next month (at least), and that only an unusually greedy dealer would take your order without explaining this. Also, I heard no suggestion that diesels were allocated distinctly.


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## dunderhi (Dec 10, 2006)

Last Spring I ordered my 335d with very short timeline for EuroDelivery. We ordered 5 weeks prior to the pick-up date. It took them about a week to come up with a plan, but the dealer ended up giving up on of their planned production slots in order to make my timeline. The car went into production a week later, and sat for two weeks prior to my ED.


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## ace sierra (Dec 12, 2010)

Jim E. said:


> First question is what do you mean by "custom order" and "special order"? Are you talking special ordered options which are not part of options generally available to customers? Or are you talking about a BMW Individual option or some combination of the two?
> 
> This would delay the order but I doubt this is your situation. Especially since you don't even have a production number for such a long period of time. This makes no sense to me since dealers know their allocations in advance. Getting a run-around for 2 months is unacceptable. It seems like they don't have the allocation and they are just trying to hold on to you until they have one.
> 
> ...


I'm learning so much from these boards...

By "special/custom" order, I basically mean a "build your own" order. I don't think there was anything special above and beyond the "normal" build your own aspect of it.

My main concern is that I want the good deal I got on the car. I ordered during the Holiday Credit time, including $1500 HC, and 0.9% financing. Though I'd love, love, love to just tell these guys to take a hike, I don't want to start over and not get this deal...so I'm kind of stuck.

I'm going to contact my CA tomorrow and basically demand the real story, and tell them if they can't give me a realistic timeline, and the same deal we agreed to, then I'm walking away. I'll just hope BMW continues to offer the $3500 eco credit and order again (from another dealer) when they offer financing deals again...

Thanks for everyone's input, it's too bad I'm learning all this stuff after the fact. It would have been great if I could have asked some of these questions when I initially went in there...


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## 03BMW330 (Nov 30, 2002)

ace sierra said:


> I'm going to contact my CA tomorrow and basically demand the real story, and tell them if they can't give me a realistic timeline, and the same deal we agreed to, then I'm walking away. I'll just hope BMW continues to offer the $3500 eco credit and order again (from another dealer) when they offer financing deals again...


deal with general manager or sales manager don't even bother with SA.
I don't think anyone want to loose sale, problem is allocation ...or you are extremely unlucky that holidays + shutdown has slowed everything down.


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## ace sierra (Dec 12, 2010)

So after finally telling my dealer and giving them an ultimatum, they magically found an allocation slot for me, and my car finally has a production number. The paperwork I got says the status is "111 - Order accepted at AG", which I assume means BMW officially has the order and will begin production soon. I've called the 800 number in which you can track the vehicle production status, and for the past few days, it simply says "the order has been accepted for production with no estimated completion date" or something like that.

So the question is, how long does it normally take from this phase to being fully built and ready to ship? What kind of timeline for various "benchmarks" should I expect? I'm sure this has been asked many times before, so I apologize if this is a redundant question.

Thanks, I look forward to finally getting my damn car!


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