# Planning in advance



## 108598 (Feb 5, 2008)

Hey everyone:

Is it possible to get an exact week for PCD? If I decide to do PCD it will be in 2012 as that is the only time I can plan more vacations through my employer. 

The drawback is that I don't have the liberty to change vacations around after two months prior to my planned vacation. And if delivery date changes then I am out of luck. My vacation weeks are pretty much etched in stone two months prior to the weeks I take. 

What are your experiences with delivery dates, ordering and planning to the exact detail?

Thanks!


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## black_fx_35 (Dec 18, 2010)

What type of vehicle are you going to get? Not that it matters, but an X3, X5 or X6 (that is built in SC) is probably a bit more controllable than a vehicle that is built outside of the states. And by "a bit more", I don't think it is 100% controllable, but you may have more flexibility there (less risk to not get the time that you want). Having said that, PCD is based on first come first served. When you order a vehicle, your CA should have some indication to the build date, and thus when it will be in production. They then put a request in to the PCD folks to determine a pick up date (First come first serve). The PCD folks will send your dealer a potential date, of which you confirm if it works for you or not. If it doesn't, you provide a few dates that do work, and they check to see if it fits their calendar. This is my understanding of how it works for US built.

For vehicles built outside of the states, there are other variables that come into play (time on the water, time in customs, if there is damage it would need to be fixed, etc etc).

Good luck!


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## GeorgeT (Jun 22, 2007)

If you order far enough in advance, your dealer should be able to schedule the build date and delivery date for the time you request. I ordered a 7 Series in late Dec. '06 for a late Feb. '07 PDC date and got the requested date with no problem.


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## need4speed (May 26, 2006)

As long as you are not doing an ED, and order early I would think they can work it out. N4S


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## JimD1 (Jun 5, 2009)

I ordered in late May and took PCD on July 21, 2009. My bimmer was at the Performance Center about 3 weeks before I got it. I could probably have had an earlier performance center delivery if my sales associate was more on the ball. If you order your vehicle well in advance and request your dates well in advance, you should be OK. Sometimes there is a delay at customers that people doing ED complain about. I don't know if that affects all imports on a random basis or what. That is a pretty low probability, however. Another factor is the day of the week. Mondays and Fridays are apparently more popular. If you schedule far enough in advance you should still be OK but it is apparently easier to get a date in the middle of the week. (I am 1.5 hours away by car and my vacation is very flexible (but my customers are not always) so I didn't care much what day of the week we did it). 

If you leave plenty of time for fabrication and delivery to the performance center, you may pay for your vehicle an unusually long time before you get it. My dealer wanted paid in June, for instance, when the car got to the performance center even though he knew I was not getting delivery until July 21st. A couple weeks ahead so they can get the paperwork together is necessary. But if your car sits at the performance center for a month, for instance, you may be asked to pay for it a month ahead of your performance center delivery. This is no huge issue, IMHO, but doesn't feel quite right when you go into the dealership and give them a bunch of money then wait three weeks to get your car (in my case).

Jim


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## need4speed (May 26, 2006)

For an ED they *will not *schedule a PCD until the car clears customs. For an order that is not Ed they can set up the PCD much, much earlier, before the car is even finished at the factory. N4S


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## I-Won-Today (Feb 21, 2007)

As others have stated, it all depends on the vehicles scheduled build date and what dates we have available. The delivery date is controllable to a point, but with plenty of variables that can affect it. With current shipping schedules and timelines, on average below are the timeframes it takes from the build date until the first date we can offer for delivery at the Performance Center.

*Vehicles Built in Europe:*
- 7 weeks from build date on average.

*Vehicles built in South Africa:*
- Can't schedule these until they have an ETA for a port in the US. Typically this will only give you about 4 - 5 weeks of notice.

*Vehicles built in US:*
- 2 weeks from build date on average.

*European Delivery Vehicles:*
- Can't schedule these for re-delivery until it is processed by Customs and the BMW VPC at the port (about 2 weeks of notice).

Hope that gives you a better idea for planning.


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## 108598 (Feb 5, 2008)

I-Won-Today said:


> As others have stated, it all depends on the vehicles scheduled build date and what dates we have available. The delivery date is controllable to a point, but with plenty of variables that can affect it. With current shipping schedules and timelines, on average below are the timeframes it takes from the build date until the first date we can offer for delivery at the Performance Center.
> 
> *Vehicles Built in Europe:*
> - 7 weeks from build date on average.
> ...


Thanks so much for everyone's input. Just for clarification:

Cars built in U.S. are typically delivered in two weeks from start or end of production?

Cars built in Europe are difficult to plan so there is not really a way to plan my vacation for a week in August 2012 and really expect it to fall during that week. If it is possible, then how far in advance will I have to order it?

I am planning on a 5-series in spring/summer 2010, but have not ruled out an X5.

Thanks.


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## eyesight1 (Oct 23, 2010)

We ordered our car on October 23 and asked for and got a PCD date of January 14. We were told not to make final plans until 3 weeks prior, but we arranged our vacation around this date anyway. There was enough lead time to get it right on schedule and we took delivery yesterday. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. Those scheduled early in the week had a day of 2 delay because of the snow storm in the South. If you took a week off and allowed a bit of "wiggle room" time it should work out. Hope you can make arrangements. It is a fantastic experience.


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## 108598 (Feb 5, 2008)

eyesight1 said:


> We ordered our car on October 23 and asked for and got a PCD date of January 14. We were told not to make final plans until 3 weeks prior, but we arranged our vacation around this date anyway. There was enough lead time to get it right on schedule and we took delivery yesterday. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. Those scheduled early in the week had a day of 2 delay because of the snow storm in the South. If you took a week off and allowed a bit of "wiggle room" time it should work out. Hope you can make arrangements. It is a fantastic experience.


Thanks, that sounds pretty encouraging. So it seems to me that I should order about 3 to 4 months ahead of my vacation. I will take two weeks off and plan for it at the beginning of the two weeks. That way if there are any delays it might not be too bad.


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## eyesight1 (Oct 23, 2010)

The day we ordered the car the CA contacted Spartanburg and reserved the date. The next day we received a confirmation from the CA as well as the PCD people. We were warned to not make final arrangements until 3 weeks ahead of time. However since we used a one way rental we had flexibility. We also gave ourselves a 3 day window in case of weather. Of course since we planned for possible issues we didn't need them. If we hadn't planned this way there would have been a problem. 

I would say you have a 97 percent chance of no problem


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## I-Won-Today (Feb 21, 2007)

jzcrna said:


> Thanks so much for everyone's input. Just for clarification:
> 
> Cars built in U.S. are typically delivered in two weeks from start or end of production?
> 
> ...


You're more than welcom for the help.

Everything is from end of production. If planning for an X5, I personally would take a week off the 3rd week after the end of production just to give some breathing room.


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## 108598 (Feb 5, 2008)

I-Won-Today said:


> You're more than welcom for the help.
> 
> Everything is from end of production. If planning for an X5, I personally would take a week off the 3rd week after the end of production just to give some breathing room.


Jonathan:

Sorry to revive this old thread, but if a vehicle built in Germany has a 7 week build schedule, is it possible to take PCD at around 10 weeks just to be sure that the car is there and ready?

I would be willing to wait for a couple of weeks after the car is ready just to have a guaranteed slot.

Still contemplating PCD in August 2012.

John


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## ahimanic (Nov 15, 2007)

If you are ordering a vehicle that is produced in Spartanburg and it's around the model year change over month, delivery date may be a bit uncertain.

My 2012 X5 was produced in April (change over month for X5) but its realease was held up for a while due to pending EPA approval for the new model year.


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## I-Won-Today (Feb 21, 2007)

jzcrna said:


> Jonathan:
> 
> Sorry to revive this old thread, but if a vehicle built in Germany has a 7 week build schedule, is it possible to take PCD at around 10 weeks just to be sure that the car is there and ready?
> 
> ...


They'll let us hold a vehicle on property for 2 weeks, so I can safely safe you could plan for delivery around 9 weeks. They may be able to do the 10 weeks, but would require permission from the port to hold the vehicle there longer.

Let me know if you need anything else :thumbup:


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