4 month wait for X3's?

[Thunder22]

Lexus Fights

BMW, the world’s largest luxury-car maker, aims to grab market share this year backed by the overhauled X3 SUV, which is 3 inches longer and 1 inch wider to appeal more to U.S. drivers. The Munich-based company has a four-month order backlog, forcing some customers to wait as long as half a year for the $36,750 SUV, Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer said May 4.

[captainmorgan702]

Yep. We are pumping them out as fast as we can... Spartanburg can only handle 450 a day currently but will up that to 500 at the beginning of October.

[KenH]

Mine ordered two weeks ago is scheduled to be built next week.

[AzNMpower32]

If you think that's bad, the queue for European buyers now stretches into early 2012 at this point. I'm surprised BMW isn't allocating more models for the European market as opposed to the US.

[KenH]

Actually I got a note today from my dealer saying that production started this week.
But bear in mind this is really a car that my dealer ordered for their own stock and then changed the specification to meet my particular needs. The US car market is primarily one where customers buy "off-the-shelf" so they need to have a lot of stock. Today my dealer has 104 new 3-series cars in stock and this is a quiet time - how many dealers in Europe have anything like that quantity?
In the UK even when I bought a new BMW that was in stock (rare as they had so few) I was told to come back in a few days whilst it was "prepared'. In the US you expect to buy it and drive it home half an hour later.

[LeMansX5]

BMW to run its factories above capacity this year

[mrbmwx5]

Originally Posted by captainmorgan702

Yep. We are pumping them out as fast as we can... Spartanburg can only handle 450 a day currently but will up that to 500 at the beginning of October.

Your products SUCK.My sister X3 ( three months old) had only 4k miles on it ,and been in dealer for 8 times.....Two broken window regulators and TONS of X-mass lights are on every freakin days.

[X5Sport]

UK Dealers can't afford to keep any stock as they have to pay for them and in a lot of cases the dealer lot just is't big enough to hold any large numbers. One dealer I used to use had a deal with a local supermarket to use 30 spaces and it cost them $20,000 a year - and had to be cleared when the dealer was closed! There is also the issue of pre-registering where the car has plates, is taxed and the warranty clock is running but the car is unsold. In all the years I have been buying new cars, I have never bought one out of the showroom as they have never had the right spec. BMW GB options don't tend to be in packs. Some items are, but a lot aren't and so that means most cars are built to order.

Very few UK Motorists want a forecourt car unless it's a used car, or its a non-luxury brand so comes with very few options anyway. The UK 'norm' is a built to order. If you're buying a luxury brand then unless it's a fleet buyer/operator we expect it to be built to order to our own spec. That applies to BMW, Audi Group, Mercedes, Jaguar, Lexus etc etc.

I think I waited 10 months for the E53 in 2005 (would have been 14 months without a Dealer build slot and Diesels were also a special order vehicle then), 10 weeks for the 2011 E71 X6 (three of which was the boat bit) and 6 weeks for the (2005) E46. All of which were built to order.

Our Austrian build Mini Countryman 2.0SDX is taking three months and is only a few hundred miles away by land! That too is a built to order. Huge demand for that model is extending lead times. A new order now will be a 2012 delivery.

[AzNMpower32]

I strongly prefer the car selling strategy in the rest of the world (ordering it to spec, waiting for delivery) but Americans see cars differently than the rest of the world. It's like a white good (appliance)- when you go to the hardware store and buy a fridge, it's expected to be in stock and inventory. Similarly, Americans see cars like appliances and expect their choice to be ready for immediate delivery upon selection.

If/when I can relocate overseas, I'll do it.

[KenH]

As someone who has lived in the UK and the US (and someone that has bought quite a lot of new cars including 27 BMWs and 12 Porsches) I have to say that I much prefer the American commodity approach with "instant gratification". I don't think now that there is any production car made that I would wait four or more months for, i will buy something else instead.
Of course a side-effect of the commodity approach (or maybe it is causal) is that cars here are generally much cheaper than in Europe, even if they are made in Europe.
I am not at all sure that UK motorists do not want to buy in-stock cars, rather it is that they don't have much choice in the matter as there are hardly any new cars in stock there.
Pre-registering in the UK is a complete nonsense, a bit like biannual "new number plates", thank goodness they doesn't exist here.