dealer production allocation or first come, first served?

[jkr]

Sorry, guys. I did a search but couldn't find anything quite on this topic:

Does anyone know whether dealers are allocated production slots that are then filled by special orders? Or is it just first come first served and you fall in at the end of the line for bmw when you order your car? Seems like people ordering from different dealers get different build weeks and they dont seem to be sequential... thoughts?

[///M Rakete]

Originally Posted by jkr

Sorry, guys. I did a search but couldn't find anything quite on this topic:

Does anyone know whether dealers are allocated production slots that are then filled by special orders? Or is it just first come first served and you fall in at the end of the line for bmw when you order your car? Seems like people ordering from different dealers get different build weeks and they dont seem to be sequential... thoughts?

Dealer's get allocations based on their demonstrated sales volume and how much BMW wants to push production of certain models. Allocations can be "flexed", for example a 328i coupe can be changed to an M3. Allocations can also be reconfigured (options changed) until they switch to production status. Allocations can also be traded between dealers just like cars can be traded while they are on the water or in stock.

It all depends on how many allocations your dealer has, whether they can be flexed and/or reconfigured, whether they are for stock and can be assigned to you or they are already tagged for some other customer. Allocations are opened towards the end of each month for production during the month that follows the next month (i.e. 5-6 week later).