Mk8 Orders

[gjm]

I ordered a GTD beginning of November 2021, order was only accepted by VW in December, and so far I’ve had 4 changes to provisional build dates, and it is currently sitting at provisional week 36 with “estimated” delivery in October.

Looking on Autotrader, not the best gauge of what is happening though, I don’t see anything other than Life & Style models being offered as Brand New with the occasional R-Line showing. Almost nothing counted as high performance (GTE, GTD, GTI, R) and no diesel models.

I would love to know what the factory is actually building with those limited components and for which market.

 

[Golfbat]

According to the dealer I spoke to they seem to be prioritising volume models. He said that all the performance model orders are being repeatedly delayed. However, I take anything he says with a bucket of salt.

 

[gjm]

I think all the manufacturers are struggling but I get the feeling that VW is doing particularly badly. I looked on carwow the other day, and the lead time for Golfs is stated as 52 weeks, whereas a 1-series BMW is 18 weeks.
Maybe VW is just being more honest!

 

[SRGTD]

According to the dealer I spoke to they seem to be prioritising volume models. He said that all the performance model orders are being repeatedly delayed. However, I take anything he says with a bucket of salt.

Not the case with the performance model of the Polo; the GTI.

Forum members over on uk-polos.net forum who’ve ordered a new facelift Polo GTI are getting their cars in around 6 months from time of ordering, and that includes a 6 week sea transit journey from VW’s Uitenhage plant in South Africa which is where RHD Polos are built.

 

[wwo]

Not the case with the performance model of the Polo; the GTI.

Forum members over on uk-polos.net forum who’ve ordered a new facelift Polo GTI are getting their cars in around 6 months from time of ordering, and that includes a 6 week sea transit journey from VW’s Uitenhage plant in South Africa which is where RHD Polos are built.

Does a confirmed build week include shipping or not?

 

[gjm]

Does a confirmed build week include shipping or not?

The confirmed build week is just when they start actually building the car, then you add on 4-6 weeks for them to complete build and ship it across.
That is if it’s not a partial build as they have reported as doing, build as much of the vehicle as they can with the components they have, and then it goes into storage awaiting the rest of the components.

 

[SRGTD]

Does a confirmed build week include shipping or not?

The confirmed build week is just when they start actually building the car, then you add on 4-6 weeks for them to complete build and ship it across.

^This.

From memory, the stages in a car’s build journey are;

• Customer orders vehicle and the dealer inputs customer vehicle order details into VW‘s ordering system. Historically, it has been possible for dealers to give a reasonably accurate estimated build week at this point, but the impact of events outside VW’s control means it is currently very difficult - if not impossible - to do this.
• The order is accepted by the factory. VW order all the parts / components from their suppliers that are required to build the vehicle.
• Once VW have received confirmation from their suppliers of availability and delivery dates of parts / components, the vehicle will be allocated to a specific ‘confirmed’ build week. Historically notification of confirmed build week used to happen around four weeks in advance of the actual confirmed build week. Once a vehicle’s build has been confirmed, no further changes can be made to the vehicle spec; if the customer does want to make any spec changes, it is then treated as a new order - so effectively moving to the back of the queue.
• Vehicle build commences.
• Vehicle is moved from the factory and awaits transit to the UK.
• Transit stage begins. Length of the transit stage will depend on location and distance of the factory from the UK and the mode(s) of transport used.
• Vehicle arrives in the UK.
• Vehicle is transported to the dealership and undergoes PDI prior to collection by the customer.

 

[gjm]

^This.

From memory, the stages in a car’s build journey are;

• ….

I had this from ages ago, guessing the process and factory codes are still valid or similar;
Factory codes:
00 = Assigned to factory order no production week scheduled
10 = Factory ordered with production week scheduled
20 = Factory ordered production week confirmed
30 = In transit from factory
36 = Vehicle in port of exit – not released
38 = Vehicle in port of exit – released to shipping
39 = Vehicle on ship
40 = Vehicle arrival at UK port
60 = Dispatched to Dealer
70 = Vehicle arrived at Dealer

 

[SRGTD]

I had this from ages ago, guessing the process and factory codes are still valid or similar;
Factory codes:
00 = Assigned to factory order no production week scheduled
10 = Factory ordered with production week scheduled
20 = Factory ordered production week confirmed
30 = In transit from factory
36 = Vehicle in port of exit – not released
38 = Vehicle in port of exit – released to shipping
39 = Vehicle on ship
40 = Vehicle arrival at UK port
60 = Dispatched to Dealer
70 = Vehicle arrived at Dealer

I think they are.

When I ordered my current VW in Feb 2020 just before the start of the pandemic, VW’s tracker was up and running at that time, although IMHO the accuracy of tracker information was questionable and the speed at which it was updated was notoriously slow which begged the question ‘why have a tracker at all?’. I think the impact of the semiconductor supply issue was the primary reason VW took the tracker off line in an attempt to reduce the number of queries from customers on why their car’s build status didn’t seem to be progressing.

As you said earlier, BMW do seem to be better at managing their vehicle builds - either that, or they‘re being overly optimistic. Having said that, historically BMW consistently seem to have had shorter lead times than VW. I waited seven months for my current car - Covid added around four weeks to an initial six month lead time indicated by the dealer at the time of ordering. By contrast, my brother took delivery of a new car (not a VW) a few months earlier that, from memory, took just over two months from time of ordering to getting the car.

So maybe VW aren’t a good example of German efficiency, and / or perhaps the volume of customer orders is significantly higher than some other manufacturers.

 

[wwo]

I think they are.

When I ordered my current VW in Feb 2020 just before the start of the pandemic, VW’s tracker was up and running at that time, although IMHO the accuracy of tracker information was questionable and the speed at which it was updated was notoriously slow which begged the question ‘why have a tracker at all?’. I think the impact of the semiconductor supply issue was the primary reason VW took the tracker off line in an attempt to reduce the number of queries from customers on why their car’s build status didn’t seem to be progressing.

As you said earlier, BMW do seem to be better at managing their vehicle builds - either that, or they‘re being overly optimistic. Having said that, historically BMW consistently seem to have had shorter lead times than VW. I waited seven months for my current car - Covid added around four weeks to an initial six month lead time indicated by the dealer at the time of ordering. By contrast, my brother took delivery of a new car (not a VW) a few months earlier that, from memory, took just over two months from time of ordering to getting the car.

So maybe VW aren’t a good example of German efficiency, and / or perhaps the volume of customer orders is significantly higher than some other manufacturers.

I think its hard to compare VW to other car manufactures in this regard. VW sells a larger volume of vehicles than many other car manufacturers (BMW being a good example of a premium brand with a lower volume and consequently shorter lead times) and Golf being their best sellling car I think it is fair to say that it was impacted more first by the chip shortage then by COVID and now by the war in Ukraine simply because of the number of components they need and cars they produce. That said the tail of orders was getting longer by the minute while they were still taking new ones leading us to our 12 month lead time today.

 

[MikeMK8]

I called my dealer this morning only to add more extras if my order wasn't locked yet, but they said that my order was locked and i would have to make a new order and lose my spot in the queue. Also said that no build week was assigned. Is it possible for an order to be locked without giving it an estimated build week?

 

[GMan22]

I called my dealer this morning only to add more extras if my order wasn't locked yet, but they said that my order was locked and i would have to make a new order and lose my spot in the queue. Also said that no build week was assigned. Is it possible for an order to be locked without giving it an estimated build week?

I think it only becomes locked once a build week has become confirmed

 

[GMan22]

This was is my confirmed build week (week 17) yet I emailed my dealer asking if build was in progress and they replied saying “no update yet but still showing this week, keep fingers crossed”. If this was the confirmed week shouldnt it already have started now?

 

[wwo]

I called my dealer this morning only to add more extras if my order wasn't locked yet, but they said that my order was locked and i would have to make a new order and lose my spot in the queue. Also said that no build week was assigned. Is it possible for an order to be locked without giving it an estimated build week?

According to my dealer you can modify the order until the cars build week is confirmed. So unless your car got a confirmed build week I think it should be possible to modify the order. That said it is not advised to do so if your car is nearing the provisional build week since modifying the order this late can and most likely will lead to delays.

 

[gjm]

According to my dealer you can modify the order until the cars build week is confirmed. So unless your car got a confirmed build week I think it should be possible to modify the order. That said it is not advised to do so if your car is nearing the provisional build week since modifying the order this late can and most likely will lead to delays.

Maybe they are locking them early due to the recent price increases, and adding extras on now with the new prices makes more work for the bean counters.
Even though no build week has been assigned, I’m guessing there is (various) waiting queues and I would be wary about any changes which could push you further back.