Da Hapa

Does anyone know how long it should take for me to receive delivery of a new S if I have to place an order to be built with the factory. My dealership told me 90 - 120 days which seems quite long given the fact that my best buddy just ordered and received a new M3 from Germany in about 8.5 weeks.

Your help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

S2k Dude

No dealer can "order" an S. They are allocated so many units. A dealer may be able to request a specific color from the factory but in that situation he would still be pulling from his allocation. My guess is that the dealer doesn't have anything coming in the color you want. They get weekly updates but they never know exactly what they are getting until it shows up in the computer.

Station

I placed a deposit on mine on October 19th. I just took delivery yesterday, so what your dealer told you sounds about right. Faukengenius, a member here, put a deposit on one on the same day I did...right after me. His will arrive by the end of February/early March.

Da Hapa

First off, thanks for the responses to date.

I thought that I'd give a little more color to my original question.

My dealer's GM told me that his next allocation included the S in the color that I wanted. He also told me that he wouldn't be able to take a deposit, work out a contract, or anything else until he had an actual VIN for the car. All of which sounds reasonable to me. I was a little thrown off in that he wasn't able to give me any kind of a solid time frame for receiving a VIN and/or receiving the car.

I've already bought two cars from this dealer in the last year. I don't think that he's screwing me, but I'm a little nervous about the time line. As it stands, I am fortunate in that I don't need the car, but I'd like to be able to have a more concrete time line to work from.

Again, any thoughts/insight would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

S2k Dude

Da Hapa, it is probably different in CA but here in Georgia you could have any color you want within 30 days. Most dealers have a few on the lot and if they on not the color you want you would just need to shop around a bit to find one a little outside Atlanta. Otherwise you may have to wait about a month for one to come in. There are even Suzuka Blues available, sitting on dealer lots!

This car is getting less rare all the time .

Utah S2K

Ordering and allocation are unrelated. The dealers are "allocated" a certain number of these high profit cars based on sales of other models. You can and should "order" a car if you are not in a hurry. An ordered car may have 3-5 factory miles on it while a "lot" car may have 20-40 (hard i.e. premature VTEC etc.) miles. The dealer will recieve cars randomly to fill their allocations unless they order one up. If they don't have the color you want they can swap ("lot car" for "lot car"). Average delivery is about a month. A high volume dealer will not take an order on this car as this is a "unit" which is tied up for a month. I remember last year when The General took delivery of his car with the protective paper all over it....great photos of him driving it home, paper and all.....that that's a virgin!

If you do order PM me the order and I can track your car through build and delivery. I have made several engineering friends in Japan in regards to this car. If you order your car will be delivered to San Pedro.

If the dealer says he can't order, he is only interested in inventory turns and not keeping customers.

Da Hapa

Hey guys, thanks for all the responses.

I have an offer to sell my silverstone/red that I don't think I can pass up. I want to replace it with a new S and am pretty convinced that spa yellow is the way to go. I'm just not all that warm and fuzzy with the way my dealer is responding. The GM told me that he "ordered" a spa yellow for his next allocation. As explained abovve, he hasn't been able to give me a definitive date or a VIN. I began this process two weeks ago today.

Maybe I'm just a bit of a nervous nilly, but I'm reluctant to sell my car until I have something more definitive in hand. (side note, I don't need the S and largely use it as a weekend car so not having a car for a month or two month period while the new one is being built, shipped, isn't a big deal).

As a current owner, I'm totally privy to the concept of getting the car fresh. My S has less than 30 miles on it when I got it but it was a dealer trade. Given the problems that I had (clutch gone in less than 3K) and the constant buring of oil, I am convinced that someone test drove the crap out of it. I don't want that to happen again.

Utah- I greatly appreciate your offer. If I can ever get a VIN, I will PM you. Thanks a ton for the offer.

As always any other thoughts, advice, etc. is greatly appreciated.

PS - S2K dude you are somewhat right. You aren't going to find dealerships flush with the cars here in S.CA. You will find dealers with one S on the lot if you come by at the right time. The problem is getting a car that hasn't had the dealer throw a bunch of crap on it that I don't want and making sure that some idiot hasn't blatantly violated the break-in procedure during a test drive.

MarkS2K

I was wondering why you were going to get another one. I thought you had crashed it or something. So, what color are you thinking of getting this time???

Da Hapa

Hey Mark.

No crashes (thank God). Found an interested party for my silverstone/red (probably since Honda isn't making any more) that will allow me to be more than "right side up" for my car. Given the fact that I want the glass window of the '02 and will have to put new tires on mine sometime in the next year or so, I think why not???

I have asked the dealer for Spa Yellow. It was between that and Red. Decided on yellow because, well, because I really like the car in yellow. Red is stil cool, though.

MarkS2K

Hey that's great to hear. I'll have to come check out your new car once you get it. Keep me updated on the situation.