I'm not the world's most patient person, I know, but isn't a 12 week wait a bit excessive for my new car?
I can accept maybe there's a bit of a delay because it's a popular car, and maybe it takes about a week or two to get it through the factory line and finished off, but that would only account for about six weeks, and surely it can't take another six weeks to get here from mainland Europe?
At the risk of sounding like a three year old on a long journey, why does it take so long?
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PG
What are you buying? Two possible answers:
1. you're at the back of long queue
2. they take some odd, and long, holidays in Europe.
JH
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1. A VW (Yes, I confess, I couldn't bring myself to order the Skoda, sorry!)
2. No, they promised me it would leave the factory before the summer break, but now they've told me it wont be here until the first week in August.
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The drought has affected this years crop. :o(
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Just be glad you aren't buying a new Transit van - back in 2003 I had to wait 4 months for such a van to be made and transported from Turkey (I think).
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Drive Your Way - If anything can, TerraCan
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1. A VW (Yes, I confess, I couldn't bring myself to order the Skoda, sorry!)
Thats the summer break for VAG in Germany
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12 Weeks is the usual quote time for a car which allows them time for the car to get ordered/confirmed/entered into production system/built/tested/transported to docks/lost/found/shipped to Zebrugge by mistake/reshipped to Grimsby/Collected/Transported/PDI'd/Fueled/Lost/Found and finally handed over. It usually happens in that order too. Most often we quote 12 weeks to be safe and have the car inside 10 (I work for a VAG dealership during the summer).
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I should clarify that losing of cars is not commonplace and rarely happens, I added that for humourous purposes.
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A factory can only produce so many vehicles a day and they will be ordered in other countries, not just the UK...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Right this is the sort of schedule for building a car
Week 1 - You place order with dealer, dealer then orders car with factory.
Week 2 - Order slot is confirmed with factory
Week 3 - Waiting for build slot
Week 4 - Waiting for build slot
Week 5 - Vehicle put into production
Week 6 - Vehicle comes out of proudction
Week 7 - Vehicle transported to a holding yard near dock
Week 8 - Awaiting boat to be loaded
Week 9 - Vehicle transported from country of production to UK
Week 10 - Vehicle arrives in UK and placed in holding yard.
Week 11 - Vehicle transported to local dealer
Week 12 - Vehicle PDi'd and valted ready for collection.
This is only a rough guide but you get the picture. Some vehicles that require shipping from the likes of Japan can take even longer as the boat trip can be between 4 and 6 weeks. Also most european manufacturers close for annual holiday for between 2 and 4 weeks in August.
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How long does the production process for one car take? My guess would be three hours. Any industry insiders out there with the facts?
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It takes quite a bit longer than 3 hours to produce a car - takes roughly a week to go through most factories from what i remember.
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Really - even in a highly automated modern factory? That genuinely surprises me.
Cheers.
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It takes quite a bit longer than 3 hours to produce a car - takes roughly a week to go through most factories from what i remember.
Hmm lets see- Off a big production line (100,000 year) there is say 15 cars an hour dropping off the end. If a car takes a week to build there are (168 hours x 15 cars) 2500 cars in production, at 4 metres long each car, the line needs to be 10km long.
So a week is too long.
The Model T was built in 98 minutes
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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PG, I hesitate to ask fearing the answer, but you haven't got another ghastly Polo have you?
You have often seemed quite sensible in a way. That's why I ask.
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My father once visited the Vauxhall factory at Ellesmere Port and from flat metal sheet to completed car took about 24 hours. This was a few years ago.
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A week on a production line??
I visited the Astra assembly line at Ellesmere Port a few years ago and saw the process. From a bare body shell to a complete car took about 3 hours, but most of that was just putting together sub assemblies. The engine was already on the subframe and the dash was all built up etc. The body had been put together a day earlier and had it's paintwork baked etc, so a couple of days in total.
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Depends if we're talking assembly or total time to manufacture. For example, I've been to the Bentley assembly line in Crewe and it definately takes less than a day to assemble a vehicle. Of course bodies are shipped in from Germany over night, engines built elsewhere on site, etc. i.e. this is definately assembling vehicles.
One thought for the long delivery time... I believe they might batch particular models so they might say do a run of Golf GTI's rather than a mix of GTIs, 1.6, TDIs, etc. That's what seemed to happen when I ordered my last car (a Ford mind) because the ordering dealership told me they had identified when a batch of my chosen model was being built and if I got my order in quick I could get one - which I did.
When I last ordered a VW (Passat), I sat down in the dealership so they could see if there were any cars in the system with build dates that could be alterered to my spec. Basically the production line will have some cars that are built to standard spec without anyone ordering them. If one of these is intercepted by the dealer early enough in the cycle, the spec can be altered (colour and options) and you get the car earlier.
On a positive note, when I got my Golf GTI back in '99, the dealer phoned up to say it was ready some 5 weeks early. Seems mine was built before the summer shutdown afterall. So PG you might not have to wait the full 12 weeks.
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Right this is the sort of schedule for building a car
So each activity however small takes a working week ?? In this age of e-commerce, web based transactions etc, obviously the motor trade is still stuck in the 1960's when it comes to logistics. I can accept a couple of weeks for the shipment of the car, as they are being built further afield these days. In the case of VW/Audi I've always thought the delay was a deliberate ploy to keep punters on tenterhooks !! and thus want the product even more !
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If it's being made to order then it may contain some parts of which there is little or no stock at the assembly plant. Carrying stock on the offchance that it might be needed costs money. Nowadays parts aren't ordered until they show up in the production schedule. I think its known as just in time or JIT for short. This might make delivery a bit longer for "made to order" cars but it keeps down the selling price.
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L\'escargot.
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Blue you forgot
Week 12 - Sent to body shop to repair transit damage after bumper car fest in holding pen
Week 13 - Bodge job at body shop
Week 14 - Return to local dealer
0.0000004 seconds - Vehicle PDI
0.5 seconds - place grubby greasy fingerprint on rear headrest fabric
5 minutes - fit first 12,000 mile gremlins.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Week 12 - Sent to body shop to repair transit damage after bumper car fest in holding pen
Presumably you base this on your latest vehicle.
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L'escargot.
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Any wise-guy who says that XYZ have seen a car built in just 24 hours is plain wrong.
This might be how long it takes to assemble a car on a JIT production line. It takes significantly longer if you must factor in pre-built and assembled components like engine, gearbox, dash, light clusters, wheel assemblies etc, etc...
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SWMBO's Touran took 11 days from order. Sales man found an unordered one to our spec on the production line.
Most of the time taken was delivery. We then added a few days as we wanted to collect on a Saturday.
This reminds me - the 18 month interest free credit card we used to by the car on runs out in three months!
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Manufacturers will build a batch of estates,then sedans,then coupes etc. and remember your's is RHD-they don't build them very often as so many of the parts are not common.
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Not really jc2. Any decent manaufacturer will be able to put a saloon down the line next to a coupe. All the components going into the car will be sequenced anyway. Very little sub-assembly work goes on trackside (As little as possible)
RHD / LHD doesn't matter one jot to a good manufacturer. All that happens is that a RHD IP is sequenced instead of a LHD. First tier suppliers will sub assemble the key components beforehand and ship them in via a broadcast (an order of making the vehickes and the specification)
A high volume car will go on the start of the track and come off the end about 16-24 hrs later. A low volume car will have a slower running track so will take 24+ hrs.
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My car is a Golf, and this thread has turned out to be really interesting - I can picture him on the production line now (and yes, I have named him already)!
I didn't add anything unusual like an ejector seat, or even a sunroof. I added a luxury pack with all the swivelly mirrors, automatic lights and rain sensing wipers though, but I would be surprised if most people didn't add that as it's only an extra £150 on top of what you're already spending.
Lud, I never owned a *ghastly* Polo, so I'm not sure how I could be getting another one. ;)
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I never owned a *ghastly* Polo, so I'm not surehow I could be getting another one. ;)
I was misled by yr handle PG... Don't tell me you aren't a girl either!
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No, she has a 'lovely' Polo!
I'm sure she is very fragrant....
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Manufacturers can make any car at any time. When they were testing the systems for RHD A3s they were being built at the same time as LHD ones.
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PoloGirl, will your new handle be GG now then?
Giddy up!
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Do you have any evidence for this?
When I went to the astra assembly plant, there were all sorts rolling off the line together, LHD, RHD, estates, saloons, hatches etc.
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Right this is the sort of schedule for building a car
Now what shocks me is the first two weeks. In the age of computers, placing an order, and confirming should be able to be done within half a day, certainly less than 2 weeks :-o.
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12 weeks does sound excessive: when I got my A4 in 2004 they said 8 weeks, and 8 weeks it was to the day. I can only assume it may be something to do with holidays in the Fatherland - or are they making some of them in South Africa, as they did the Mark IV?
Are you having a 3-door? If so they could be made only sporadically as they are less common.
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Pologirl, you made the wrong choice!
The Fabia vrS is brilliant!!!
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Pologirl, you made the wrong choice! The Fabia vrS is brilliant!!!
Perhaps she/he does not want a tart's car!
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The vRS is brilliant yes, and if I'd been paying with my own money, it would have been the car for me without a doubt.
However...
1. I have to keep this car for four years and the vRS is already a pretty tired model.
2. On the test drive is didn't feel that brilliantly put together, although it was great fun.
3. There was a £2.00 difference in the monthly lease price between the Golf and the Skoda (something to do with the enormous volume of Golfs they lease), and you get much more 'stuff' on the Golf.
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