I ordered an X1 last week. The first dealer that I spoke to said that delivery would be around 3 months (which I didn’t believe) but the dealer that I ordered from (who I trust more) said that X1’s are taking up to 6 months at present. They are hoping to give me a very provisional build date next week.
Personally, I don’t buy the conspiracy theories that Motability orders are being sold to retail customers. What I think is far more likely is that dealers are taking orders when they don’t have any build allocation slots. This is common practice and why I always ask whether they still have build allocation slots available for the particular model that I am interested in before placing an order. If they don’t I go elsewhere and if they say that they do then I stress that the order is conditional upon them giving me a tracking number within a week.
It is quite common for dealers to tell people (retail as well as Motability customers) that they have ‘ordered’ the car when in reality they have just done the paperwork. They will then have to wait until the next month or even the next quarter before their build allocation slots open up again before they actually order the car with the manufacturer. This isn’t unique to BMW. Volkswagen dealers are just as bad, if not worse. I would put money on the fact that any dealer who is unable or unwilling to provide a tracking number has not yet ordered the car and is waiting for build slot allocations.