The annoying thing for me is that dealers always seem to tell you what they ‘think’ you want to hear rather than them telling you the truth, unpalatable as that may be.
That is so true, unfortunately. Dealers get away with it because the vast majority of customers don’t understand the concept of build allocations and understandably think that they have ordered a car when the dealer gives them a form to that effect and (if required) takes a deposit. Sadly, in many cases, it can be a month or, in extreme cases, several months before the actual order is placed with the manufacturer. Once they have the ‘order’ the dealer hopes that the customer will stick with them as, by the time the customer realises that the dealer has gone very quiet for a month or two, there would be nothing to be gained by cancelling and going to another dealership as they would go to the back of the queue again!
The added problem that we have at the moment is the semiconductor chip issue which is causing extended lead times for the majority of manufacturers. Many dealers (and some manufacturers) aren’t being up front about how this is affecting lead times as they are worried that customers will go elsewhere. Having implied that the customer will get the car in “a few months” in order to secure the order, they will then tell the customer a few months later that there is a delay, implying that this is new news!