Reading all these posts about BMW delays (mine being one of them) I have arrived at the somewhat qualified conclusion to declare that the delays are purely due to the dealers sales practices.
During pre covid an X1 or pretty much all new car orders would take on average 3 months from order to delivery, give or take a few weeks dependent on which country the car was manufactured.
My X1 order was placed mid April with estimated delivery Aug/Sept. In august and with no communication from the dealer I enquired to a progress update on my order to be informed that my order was due to be built in the second week of December, which if true would represent a waiting time of approximately 8 months. Three weeks after I had placed my X1 order I introduced my niece to the same salesman/dealer and she subsequently privately ordered a new X2 M-Sport with a projected delivery for September which would be the same time as my X1 was anticipated. Both cars arriving at the or around the same time would appear correct as both the X1 and X2 are manufactured in the same manufacturing plant in Germany.
My nieces X2 arrived in Mid August! Further enquiries with my order with the BMW online Genius confirmed that my original order was cancelled and a new one submitted under a different order number which was news to me and something I was not aware of. I duly contacted the dealer and requested to speak to the sales manager. After a short period of being held on the phone I was met with the voice of the salesman with whom I purchased my X1 from. Clearly any contact with the sales manager was to be avoided?!. The salesman proceeded to express his apologies and blamed brexit, covid and anything else he could think of. He also confirmed that my X1 was now scheduled for wk49 build. Asking him why it was taking eight months for my X1 to be built and only 3 months for my nieces X2 he became lost for words, so to save him further embarrasment I finished my call and contacted BMW Genius to ascertain when my new X1 order was placed, which would indicate the true extent of the games these dealers are playing with Motability orders.
Unfortunately, the BMW Genius could not provide me with any details relating to when my revised X1 order was placed so I requested that my concerns be made a complaint as I believed that the dealer was being dishonest with my X1 order.
I exchanged my details with BMW CS and they confirmed that they would contact the dealer and contact myself within two working days. Five working days passed with no contact so I duly contacted BMW CS again only for them to confirm that the dealer had not responded to their requests for information on my order. They duly contacted the dealer whilst I was left waiting on the phone only to be given the old excuse that the sales manager was in a meeting and so I was advised that the BMW CS advisor would follow up his enquiries and report back to me as soon as he was in receipt of a reply from the dealer, a telephone call which I eagerly await.
To conclude, I believe that due to the minimal profits that salesmen make on Motability sales coupled with the unprecedented demand for new cars from all manufacturers, the dealers are shuffling Motability orders back in place of more lucrative private orders in order to fill their contractural obligations. If you know anything about how the sales business model works in a dealership then you would understand my thoughts and opinion on why so many Motability orders are still outstanding and subjected to lengthy delays. It is purely due to dealer and salesman profit margins and greed!
What are other forum members thoughts?