Just had an interesting phone conversation with dealer. I asked him when my car was ordered n he said the day I put the order. So I asked if he had a order tracking number n he just gave me my motability number. I then asked if the dealership was prioritising private buyers n he said no of course not, then after 5mins of him waffling on n told him in the last few days I’ve been seeing a few new mokka’s on the road when I haven’t seen any before now n he finally said they could possibly be getting retail vehicles out first n said I MIGHT get it in February. ?
If the dealer isn’t giving you a manufacturer’s order number then that would be a big red flag for me. A Motability order number means next to nothing, it’s purely admin and means that Motability have agreed that you can order the car. The car is only ordered when the dealer places it with the manufacturer and that’s an entirely different process.
Sadly, this forum is full of customers who have been waiting an eternity for cars and in the vast majority of cases a large part of the delay is down to the dealer not having build allocation slots, so they sit on the ‘order’ for weeks or months before they can actually place it. When customers say “I ordered x car 6 month ago”, the truth is most likely that they thought they ordered 6 months ago when, in reality, they did the paperwork with the dealer 6 months ago but the car was only ordered 4 months ago. I have only ever come across one car salesperson who has been 100% transparent about this and I have used her twice. Once for a private purchase and most recently for our current Motability car.