Abercrombie, I’ve worked in the Automotive manufacturing industry for 40 years.
Yes, going back to the late eighties,macrame we’re built and stored in fields for stock waiting to be called by the dealership.
That all changed with the implementation of Japanese Lean Manufacturing.
Now cars are built to order, but are constrained by the requirements of batch painting for example,where you paint a colour when enough orders for tgat are inputted.
Manufacturing works with suppliers on a 12 week cycle,m4 weeks actual build, 4 weeks tentative build,4 weeks raw material call.
A car has a build cost, which then is better with higher spec cars, you can see that far east manufacturers don’t have large options lists, as this causes money {even down to the wiring harnesses having to be specific today to save weight) now seems to be being followed by VAG.