New Car Delivery Delays

[goodlife]

I'm trying to oder a new car at the moment and Mercedes/BMW/Audi are all giving delivery times of "at least 6 months", stating that manufacturing is slowed due to delays in obtaining components from Japan - post tsunami.

Anyone else had this issue?

[Mr Obertshaw]

My dad was trying to order a Skoda Roomster for some reason! They have a 6-8 month waiting list apparently.

[J500ANT]

There's another thread on here about delivery delays, and that predates the Japan earthquake by months if not years. Dealers are using it as an excuse.

[LuS1fer]

As a result of the drain on light resources caused by DRLs, the speed of light has been slowed significantly.

[Tuvra]

I looked in to ordering a 370z recently, got told that Nissan could not promise a delivery date and expect anything between 6-9 months wait, and yes they said it was due to the situation in Japan.

[gherkins]

It's the run of the mill here in Germany - a friend here ordered a nothing-out-of-the-ordinary Golf and was initially told 3 months, then 6 months and then eventually told that they had no clue and could be more than 8 months. He cancelled the order and bought a Megane. Nothing to do with any natural disaster - just German "efficiency"!

Germans are not consumers and everything, from furniture to baby stuff, is never in stock and takes yonks to arrive. We learnt with our pram - told 6 to 8 weeks - took over 6 months - arriving only just in time! Wherever possible now we buy from the UK (cheaper anyway, even with postage) - a baby carseat took 3 days to arrive from Edinburgh and we saved 60 euros on the price in the shops here. Go figure!

[LuS1fer]

hora said:

I was told this about new Aygo's. Now correct me if I am wrong they are built in Europe with most of the common parts sourced from 1st and 2nd tier suppliers LOCALLY.

RE: Audi/Merc/BMW- yeah, how many suppliers for these companies manufacturer in Japan? Sod off.

I would imagine even the Germans use Japanese electronics??

[CarlT]

It is the components that go into the cars that are produced in Japan - such things as chips for Bluetooth systems etc. This shortage will hit the electronics industry as well...

Some colours of metallic paint are also affected...

[CraigyMc]

hora said:

I was told this about new Aygo's. Now correct me if I am wrong they are built in Europe with most of the common parts sourced from 1st and 2nd tier suppliers LOCALLY.

RE: Audi/Merc/BMW- yeah, how many suppliers for these companies manufacturer in Japan? Sod off.

• Whole gearboxes
• Injectors
• Turbos
• Sensors
• Electronic components for engine management, satnav, in car displays and radios etc
• Xirallic (metallic/pearlescent) paint for your BMW? (if so, you're basically fecked, since the only plant in the world -Merck- that makes the pigment is in Japan and it's closed.)
• Anything from one of the 36 Bosch plants in Japan

It doesn't matter if you can build 99% of the car if the other 1% of the bits come from Japan and the car won't work without them.

C

[CraigyMc]

hora said:

Bosch?

Or surely Japanese companies would have assemblies in China etc for that sort of thing.

Lets not forget the Jazz's production was moved to China.

Lets count the number of Bosch factories in Japan, shall we?

[Chrisw666]

CraigyMc said:

Lets count the number of Bosch factories in Japan, shall we?

Can we go over there like a field trip? We could stop somewhere for a few beers on the way.

[Kiltox]

VAG had stupid build delays before the Tsunami.

[Matt_N]

hora said:

Lets not forget the Jazz's production was moved to China.

Honda Swindon has just geared up to make the new Jazz.

Down to 2 days a week production though due to parts supply issues.

[waterwonder]

JIT production, a model perfected by the Japanese but one which is currently showing it's flaws. Almost ironically, in this case flaws highlighted by the plight of japanese suppliers.

This coupled with MFRs desire to manage supply vs demand. I.e they are no longer chasing volume as much as before. Revenue vanity, profit sanity!

Edited by waterwonder on Friday 6th May 10:02

[5potTurbo]

Ford's Genk plant in Belgium also has massive delays in car builds.
The tsunami in Japan had massive impacts not only on parts production but also car paint.

[Kiltox]

hora said:

Plus, Who the fk wants a Toyota Aygo that costs over ten grand new?

WHAT THE fk?

The C1/107 are like £6000, no?

[Evo]

Yes same here, we just ordered a new Qashqai which comes at the end of July, we actually wanted a +2 Qashqai but were told due to parts supply difficulty caused by factorys being damaged in Japan we would'nt get it until October time.

[davidjpowell]

I believe that you are currently not able to order a Mercedes with the basic radio package due to this. You can order with Comand (SatNav), but they are making people pay for it...

[goodlife]

davidjpowell said:

I believe that you are currently not able to order a Mercedes with the basic radio package due to this. You can order with Comand (SatNav), but they are making people pay for it...

This is exactly what I was told as well. But they were doing a deal on the Command Sat Nav.

[va1o]

Kiltox said:

WHAT THE fk?

The C1/107 are like £6000, no?

£6000 is the figure you will pay for a bottom of the range 3dr flat paint C1/ 107 after discounts negotiations etc.

For an Aygo or a better equipped 5dr C1/ 107 the list prices are around the £10k mark.