LOL.. Ain't that the truth!

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better I didn't get any sort of confirmation that it was being built till last week. So I was really worried the dealer didn't take my preference order seriously.

What I do to keep busy and keep me excited about the car is to do research. I looked up TSIBs so I can be informed, decided on most of my personalized settings, have a good idea of what mods i want on the car and so on and so forth.

Good luck on the wait and enjoy it when it arrives!

 

My special order was placed:
6/15
My special order was received:
10/12
Didn't get word of anything until 9/29 when I learned what ship it was on.

 

Did you know at the time that it will already be an '07 model, or you ordered it as an '06 then ended up with an '07? How were you notified that it will be the next year's model already?

Thanks!

 

I was trying to order an 06 in April but they stopped taking orders for 06s and hadn't opened up 07 special ordering until June, which was when I placed mine.. This year it is much better. You can already order 08s for the IS as of like 2 or more weeks ago.

 

That's funny I was quoted 4-6 months (190 days) which has kept me from putting in the order. They say that no matter when you put the order in, there's no way I would get mine ahead of the dealers and that they aren't expecting the 2008s on the lot until the middle or end of September. That's four months from now. Then they say it will take some time to build so they tack on some more time and come up with their 4-6 month estimate. That's horrible. I can't imagine getting this car in the late fall which is already winter for user northerners which is the reason I've held off, but I just may have to bite the bullet.

 

Does that mean that ALL special orders placed in the past 2 weeks are automatically '08s? I didn't want to special order, but my local dealer is having a hard time finding an IS 250 AWD with the Lux Pkg, even though I gave them 4 color combos I'd work with. They special ordered, but are still looking. That would not suck ending up with an '08.

 

I was told factory changeover is the end of this month or the first week of June, so if your 2007 isn't built by now...well it's likely it'll be a 2008 which is great, but you won't see it until sometime during the fall which is not so great. Special orders get the bottom of the barrel treatment. The other thing that surprises me is that they won't release details about whatever it is you're ordering. I tried, but they wouldn't tell me if the color I wanted would be available (which is the #1 reason I'm ordering in the first place), or what options would be available (yet another big reason I am special ordering). So what exactly am I paying for? They claim that they don't expect a lot of change from the 2007s, but that some colors and options may not be available in 2008. I want a red IS350 with ML, but IS350s are hard to get around here, let alone a red one, and no 350s come with ML in this area to begin with. So am I special ordering a car only to find out that red gets dropped from the color list and I get a black one which I could find without waiting 4-6 months? Does anyone know how that works? I am a little nervous about putting down a deposit and buying a car sight unseen and without any spec from the dealer as to what I'm getting.

 

Ordered mine in march 06, and it arrived in july. The dealer was pretty accurate about its arrival period, and had notified me at different stages of progress.

 

Shinobi, what did you pay over invoice if you don't mind me asking? I am looking for almost that exact same package except in red. I have a feeling I'm going to get pinched for MSRP because my dealer's a jerk with a smile and has gone so far as to require a $5k non-refundable deposit, which is complete BS since they won't even tell me what it is I'm ordering as I posted above. They can't do that can they? Essentially what they're saying is we won't tell you what you're getting, you'll get what we give you, and oh yeah give us 5 grand now that you can't get back so that you don't screw us. Sounds like I'm the one getting screwed!

I once had an Audi A4 special order. I am blown away to this day how smooth that process was even though it was about four or five years ago now. It was the same situation since I only buy cars in the late spring or summer, end of the model year, and I ordered in July at the model year changeover and had the car by mid-August and no crap from the dealer as if they are doing me a favor by letting me buy the car from them.

 

JD

I special ordered my Red/Black IS350 w/Lux +18", ML, ((XM)), spoiler, on March 1st. I put down 1K, non-refundible. I am paying 1K over invoice.

Mike V

 

I hesitate to mention this as I can understand the pain that a lot of special-order owners must be going through. So my apologies in advance... I waited 3 hours for my special order IS 350 to be delivered.

Call it absolute luck, but during my test drive with the dealer I listed everything I wanted on my new car (and I went nuts as this was a made-to-order gift from my wife). The dealer said, "Oh, with all those items this is probably going to take 6-8 weeks." So he got on his cell phone, re-listed my order to his guy. The next thing out of his mouth was, "Well, this is a new one on me... the exact model and specs you asked for are on a flatbed on the way to our dealership. That never happens... do you want it?"

To this day when I walk in the dealership, the salemen know me as the guy who got exactly what he wanted in under 3 hours. I'm still thanking my wife for this wonderful gift.

-Gary

 

You just didn't know it, but actually your wife ordered it for you 4 months in advance, and she just wanted to surprise you. The dealer even told me so.

 

I ordered mine 11/05 and got it 03/06. I called the dealer once or twice during the wait period to see what's up and I'd always get the same response: "It's still in the works...we'll let you know as soon as it arrives." During the wait, I got about 2 calls from the salesman to give me an update.

The funny thing was that the wait didn't seem too long to me because 1) I already had an existing car that I love to ride around in and 2) I wasn't on CL yet. I guess for those of you that are really impatient and can't wait, it doesn't help any not having your car and going on here to see posts after posts titled "Got my car!, My new ride!, etc etc." I think I would be impatient too if I had seen this back then but I didn't so the 4 month wait wasn't too bad.

 

I'm not 100% sure but it's probably the case. They have the 07s already booked until the 08s launch(all the way until Aug) so if you special ordered it would most likely be an 08 but wouldn't be built until Aug for an early Sept delivery. If your special order was 2 weeks ago it is probably a coin flip but if you ordered today it would for sure be an 08.