[Nezil]

Originally Posted by Motivate

I think perhaps they want to make sure I can afford the car? But still seems a bit strange since I already told them I got a lower rate with my bank and they did not offer anything lower.

So they should have a production number even if they don't know the build week yet? Is that even possible, secured allocation but don't know when the car will be build?

I was given an order number about an hour after I agreed to place an order with my CA. As others have said, you don't get your VIN until after production starts, which is about 2 weeks before the production completes, the week number of which you should also be given by your CA.

I believe, though I'm not sure about this, that the CA doesn't have a production number for you until the order is assigned to you on the BMW system. Like I said, it took about an hour to get this over email, and once I did, I could see that my name was also assigned to the order.

I think it's possible that each dealer is given a certain number of allocations, which at that point don't have production numbers. Once the order is placed, a production number is generated, and a production week is estimated. You can change the build until production starts, so maybe some dealers spec them themselves initially and then have order numbers to hand, and if they wait to place the order until they have a customer this doesn't happen. This seems logical, but I don't know if that's exactly what happens or not.

Every dealer is different, but I didn't even have to hand over any money to place my order. I filled in a form with my credit card details, but was never actually charged. My CA told me that it's not legal to have a non-refundable deposit, so it's sort of meaningless, running the charge has a small fee associated with it, and that particular dealership just doesn't do it. I also didn't need to run a credit check.