In case you wanted to order a very specific '19 Miata, wow, quite a wait!

So I've been talking with one of the dealers here and my very specific color/trim/option combo I desire. 

Said there is not one in the states at the moment. If we ordered one, best case scenario is 13 weeks out. 

Back in 2012 when I special ordered my Mustang GT..........order placed to dealership was 5 weeks. I'm assuming a big chunk of that is the Mustang is made in America at a much higher volume, and the Miata is made overseas at much lower rates.

I want a '19 GT Roadster, manual, black with black top, Nappa Auburn interior and GT-S package. 

It takes time to sail across the Pacific. Mom just ordered a Forrester, will be here at the end of February.

Yep, exactly.  I work with suppliers in Taiwan all the time, and it takes a good 6+ weeks door to door from Taipei to CT.  

I.e. the actual lead time vs. the Mustang isn’t all that different.

In a past life, some years ago, I worked at a Ford dealership it often took 2-3 months for factory orders.

The Miata is a low volume vehicle, so I believe they have productions runs that occur at certain dates. The next production run might only last for 2 weeks and occur months from now.

Yep, its probably the boat ride. 

Just ordered a very specific 2019 BMW X5,  5-6 weeks to build/deliver and that is mostly due to the holidays, otherwise it would have been 4-5 weeks. 

Dude.  It took nearly 10 months for my Focus RS to arrive from when I ordered it, including the 2 weeks for the recall they needed to do at the dock.

So, maybe a few weeks wait isn’t the worst thing in the world, eh?

I'm guessing a bunch of those 10 months was due to demand and a backlog of orders?

3 months is basically best case for a special order of a car made overseas.  The Audi that I bought a few years ago was ordered in Feb and delivered in July.

Worth the wait imho. That sounds amazing, and a factory unique car is a special thing. I may be biased, as I love my ND in highly inappropriate and sometimes illegal ways.

As stated above, it's purely shipping times. Once the VIN is allocated it's pretty quick to be produced. most of the wait is the slow boat, then the port installed stuff in California, then transport by train to your closest hub. then final mile transport by truck to your local dealer. 

Also, mazda dealers only get to place orders once a month. 

It kinda sucks to wait but the flip side is you're getting exactly what you want and there's something to be said for that.

My dad just bought a new 4 series BMW.  It was also a factory order and took about 7 weeks from order to delivery.  The trip across the Atlantic is much shorter however.  I order quite a bit from Asia and 6 weeks by boat is fairly common.

SWMBO ordered her Durango earlier this year, think it took about 5 weeks from the day we ordered to the day it arrived. Don't settle, order exactly what you want, don't want to dislike your brand new toy.

13 weeks really doesn't seem that long to make a car and ship it halfway around the world, IMHO. Especially a $30k car that's possibly the best sports car of all time.

Transpacific voyage time should be +/- 2 weeks, so most of that wait is either waiting for them to build it or the car sitting somewhere waiting to be taken somewhere else.

Either way, congrats, what a great car and color combo!

Stefan said:

Dude.  It took nearly 10 months for my Focus RS to arrive from when I ordered it, including the 2 weeks for the recall they needed to do at the dock.

So, maybe a few weeks wait isn’t the worst thing in the world, eh?

Well yeah, but didn't they do things like randomize how the orders were filled and such?

I'm just suprised that they wouldn't build the awesome color combo I want anyway. 

Dave M said:

Transpacific voyage time should be +/- 2 weeks, so most of that wait is either waiting for them to build it or the car sitting somewhere waiting to be taken somewhere else.

 

Either way, congrats, what a great car and color combo!

Haven't ordered it yet. I'm going to go by sometime in the next week or so and talk specifics. 

We will give you X for your trade-in in December, may not be the same number if the car arrives in April. So I want to see how the Sales Manager intends to handle something like that. And they may not be willing to give me what I want for trade anyway, which will kill the deal before it starts. 

You can get it here in 36 hours, but I have a feeling it would be quite expensive. 

That's not too bad. We just ordered a new couch and they told us it will delivered in 6 weeks. Its coming from NC. And I'm in SC 

13 weeks sounds about normal for an ordered car built overseas.  I ordered my 2003 TDI wagon in Feb 03 and it arrived in May.

Wait until December if you want a ‘19 amd find a dealer getting ‘20s on their lot.  I’ve learned this lesson the hard way over the years.  Never buy the newest latest and greatest anything unless you are willing to burn a pile of cash.

AnthonyGS said:

Wait until December if you want a ‘19 amd find a dealer getting ‘20s on their lot.  I’ve learned this lesson the hard way over the years.  Never buy the newest latest and greatest anything unless you are willing to burn a pile of cash.

Dealers in my area still aren't even getting '19s yet, between both dealers in the OKC metro area they've had 1-2 roadsters and a 1-2 RFs. The '20s won't be released for quite a while.

Certain Tesla Model 3 configurations are still a year out...

In reply to chaparral :

That's because they never plan to built those configurations. It's a totally different story. 

^ I suspect they hope to build the cheap model 3s, but it's sort of an aspirational goal. If the company gets on solid financial footing, has tons of sales, gets quality under control, launches some additional crossover models, etc and they get to the point where they want to chase volume, the $40k 3s will get built. etc. If you think about it, when they're at maximum production capacity and there is demand for more expensive variants, why would you build a cheap car? To do so would be to literally throw away profit.

Snrub said:

^ I suspect they hope to build the cheap model 3s, but it's sort of an aspirational goal. If the company gets on solid financial footing, has tons of sales, gets quality under control, launches some additional crossover models, etc and they get to the point where they want to chase volume, the $40k 3s will get built. etc. If you think about it, when they're at maximum production capacity and there is demand for more expensive variants, why would you build a cheap car? To do so would be to literally throw away profit.

This is 100% correct.