It goes like this:
You place your order with us.
We input the order into Audi Inventory Management, labeled as 'sold' with your information. At this point, it is called 'IS Order Bank'
When that month's allocation gets decided, we tell Audi to pull your sold order. NOTE: Allocation is when Audi says 'hey dealer, you now get to order 12 A4s, 7 A3s, 6 S4s, etc etc on down the line through the model. Allocation happens once a month, and it isn't always at the same time. When we gets slots allocated, we assign sold orders first, then we use up any remaining allocation to order cars to keep for inventory.
Order get's 'pulled' and goes into status: 'Factory Order Bank'
At some indeterminate point, but usually within 1-3 weeks for a 'normal' car, Audi builds the car, and the status goes to: Production Stock At this point, the order can no longer be changed or modified. I don't know exactly how long it takes Audi to physically build the car, but no, it does not take a month. A car will usually only show Production Stock For a few days, or a week, and I seriously doubt it takes that long to actually build it.
The next step along the way is In transit from Factory. This can mean anything from sitting at the factory waiting to go on a boat, to already being on a boat and ready to dock. For us on the west coast, this is usually right at 30 days as the ship crosses the Atlantic, goes through the canal, and ports in San Diego.
Next comes Port Stock. Just like it sounds, the car is at the Port. This can be 2 days, or 2 weeks, depending on how busy the Port is. Cars marked 'sold' will USUALLY get processed first, but no guarantee. Occaisionally, a batch of cars can be marked Port Hold to be inspected at the port, software updates done, or any other reason.
There is TECHNICALLY a few more statuses that are exactly what they sound like, including Intransit Inland (which means that the car is literally on a truck and on it's way. More often than not though, even when cars are dropped off at our dealer, their AIM status still shows as Port Stock for a couple of days. That said, my dealer is VERY close to the port we take delivery from, so your mileage may vary there. In either case, Intransit Inland is the last step before Dealer Stock.
I've long wondered why a lot of you have such a hard time getting ordered cars, or suffer extremely long waits. Outside of very special cars (TTRS, R8, etc) it almost never takes us more than 90 days to have a car delivered from a fresh order. I can only guess that a lot of you are either working with dealers that have very limited allocation, or for whatever reason, your dealer doesn't give priority to an order marked sold. (NOTE: A dealer doesn't HAVE to assign sold orders to be built first, and it doesn't happen automatically. Audi's ordering system has a shortcut button to click that will pull all sold orders BEFORE stock orders, but the dealer does have to click it) Limited allocation is probably the major culprit though.
East coast gets cars quicker, mostly due to a much shorter boat ride.
If a dealer has a decent inventory pipeline, theoretically, they could ALMOST always modify a FACTORY ORDER BANK car to fit a customer's spec, so the customer isn't stuck waiting for the next month's allocation. Worst case, for a west coast dealer anyway, would be Wait for allocation (1-30 days) Pull the order (1 day) Sit in Factory Order Bank, waiting to be built (7-20 days) Production to loading cycle (7-14 days) On the boat (27-36 days) Port cycle (2-10 days) Transit to dealer by truck or by rail (1-10 days, depending on location) We can USUALLY eliminate the first step by modifiying a current Factory Order Bank car.
One last note:
The day an order is input, the Dealer has literally NO idea when to expect your car. The day AFTER the order, Audi will at least publish ESTIMATED dates of shifts into different status'. Audi's estimate though, will ALWAYS only be narrowed down to a particular week, and aren't always that accurate. As the order moves through the pipeline, the estimated get revised, and get more and more accurate.
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Originally Posted by PutTogether
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