Anyone else stuck in limbo? Ordered a Kia Sportage in March as the old car died. Assured verbally multiple times it would be 10 to 12 weeks, I took that with little pinch of salt but May has long gone. Official delivery date is 2 weeks in Friday which we assured it wouldn’t be anywhere near. Anyway with that deadline looming and radio silence from Kia I’m not optimistic.

Surely they must have some estimate of a delivery date. If the dealer had been honest in the first place we would have looked at other brands or bittenthe bullet and bought second hand. Trouble is having waited 5 months I don’t fancy cancelling the order just to start the whole process again. Is any manufacturer delivering in a reasonable timescale?

Can you not buy something ‘in stock’ for sort of next day or two ?

We’ve given up replacing our oldest car this year. I kinda feel that new Electric cars / tech will reveal themselves next year and perhaps an influx/surplus of 2022 orders cancelled might reveal some sales opportunities later in 2023.

There’s not much of anything in stock – hence the reason the used car market is so strong.

Most brands still have significant lead times – I have heard of people being quoted 12 to 18 months wait for VW and Porsche etc.

Can you not buy something ‘in stock’ for sort of next day or two ?

That’s what we’ve done in the past when we’ve needed a car quick.

They can usually search the dealer network and see what is sat around (cancelled orders etc). It may not be the exact spec or colour you want though.

If you want to spec every last detail you’ll have to wait!

We ordered from Kia in 2020 during lockdown and the dealer assured us that the car was on a ship at the time of ordering. They must have rowed it here because it took 2 or 3 months from memory, I was just glad that MoTs had been extended by 6 months at the time 🙂
After a few weeks I rang other dealers and the prices had gone up by a few £1000s. We waited

i think its the same across most of the industry currently.

I believe some Audi’s havent got a delivery date (RS3’s currently have no ETA if you order one).

I also heard that some manufacturers get parts from the Ukraine, which currently has some other agendas on the go.

And they are still recovering from the knock on effect of Covid.

So unless there is something on a dealers forecourt, as you say, if you cancel, you drop to the back of the queue. My only advice would be to call other dealers that might have something you fancy and ask for delivery dates. Although you will have to take the risk of truth vs trying to get the sale.

I bought a new Kia albeit pre covid era, I know the salesman at main dealer, I got mine on time. Sadly not many others do….they constantly tell porkies and know exactly what’s in transit.

With mine, they promised c 6 weeks. I wrote on contract failure to provide within this time they would provide a hire car.

Some of the excuses they come up with to other not so lucky customers are laughable.

Our neighbour has just bought a brand new 22 plate Merc. Not the model they wanted, but it was in stock at the dealer (cancelled order). As others have said, phone round a few dealers and ask what they have in stock for immediate delivery. An average wait of 12 months for most cars is just the norm at the moment

Our neighbours daughter ordered a Land Rover discovery this time last year.
The dealer was seemingly fairly honest and told her it’d be up to a year for delivery.
She was told the other week it was being built, and was shipped. It was the wrong spec so now another delay..

I think she’s brave (a) buying a land rover discovery and (b) having the diesel.

I ordered an Audi Etron through work lease scheme last month, scheduled delivery June 2023. Apparently much of the electronic kit is supplied from Ukraine.

Autotrader brings up a few dealers with brand new Sportage’s in stock
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/deals/kia/sportage

Ordered an Audi A4 back in October and was told it would be 10-11 months wait so August/September delivery. It is arriving at my house on Friday so 2 months early.

Bikes were stolen yesterday and I was quoted Feb 23 for a like for like replacement, so not just cars

Ask them for a loan car till your new one arrives. If they say no, cancel the order.

Agree with the above sentiments, find out what is in stock/on the forecourt and buy one of those.
Did that recently with Mrs SSS new car, went round the dealers only interested in what they physically had knowing ordering one was a non event.

Polestar 2 company car ordered, says Jan 2023, can see it being here till March 2023, based upon how others who have ordered the same have slipped.

It’s a bit of a horror show in the industry at the moment. The issue the dealers have, is that the ordering system will typically show a status that bears no relation to reality, so updating impatient customers accurately, is nigh on impossible.

A car can be ordered and allocated a build week, but component supply issues can knock that back and the system isn’t always updated by the factory. the factories will build what they can depending on what’s available, wiring looms are the big issue at the moment.

Conversely, cars that are supposed to be months away can suddenly turn up at port but then sit there for weeks as transport needs booking and there aren’t enough HGV drivers (Brexit, Yay!).

I know the popular narrative is that all car dealers are liars, but the reality is a bit more nuanced. Remember, they are paid on delivering cars not taking orders.

Is any manufacturer delivering in a reasonable timescale?

We bought a new car recently, we’ve had it for maybe a month or so now. Shopping round, every manufacturer without exception was quoting a 12-16 week lead time. 10 weeks sounds optimistic to me.

We got a Seat Arona, which is basically the mini-SUV version of the Ibiza. Seat told us that those two are basically the only thing they’re building at the moment, if we’d ordered (say) a Leon we’d be looking at around March next year.

A single issue can hold everything up. Back when I got a Mondeo, there was an abnormal lead time because Ford had run out of steering wheels. Right now aside from the obvious, the largest manufacturer of wiring looms is… Ukraine.

Surely they must have some estimate of a delivery date.

They probably don’t. IME it’s “computer says no” until it’s being unloaded from the boat, once it’s in the country it’ll take a couple of weeks to prep it up.

I have heard of people being quoted 12 to 18 months wait for VW and Porsche etc.

My sister ordered a Taycan last October with delivery date August 2022. This has now been pushed back to Q2 2023.

I ordered a Volvo XC40 recharge (new company car) at the beginning of April.
I’ve been quoted 12-Jan-23 as a delivery date… i’ll be amazed if it turns up on time.
My boss ordered a Polestar 2 before Christmas – its been put back about 3 times, the spec has been changed due to parts availability and its now forecast for November..

I’m very slightly concerned in an absolutely first world sort of way i.e. not really at all. The EV goes back in May next year, we don’t know what job my wife will have then or where it’ll be. If she ends up having to commute we’d like another EV but that may mean ordering one now.

The dealer will only know what the manufacturer tells them. This is usually a confirmation of build week, date of actual build and a shipping date. Delivery from shipping date is logistics dependent. The Sportage is made in Slovakia; in a normal world you’d expect 2-4 weeks from DOM to delivery at the dealer. However, some manufacturers are building cars to near complete then having to park them up while waiting for some final components to arrive then retrofit.

Ask the Kia dealer whether the car has been built, if not find out the build week and whether this is locked or still estimated. They will also have experience of time from build to delivery and what specs may be causing delays. Just ask some direct questions.

My mate ordered a Sportage around the same time and was told the same. He gave up and got something else when I think the date moved out to October I think…

I’ve just ordered a Taycan GTS, was told Q1 2023 but reading the above makes me more concerned. I considered 9 months to be a reasonable leadtime, but if Porsche are telling porkies to others then I’m worried.

I ordered an octavia estate in June…..2021. Still no idea when it’s coming. Skoda just keep extending my lease which at £112 a month I’m not over bothered about. Do find it ludicrous after this long but at the moment I’m saving money. My order is £189 a month and salesman told me if I ordered same model now I’d be paying double that and to hang on in.

Ordered a Dacia Jogger at the end of March so not long after they had been released. Salesman said it’s going to be 6 months – I haven’t heard a peep since and I suspect I won’t. I’ve only seen one on the road since then.

My word – you lot have a lot of patience!! 🙂

mjsmke
Full Member
Ask them for a loan car till your new one arrives. If they say no, cancel the order.

Posted 4 hours ago
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They’ll happily cancel your order and sell it to someone else when it arrives and make more money probably. So it just depends how long you can wait, bearing in mind that if you place a new order with another dealer the leadtime will be longer.

I ordered my new company car (PHEV) in Sept last year for Jan this year delivery. Still waiting for it – although I’m now considering cancelling it and ordering a new Renault Megane ETech. They’re supposed to be shipping customer orders this year which might be the same sort of timescale as the PHEV I ordered. Very much 1st world problems, I’d just like to reduce my company car tax while keeping my company car! 😀

Friend of mine waited 8 months for a new mini. At almost exactly 8 months he was told they can’t fulfil his order and will not be able to supply him a car. Deposit refunded.

My current company car lease is due to expire on 2nd Dec this year. Work has taken no action yet. So I guess I’ll be having my lease extended by at least 6 months. Which doesn’t bother me, my Octavia is a good car and has less than 30k miles.

Supply will not improve until late 2023, early 2024.

Unlike the other traditional manufacturers that build different models at the same time on the same lines,Kia/Hyundai build their cars in batches, much like Tesla does.

So depending on the trim/colour that was ordered, you’re just waiting in line for the next available space in that batch of colour/trim. Its good and bad as sometimes you end up with the car much earlier than anticipated, but the opposite is also true unfortunately.

Double edged sword for the motor industry at present i’m afraid. Been in a 2 hour meeting today discussing this very point.

On the one hand supply is a nightmare (Motor trade but not cars). We have delays of upto 12 months. Prices are going up every 4-5 months and support/discount levels are dropping at the same time. Selling 1/3 less product and having to maintain jobs means making 3 x as much profit.

SO…….do we advertise at current prices knowing we only have 1 or 2 examples in stock and once they have sold we will probably be looking at a 6mth wait minimum. Thats without the probable 20% price increase that will come with the later vehicles (Oh yes we have changed our order forms to include clauses now for changes to manufacturers RRP and discount structures AND including third party installations.

OR… do we advertise what the future price we think we will be charging (Crystal ball), tell people how long we honestly think they will take and then sit twiddling our thumbs whilst everyone else takes orders.

Neither is dishonest or wrong, its just that the unlucky ones end up waiting for ages and in our case paying a LOT more for what they sign for. I for one tell them they are basically paying for a place in the queue and we can revisit it when the vehicle is due. Their deposit is not refundable either. Anything else is just if’s and but’s.

A colleague’s told me this morning, he’s had 16 cars delivered this week he wasn’t expecting for months. He now has to get them prepped, funded and delivered this week as he only has a small town centre site and nobody can move.

We were quite happy to order an in stock car of a different spec / colour for a quick delivery, done it before. In fact when we first went in they told us they had a near identical spec one due in 4 weeks, cancelled order. Went back the following day and were told Kia had cancelled the order to them as it was no longer going to the person who originally order it.

I appreciate it’s the manufacturer not the dealership just fed up,been over 4 months and no sign of it arriving. I just wanted a feel for how other dealers are, just as bad by the sounds of it. WIll probably continue to wait, been very lucky as two different neighbours have lent us cars (ironically one is a Sportage), between that and me working from home we’ve just about managed although our car is a Fiat 500 which is a squeeze with 4 people.

Just rung the dealership, now vague delivery date is sometime in August, can’t or won’t be more specific, I’m not holding my breath.

Their deposit is not refundable either.

Thats without the probable 20% price increase that will come with the later vehicles (Oh yes we have changed our order forms to include clauses now for changes to manufacturers RRP and discount structures AND including third party installations.

Can you legally have a non-refundable deposit when the consumer wants to cancel because of a price increase? Surely in this scenario the consumer has the right to cancel? Then there is the consumer right regarding the seller only being able to charge an amount sufficient to cover their actual losses that directly result from the cancellation.

We signed a lease for a second car (Toyota Yaris Cross) in March. Was originally told June and then November. Frustrating but it just means we’re using the van more instead (expensive with current diesel costs). Does limit us for weekend use and trips unfortunately when we both want to drive somewhere.

WorldClassAccident

Bikes were stolen yesterday and I was quoted Feb 23 for a like for like replacement, so not just cars

I don’t think this has been given much coverage!

Ordered new SEAT Leon estate in Nov last year, for March delivery. Hook was, “how do you fancy being put into a newer model equivalent spec car at same monthly cost?” Was in an older Leon ST so looked OK.

Salesman left, new person didn’t really keep us updated. Was relatively happy with current car so decided not to stress about it. Delivery dates were suddenly “unknown” (wiring looms and Ukraine were mentioned). Was tempted to bin the order but didn’t get round to it.

Needed fuel at start of the month, forgot to only half-fill (just in case) and dealer called following day to say car delivery was imminent! Fuel costs went super silly a day or two after…

With a holiday in between, i eventually collected the new car last Tuesday, so only 3± months late. Spec seems to have remained as ordered, and pretty happy with it so far. May have been pretty lucky. Old car still had 1/4 tank of fuel though and new one was bone dry 🙁 First world problems I know, but hate throwing cash away…

Can you legally have a non-refundable deposit when the consumer wants to cancel because of a price increase?

I would think that it’s a contract change, which you can accept or reject. Otherwise, what’s to stop a bait-and-switch? “Yeah, we’re keeping your grand and the price has doubled.” No?