I have ordered/received my New Tiguan

[Flipper Dog]

I am going to chime in here to further add some factors effecting delivery of vehicles. Specifically Mexican sourced vehicles, but this also affects European manufactured ones.
Forget the chip shortage issue, the main factor is now shipping of both parts for factory and delivery of finished vehicles.

Parts provided from sub contractors have experienced delays because of factors like covid and the conflict in eastern Europe. This has blown out the concept of having parts ready as required not stored in bulk. Less resources are tied up that way.

Transportation is also hit the same problems above. Covid is still delaying shipping and now the European Union is restricting Russian crews/vessels which makes up a large percentage of sea transport.

I am trying to order a new Audi Q5. Produced in the Mexican plant and its biggest market is the US. Getting a production date is trying but possible within 4-6 months however where shipments out to Asia and then followed on to Australia has been restricted from monthly to 6-8 weeks now, with no normally forecasted.
That shipping space is now also taken up by all the other vehicle brands trying to move their product, of which has increased the price of transportation.
Large manufactures can absorb some of these costs but that comes down to volume. This is where the likes of the Volkswagen Group take a hit for markets like Australia.
Example - a boat load of Tiguan Allspaces and Q5 leave Mexico, they arrive in Korea and Japan where Hyundai/Kia and Toyota have booked out most space for the next leg down to Australia via Singapore. This means either vehicles are off loaded at post in north Asia to await another ship or VW reduces the quantity they sent out from factory. By reducing the stock out of factory also delays shipment as a ship needs a full cargo before sailing.
I am seeing examples in the US market of Audi Q5 taking 2 to 3 months from build before arriving into dealerships, that is like transporting from Sydney to Perth. If the US are experiencing these delays no wonder we in Australia are getting mucked around.

[1stTiggie]

Thank you Flipper Dog for that detailed & illuminating insight. I accept that the world has changed & that it will take a long time to recover, if ever.


My issue however is in being treated like a previously mentioned vegetable. Whilst other jurisdictions within the same marque can apparently be more open & realistic with quoted lead times (UK now quoting circa 15 months apparently), we are consistently being fed a load of nonsense here. (I just checked the VW Australia configurator site again… it indicates if I ordered my vehicle today it is estimating a delivery of March ’23 (9 months – interestingly, for the first time it is quoting only the month… not a specific date as it has previously).
Please don’t remain silent to us, your actual customer, while issuing wildly understated wait times to prospective customers to draw them in. There would be far more respect, understanding (& even sympathy) if the actual situation was being accurately conveyed in a timely manner.

[Flipper Dog]

Spot on there @1stTiggie.
The likes of VW Australia need to be more honest with their customers with realistic timelines. Yes things happen than can extend out forecasts, but communication is the key to customer service.
The dealers have no idea, they are told to take orders and they will be told when it arrives.

At a minimum VW Australia needs to have available to their customers informed of the following:
Once an order is placed where in the queue is that order.
When the order is accepted for a build slot.
Build date which would give you the VIN.
Shipping date from factory.
Cargo details for transportation.
Arrival into Australian port.

The current method is not working with treating customers as fools.

[nermal]

Spot on there @1stTiggie.
The likes of VW Australia need to be more honest with their customers with realistic timelines. Yes things happen than can extend out forecasts, but communication is the key to customer service.
The dealers have no idea, they are told to take orders and they will be told when it arrives.

At a minimum VW Australia needs to have available to their customers informed of the following:
Once an order is placed where in the queue is that order.
When the order is accepted for a build slot.
Build date which would give you the VIN.
Shipping date from factory.
Cargo details for transportation.
Arrival into Australian port.

The current method is not working with treating customers as fools.

Right.. do we have any recourse other than just cancelling our orders and walking away?

There's probably some deceptive business practices going on... unfortunately, that's typical of the entire car industry (new or used sales).

[Mattywood85]

Hi All,

Went I contact my dealer for an update, I am told the stock controller has put me on the list as a “later this year delivery” because of the h/k stereo. I was told about 9 months from when the order was placed in March and that hasn’t changed over the last few chats with the dealer. No point in me going to another manufacture because they are in the same situation. Frustrating but I don’t want to go to the back of someone’s list if I pull out…

[nermal]

Right, that may be an option.

It's crickets from the dealer atm... hopefully they get onboard and can organise one of these cars at the lower price. Otherwise, it might be time to cancel the contract and buy interstate (wasn't a large deposit).

I inquired on a couple of the Allspace R-Lines showing as available on the VW website and didn't receive any responses.

My dealer checked with VW the other day and they were looking into it - apparently vehicles that were already allocated were showing up...

Now it seems their stock search web page is down and I'm back to being at the mercy of the mystical "Stock Controller" creature:



Starting to think that it may be better to just buy a 2nd hand one to drive for the next few years until this stock madness sorts itself out. We would have just hung onto our 2008 Diesel Passat - it was still a great car, but got bored with life.

[BeigeJet]

I inquired on a couple of the Allspace R-Lines showing as available on the VW website and didn't receive any responses.

My dealer checked with VW the other day and they were looking into it - apparently vehicles that were already allocated were showing up...

Now it seems their stock search web page is down and I'm back to being at the mercy of the mystical "Stock Controller" creature:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54152[/ATTACH]

Starting to think that it may be better to just buy a 2nd hand one to drive for the next few years until this stock madness sorts itself out. We would have just hung onto our 2008 Diesel Passat - it was still a great car, but got bored with life.

The web page has been down for around 8 days and not long after I indicated on an earlier reply I did that there were some on the stock page.

Me thinks that VW's stock position is either considerably worse or they want to prevent people from jumping the queue by taking a vehicle similar to the spec they are in line for. I my case I was lucky to find a vehicle on the stock page that had not been allocated until I put my deposit down.

Hopefully you get some good news soon.

Happy motoring.

[kurdt]

Greetings, long time lurker, first time poster, figured I would share my experience.

I ordered an un-optioned Tiguan R-Line in early November 21, knowing it was likely to be a minimum of 6 months with most likely 9-12 months a more realistic waiting period. At the time of purchase the salesman did not give me any indication of an expected delivery date, so there were no expectations from my side. He was fairly honest and upfront and explained to me how the ordering process worked. I have no way of verifying this information, but here goes:

- Apparently each dealership is/was given X amount of ordering slots (per month?), with X depending on their previous order history, ie. larger dealers that moved more stock were given a higher X number.
- Majority of the wait time (if not most) is purely waiting for an order slot to open so the dealer can actually place the order with VW. Salesman never gave me an indication about when this was for me, but said it was going to be a fair wait.
- Once an order slot opens up the dealer will submit the order to VW, the order will then get accepted and a build date then scheduled based on component availability.

Again, not sure how true any of this is, but I would imagine a dealer would have a general idea around when the order may actually be able to be submitted to VW based on their current backlog of orders. Maybe some don't want to be upfront and honest as they are afraid you will call up Dealer Y or Z to see if their ordering backlog it less?

I contacted my dealer in early May to get an update, figured it had been 6 months why not harass them. I was told that apparently the factory has accepted my order, but no build date had been scheduled. I figure I will harass them again at the 9 month mark to see where we are at.

One thing I did note from the recent Tiguan R release was that VW had pulled the fancy stereo, dropped the price by $1k and made it an option to "free up supply chain issues". This tells me anyone who optioned their car is going to be waiting longer than someone that didn't, although I could be very wrong?

[Mattywood85]

Hi all,

I have found this website in the UK that is quoting 52 weeks to get to build stage, not very uplifting. New Car Delivery Times | carwow

I did just speak to my dealer who said that with interest rates going up, and people getting fed up with the wait that they are selling those peoples build slots to people on a waiting list. You can’t change anything about the car but you can have what in effect would be their car. Apparently there are a lot of people on the waiting list at the moment, and if you were to order a car now you are going to be waiting 12 months.

[Flipper Dog]

The following notice is coming out of the UK on wait times for VW...

[nermal]

Starting to consider alternative options to the fully-spec'd Allspace R-Line (7 seater) that my wife has been patiently waiting on ever since the 5-seater face-lift came out.

I looked at some Audi's today, but would need to go a larger Q7 for a 7-seater. May be able to convince my wife that 5 seats are enough and go with a Q5 (for a more reasonable price jump). There seems to be some stock around in both those models.

Could maybe even go something completely left-field, like Ford or Jeep or something. Or just buy second hand =/

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

[BeigeJet]

Starting to consider alternative options to the fully-spec'd Allspace R-Line (7 seater) that my wife has been patiently waiting on ever since the 5-seater face-lift came out.

I looked at some Audi's today, but would need to go a larger Q7 for a 7-seater. May be able to convince my wife that 5 seats are enough and go with a Q5 (for a more reasonable price jump). There seems to be some stock around in both those models.

Could maybe even go something completely left-field, like Ford or Jeep or something. Or just buy second hand =/

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

JEEP = Just Empty Each Pocket

I feel you would be greatly disappointed in a JEEP if you are considering long term ownership.

Did you ever get any reasonable information back from the dealership on your inquiry?

[nermal]

JEEP = Just Empty Each Pocket

I feel you would be greatly disappointed in a JEEP if you are considering long term ownership.

Did you ever get any reasonable information back from the dealership on your inquiry?

Yeah, I hired a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Canada several years back and it was nice to drive... but I've heard bad things about reliability.

Nothing meaningful... just the odd waiting on the stock controller response

[nermal]

Dealer called to let me know a shipment of Tiguans landed in Melbourne that were supposed to be for Qld and VW are organizing a ship to transport them up here.. revised ETA: July.

I asked for a VIN and delivery date once the shipment date was known. Waiting on the "stock controller" to provide the VIN and delivery details.

[VW Convert]

Dealer called to let me know a shipment of Tiguans landed in Melbourne that were supposed to be for Qld and VW are organizing a ship to transport them up here.. revised ETA: July.

I asked for a VIN and delivery date once the shipment date was known. Waiting on the "stock controller" to provide the VIN and delivery details.

My initial thoughts were this is bull**** but in recent times I've had shipping containers of spare parts destined for Sydney offloaded in Brisbane due to vessels being behind schedule and skipping ports they were due to unload/load so as to make up time. Then had to wait for the shipping company to trans ship them.