I am currently taking a consumer rights class and i would def recommend all of you to consider taking one regardless of whether you are out of college or will be soon going to college. Basically it's a class that teaches you how NOT to get screwed and if you do, which agencies to turn to.

Anyways, we were briefly discussing auto fraud and all the tactics that dealers use to screw you - well the bad sales dealers anyways. As the discussion went on, i thought of something that the sales guy said when i went to test drive the 8 last week which went something like this:

me: how long does it take if i order one of the cars at the port?

salesguy: from one week to a month

me: does the wait time for a car with alot of options loaded on it take longer to arrive as opposed to a car with less options?

salesguy: no, a car with more options takes quicker to get here than a car with hardly any options on it. It takes longer for a car with fewer options to be delivered from the port to the dealership.

I thought nothing of this comment at the time but after today, i wondered if he only said that so that he could sell me a car with more options on it thus selling me a car that is higher priced than a car with hardly any options on it. Does it in fact truly take longer? Thoughts?

BS!

All RX-8 are built on the same line. The line travels at a certain set speed.

That means all cars leave the line and go to shipping in the same amount of time. If a car does not have a certain option then at the position where that option is installed the line workers do nothing (nice life).

If anything there is a greater chance of delay for cars with options. To decide how many parts to purchase and when to schedule delivery the OE figures out what the "take" of each option will be.

So, say they conclude the the Nav system will have 10% take and it turns out to be 20%, then it's possible that build date for cars with Nav will be delayed due to lack of parts.

A port installed or dealer installed option can delay even further.

The base car is always the least likely to experience delays.

I work for Toyota Manufacturing and when we start a new model we usually build the high option model at a high rate in the first few months to get them out on the market. So if we have a 10% option we may run 50% of total production with that option for the first few months just to get them out in the market.

On average, how long does it take to build a car?

and

How long does it take to build an 8?

Chrysler learned a little about saturating the market for a given vehicle with loaded models with the Pacifica. Not a pleasant lesson. But the question was concerning ordering a car already at port, not the time spent on the assembly line or priority of when optioned units get to the assembly line. From port to dealer in general should take less time the less options the car has. It it has a port-installed option that is on backorder, then it should take more time. Installation, even of a cargo net, like mine, takes time. A base unit should zoom-zoom through the port processing and get to a dealer as fast or faster than any car with options. Just IMHO. And also IMHO, sales people will say a LOT of things to make a deal, esp with higher commission. For example, my dealer's finance guy trying to push a $1800+ 5yr/100K extended warranty and $300 "GAP insurance" on me - probably felt more pressured to sell it to me since I financed through my credit union. His repeated saying " 'I' wouldn't buy a high-end sports car like that without the ext warranty"...

Originally posted by OmegaBob

How long does it take to build an 8?

not too long... do we have any official numbers on that?? Boo?? Todd?? someone?? no more than a couple days.

anyways, the biggest time cost is certainly the transportation... the cars we're getting now have been finished since April, for some...