I got an allocation in 2 days

Rag9000 · 07-25-2022, 04:06 PM

I know a lot of people are frustrated and waiting for allocations so maybe this will be helpful. I originally put a deposit down in April and was second in line at my local dealer. Fast forward to mid July and I was still second in line. I noticed some people on this board talking about how they walked into their dealer, placed the order, and got an allocation. I figured that the allocations were out there I just needed to find a dealer that had one.

FYI, there are 36 allocations in the country right now (claimed and unclaimed as far as I understand) at status 111, meaning they are still open for configuration.

I was willing to pick the car up from anywhere as long as I could get there and back the same day. That means drive there and back same day, or fly discount one way for ~$80 in the morning, take an Uber to the dealership, and drive the car back all in one day. Small price to pay compared to waiting a year for the damn car. If I got an allocation I’d figure out how to pick the thing up. One other option for people in the right area is to get it delivered to the performance center in S. Carolina for no additional charge. I was willing to do that if it came down to it but that’s a heck of a drive from me so I wanted to avoid if possible.

I drafted a short message that indicated I was looking for a 240, had noticed everyone had a waitlist, and inquired about whether they had an allocation. I looked up every dealer in my state and sent it to them on their contact us page form. Maybe ~10% of dealers had a requirement to enter your phone number too, but I tried to keep this all over email so I could scale it. These dealers’ CRMs are garbage which makes it impossible to have email chains- every email comes as a standalone email which makes the email thing doable but cumbersome. Some dealers also did not have a contact us page at all. I made sure to go to the ‘meet the team’ section and get a sales person’s email address to send a direct email to them. I figured that the dealers without the contact page might be passed over by people doing a similar thing.

Most dealers respond that they have a waitlist. I thanked them for their response and continued on. Some dealers have no allocation but no one on the waitlist. I told them I would be very interested and to call me if they got an allocation. Some dealers have no waitlist but customers with allocations waiting for their builds to start production. I told them if one of their customers drops out I’d take their spot. I assume some people are on multiple wait lists, which means when allocations are released in bunches there will be allocation forfeitures. I listed all of the dealers with no one on their waitlist in a spreadsheet.

Now some dealers had allocations, but they either don’t sell to people outside of their geographic area at all, or do ‘market adjustments’. I don’t have anything against market adjustments- I’m not going to give the dealer free money and I don’t expect them to give me free value if they can get a higher price from someone else. If someone from out of their local area buys the car, they don’t get any of the maintenance revenue. That’s a dealerships bread and butter. Maybe someone that knows better can confirm, but I saw an m340 (not 240) wholesale price and it looked to me like the dealer made less than $2k gross profit on the sale of a new one (!). The rest of the profit is made on financing kick backs, maintenance plans, and add ons. I wasn’t going to be doing any of that so I understand the markup. Nonetheless I wasn’t willing to pay over MSRP to get the car faster.

Some dealers indicated they would trade an allocation they had for a 240 allocation. The problem is that the 240 is one of the highest demanded cars, so a dealer would need to be willing to trade a pretty valuable allocation or two lesser allocations, which either puts them behind on the gross profit or 2x behind on the maintenance revenue. Allocation trading is decided on at the general manager level and therefore likely to be totally an economic calculation. In other words, if a dealer has to trade for an allocation and you’re not local, they’re probably going to charge a ‘market adjustment’ so don’t get your hopes up.

After no luck in my state, I expanded outside to other states. I just used google maps, searching “BMW dealerships in XXXX” where XXXX is the state I was looking in. That brings up a map of every dealer in the state. Click the location one by one and google brings up the website link -> navigate to the contact page -> paste your message. You can knock a whole state out in 5-10 minutes.

In the end, I found an allocation for a September build at MSRP right at my distance limit. Then I followed up with the dealers that had contacted me and let them know I wasn’t in the market anymore. This all happened over a day and a half. I waited three months and could have waited a day and a half!!

If I hadn’t been able to find an open allocation, I would have gone back to the spreadsheet of dealers with empty waitlists and asked about their deposit refund policies. Some dealers have very liberal refund policies, allowing for a refund at any point before delivery. Others did not allow refund after they received the allocation. Most allow the refund up until you go in and submit the exact build you want- this is because they’ll take delivery of an unpaid car, but don’t want to get stuck with your thundernight metallic that they can’t move. Deposit amounts ranged from $5,000 to $500, and most were $2,500. If I hadn’t found an open allocation, I would have put deposits at the dealers with no waitlist, liberal refund policies so I didn’t get stuck for the refund, and a promise to sell to me at MSRP.

My last words of advice are to be very up front with the dealer with what you’re looking for and why you’re putting in a deposit (if you go that route). Look for the weird dealerships. Dealers that are geographically isolated are used to selling to folks outside the local area, dealers that don’t have the standard webpage might be more likely to have unusual policies, dealers that don’t have a listed contact form might be a less competitive target, etc.

Just my 2 cents- hopefully it’s helpful.

jakek66 · 07-25-2022, 04:15 PM

In St. Louis all 3 dealers I dealt with had M240i allocations available to order from, it was the 230i that was a little harder to get. 2/3 got 1 allocation last week so I had one ordered but I think they all still had the M240i available. I guess it's just where you are that makes the difference.

They all were $1000 deposits but they have to refund due to state legalities.

M3GABIT · 07-25-2022, 06:12 PM

I got my allocation the same day at my high volume dealer! They told me I would have to wait around 3 months or so but I got a text as soon as I got home that they got an allocation right away. Guess I was pretty lucky.

Rag9000 · 07-26-2022, 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakek66

In St. Louis all 3 dealers I dealt with had M240i allocations available to order from, it was the 230i that was a little harder to get. 2/3 got 1 allocation last week so I had one ordered but I think they all still had the M240i available. I guess it's just where you are that makes the difference.

They all were $1000 deposits but they have to refund due to state legalities.

Good intel. I wonder if they sell to non locals. It’s weird how they distribute the allocations. By size? By order list? It definitely does not seem efficient to have people waiting 6 months+ while some dealers are sitting on unused allocations.

Ruebarb · 07-26-2022, 09:31 AM

Keep in mind allocation does not equal position in line for production. Granted you'll never get to production without an allocation, but someone could get an allocation months after you and still get their vehicle months before you.

Rag9000 · 07-26-2022, 09:35 AM

Interesting- I figured because I had a production number I was somewhere in line. I don’t have a production date yet on My Garage but I was told the allocation was for week 38. This process is a continuous stream of bad news lol

Ruebarb · 07-26-2022, 10:18 AM

Most had faired better, some have been worse. Here is my timeline. https://g42.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...postcount=2648

Hopefully BWM doesn't treat the 23s like they did the 22s. Lots of members who ordered 22s that now had to renegiotiate 23s. You'll be a lucky one if you get a 23 before the year of 2023.

CarsAndGuitars · 07-26-2022, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rag9000

Interesting- I figured because I had a production number I was somewhere in line. I don’t have a production date yet on My Garage but I was told the allocation was for week 38. This process is a continuous stream of bad news lol

Really its not. Its a discipline of continuously managing your own expectations and not getting impatient over a very detailed and complex logistical process you/we have no visibility into.

Things take time, especially with everything going on in the world these days. I ordered on 4/6 and had an allocation immediately. My car was completed on 6/22 and sat for over a month before getting on a ship. Why? I have no clue and never will. But it is on a ship. My car will reach VPC approx 8/4 and I am anticipating another week or 2 from there. I was originally projected ~12 weeks and reality is going to be more like 18.

Do I check status many many times a day? You bet I do. Do I get impatient and frustrated? Sure.

But surely enough, once you have an allocation and you've started to make *some* kind of progress it will continue, but not necessarily on on your schedule. And you may hit one or more long delays along the way, but they too will end and progress will resume.

Short of a ship sinking or some massive work-stoppage, we all will get our cars.

OriginalFake · 07-26-2022, 10:36 AM

I think this is great advice but it's also true that there were a lot fewer allocations floating around in late March/early April than there are now. I did basically the same thing that you did at that time but I only emailed about 15 places in various states. Not a single one had an allocation at that time.

azuki · 07-26-2022, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruebarb

Keep in mind allocation does not equal position in line for production. Granted you'll never get to production without an allocation, but someone could get an allocation months after you and still get their vehicle months before you.

I'm like the prime guinea pig for that- order placed on jul 22 with production number and i have a prod week of 43.

Rag9000 · 07-26-2022, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarsAndGuitars

Really its not. Its a discipline of continuously managing your own expectations and not getting impatient over a very detailed and complex logistical process you/we have no visibility into.

This is very stoic of you! For the rest of us, this has been frustrating considering what the normal experience of the same detailed and complex logistical process used to be like.

CarsAndGuitars · 07-26-2022, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rag9000

This is very stoic of you! For the rest of us, this has been frustrating considering what the normal experience of the same detailed and complex logistical process used to be like.

Not at all. I wish I wasn't consumed by the wait. I check my ship multiple times a day for movement. It is natural to think maybe something is wrong when we are trying to figure out delays.

All I am saying is try to catch yourself with frustrations and impatience and spin it into anticipation and excitement. It makes the long journey a whole lot less stressful.

Bill_R · 07-27-2022, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakek66

In St. Louis all 3 dealers I dealt with had M240i allocations available to order from, it was the 230i that was a little harder to get. 2/3 got 1 allocation last week so I had one ordered but I think they all still had the M240i available. I guess it's just where you are that makes the difference.

They all were $1000 deposits but they have to refund due to state legalities.

That is good to know. I tried both Springfield, MO and Columbia, MO and they have a wait list. I contacted one of the dealers in STL yesterday and they seem to think allocation wouldn't be too much of a problem. I sent them my car specs yesterday and just waiting to hear back from them.

JHereth22 · 08-08-2022, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill_R

That is good to know. I tried both Springfield, MO and Columbia, MO and they have a wait list. I contacted one of the dealers in STL yesterday and they seem to think allocation wouldn't be too much of a problem. I sent them my car specs yesterday and just waiting to hear back from them.

I'm in CoMo and ordered mine from BMW of Columbia - no wait list that I'm aware of?

07-25-2022, 04:06 PM	#1
Rag9000 Private First Class 126 Rep 131 Posts Drives: ‘23 m240i Join Date: Jul 2022 Location: Reality iTrader: (0)	I got an allocation in 2 days I know a lot of people are frustrated and waiting for allocations so maybe this will be helpful. I originally put a deposit down in April and was second in line at my local dealer. Fast forward to mid July and I was still second in line. I noticed some people on this board talking about how they walked into their dealer, placed the order, and got an allocation. I figured that the allocations were out there I just needed to find a dealer that had one. FYI, there are 36 allocations in the country right now (claimed and unclaimed as far as I understand) at status 111, meaning they are still open for configuration. I was willing to pick the car up from anywhere as long as I could get there and back the same day. That means drive there and back same day, or fly discount one way for ~$80 in the morning, take an Uber to the dealership, and drive the car back all in one day. Small price to pay compared to waiting a year for the damn car. If I got an allocation I’d figure out how to pick the thing up. One other option for people in the right area is to get it delivered to the performance center in S. Carolina for no additional charge. I was willing to do that if it came down to it but that’s a heck of a drive from me so I wanted to avoid if possible. I drafted a short message that indicated I was looking for a 240, had noticed everyone had a waitlist, and inquired about whether they had an allocation. I looked up every dealer in my state and sent it to them on their contact us page form. Maybe ~10% of dealers had a requirement to enter your phone number too, but I tried to keep this all over email so I could scale it. These dealers’ CRMs are garbage which makes it impossible to have email chains- every email comes as a standalone email which makes the email thing doable but cumbersome. Some dealers also did not have a contact us page at all. I made sure to go to the ‘meet the team’ section and get a sales person’s email address to send a direct email to them. I figured that the dealers without the contact page might be passed over by people doing a similar thing. Most dealers respond that they have a waitlist. I thanked them for their response and continued on. Some dealers have no allocation but no one on the waitlist. I told them I would be very interested and to call me if they got an allocation. Some dealers have no waitlist but customers with allocations waiting for their builds to start production. I told them if one of their customers drops out I’d take their spot. I assume some people are on multiple wait lists, which means when allocations are released in bunches there will be allocation forfeitures. I listed all of the dealers with no one on their waitlist in a spreadsheet. Now some dealers had allocations, but they either don’t sell to people outside of their geographic area at all, or do ‘market adjustments’. I don’t have anything against market adjustments- I’m not going to give the dealer free money and I don’t expect them to give me free value if they can get a higher price from someone else. If someone from out of their local area buys the car, they don’t get any of the maintenance revenue. That’s a dealerships bread and butter. Maybe someone that knows better can confirm, but I saw an m340 (not 240) wholesale price and it looked to me like the dealer made less than $2k gross profit on the sale of a new one (!). The rest of the profit is made on financing kick backs, maintenance plans, and add ons. I wasn’t going to be doing any of that so I understand the markup. Nonetheless I wasn’t willing to pay over MSRP to get the car faster. Some dealers indicated they would trade an allocation they had for a 240 allocation. The problem is that the 240 is one of the highest demanded cars, so a dealer would need to be willing to trade a pretty valuable allocation or two lesser allocations, which either puts them behind on the gross profit or 2x behind on the maintenance revenue. Allocation trading is decided on at the general manager level and therefore likely to be totally an economic calculation. In other words, if a dealer has to trade for an allocation and you’re not local, they’re probably going to charge a ‘market adjustment’ so don’t get your hopes up. After no luck in my state, I expanded outside to other states. I just used google maps, searching “BMW dealerships in XXXX” where XXXX is the state I was looking in. That brings up a map of every dealer in the state. Click the location one by one and google brings up the website link -> navigate to the contact page -> paste your message. You can knock a whole state out in 5-10 minutes. In the end, I found an allocation for a September build at MSRP right at my distance limit. Then I followed up with the dealers that had contacted me and let them know I wasn’t in the market anymore. This all happened over a day and a half. I waited three months and could have waited a day and a half!! If I hadn’t been able to find an open allocation, I would have gone back to the spreadsheet of dealers with empty waitlists and asked about their deposit refund policies. Some dealers have very liberal refund policies, allowing for a refund at any point before delivery. Others did not allow refund after they received the allocation. Most allow the refund up until you go in and submit the exact build you want- this is because they’ll take delivery of an unpaid car, but don’t want to get stuck with your thundernight metallic that they can’t move. Deposit amounts ranged from $5,000 to $500, and most were $2,500. If I hadn’t found an open allocation, I would have put deposits at the dealers with no waitlist, liberal refund policies so I didn’t get stuck for the refund, and a promise to sell to me at MSRP. My last words of advice are to be very up front with the dealer with what you’re looking for and why you’re putting in a deposit (if you go that route). Look for the weird dealerships. Dealers that are geographically isolated are used to selling to folks outside the local area, dealers that don’t have the standard webpage might be more likely to have unusual policies, dealers that don’t have a listed contact form might be a less competitive target, etc. Just my 2 cents- hopefully it’s helpful. Attached Images
	Appreciate 1 tooly78.00 Tweet Quote

07-25-2022, 04:15 PM	#2
jakek66 Private First Class 106 Rep 111 Posts Drives: '25 X5 / '23 M240i Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: St. Louis MO iTrader: (0)	In St. Louis all 3 dealers I dealt with had M240i allocations available to order from, it was the 230i that was a little harder to get. 2/3 got 1 allocation last week so I had one ordered but I think they all still had the M240i available. I guess it's just where you are that makes the difference. They all were $1000 deposits but they have to refund due to state legalities.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

07-25-2022, 06:12 PM	#3
M3GABIT Private 150 Rep 73 Posts Drives: '23 M3 Comp @m3gabit.g80 Join Date: Jul 2022 Location: Seattle, WA iTrader: (0)	I got my allocation the same day at my high volume dealer! They told me I would have to wait around 3 months or so but I got a text as soon as I got home that they got an allocation right away. Guess I was pretty lucky.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

07-26-2022, 09:31 AM	#5
Ruebarb Lieutenant 417 Rep 411 Posts Drives: BMW G42 M240i Join Date: Jan 2022 Location: MA iTrader: (0)	Keep in mind allocation does not equal position in line for production. Granted you'll never get to production without an allocation, but someone could get an allocation months after you and still get their vehicle months before you. Last edited by Ruebarb; 07-26-2022 at 10:12 AM..
	Appreciate 2 OriginalFake579.50 Summeristooshort16.50 Quote

07-26-2022, 09:35 AM	#6
Rag9000 Private First Class 126 Rep 131 Posts Drives: ‘23 m240i Join Date: Jul 2022 Location: Reality iTrader: (0)	Interesting- I figured because I had a production number I was somewhere in line. I don’t have a production date yet on My Garage but I was told the allocation was for week 38. This process is a continuous stream of bad news lol
	Appreciate 0 Quote

07-26-2022, 10:18 AM	#7
Ruebarb Lieutenant 417 Rep 411 Posts Drives: BMW G42 M240i Join Date: Jan 2022 Location: MA iTrader: (0)	Most had faired better, some have been worse. Here is my timeline. https://g42.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...postcount=2648 Hopefully BWM doesn't treat the 23s like they did the 22s. Lots of members who ordered 22s that now had to renegiotiate 23s. You'll be a lucky one if you get a 23 before the year of 2023.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

07-26-2022, 10:36 AM	#9
OriginalFake Captain 580 Rep 615 Posts Drives: 2023 M240i Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: NC iTrader: (0)	I think this is great advice but it's also true that there were a lot fewer allocations floating around in late March/early April than there are now. I did basically the same thing that you did at that time but I only emailed about 15 places in various states. Not a single one had an allocation at that time.
	Appreciate 0 Quote