We stayed over in Lafayette a couple weeks ago enroute to Ohio. They sure take their sports seriously. Didn’t know they had a Subbie plant there though.
My brother would have ordered one the way he wanted it back in '07 but they discontinued the manual transmission for the particular trim level he wanted so the dealer found him one of the last 2006 models with a stick on the other side of the state. His special order GTI that went from being a late 2008 to being an early 2009 because his dealer didn’t get the order in time for the changeover took longer than 6wks not counting the delay in shipping from Germany due to a hurricane but it was well worth it to get the exact options he wanted.
The dealer can send in the order but sometimes it can take a few weeks just to get the order accepted and scheduled then the shipping can take some time. Even within the USA if the car is going by rail or truck.
“I think your Subaru is being built in Lafayette, Indiana home of the Purdue Boilermakers”
The Subaru factory is indeed located in Lafayette, IN.
However, Purdue University is located in West Lafayette, IN.
;-))
While West Lafayette and Lafayette, IN are on opposite sides of the Wabash River, they are clearly the same metropolitan area.
Not to change the subject, but anyone thinking that wind mills are the answer to our power needs should drive by there sometime. Got to be hundreds of wind mills ruining the landscape. By day all you see is wind mills and by night all you see is blinking red lights.
Got to be hundreds of wind mills ruining the landscape.
As opposed to strip mine and coal fired plant?
Go to Centralia, Pennsylvania… Well at least close to there because you can’t really go there anymore because since 1962 the coal mine has been on fire and completely destroyed the town.
Or how about Harriman, Tennessee where one of the worse Coal Ash disasters ever happened. Years later people are still feeling the effects.
If the alternative to wind farms is coal…I’ll take wind farms any time.
The Boilermaker mascot comes from the fact that years ago Purdue recruited football players from a local boiler factory. These boiler workers made the team a winner. I think, in view of the recent losses, Purdue needs to recruit from the Subaru factory, We could have the Purdue Subies.
So it sounds like the dealer can’t have any influence on when they deliver the car?
The schedulers at the plant decide when the car will be produced based on other orders, parts needs, etc., unless like in my case the dealer could swap one already ordered and in line to be produced.
“So it sounds like the dealer can’t have any influence on when they deliver the car?”
Nope!
And, if somebody at the dealership tells you that he can speed up the process, he is lying.
With my first Outback (a '97 model), I waited 12 weeks because the paint color that I chose was not popular and they apparently didn’t even have it in stock at the factory. The mfr’s customer service people offered an expedited build date if I changed my color choice from Sydney Blue Pearl to Fire Engine Red, and I chose to wait for the more…subdued…color.
The dealer can track where the car is and sometimes try to find you one the way you want, at my dealer 3 identical models are coming within a few days of each other even coming out of the same factory. So they can sometimes find you one sooner (at least the internet guys seem more willing to look from my experience) Just came back from my Subaru Dealer and my salesperson has seen cars come in much faster than expected (as much as 6wks) but that’s coming from Japan. One that’s estimated to arrive on a certain date from Indiana could get there a couple weeks sooner but it all depends on supply and demand.
Go to Google Maps (or Google Earth) satellite view of Lafayette, IN. It’s easy to find the Subaru Plant. It’s HUGE.
I custom ordered my CX-7 because the dealership didn’t have the color I wanted in stock. Since he knew I wasn’t in a big rush, he ordered it for me. I ordered it in January, it arrived, from Japan in May. With international shipping, companies will often have to wait until a full shipment(X amount of vehicles) can be made before it ships a special ordered one; atleast that’s what the salesman told me anyways.
The 7 was the first brand new car I ever bought, so I don’t really have any experience with other car makers customizing orders.
And here’s another odd new caveat to special ordering ;
depending on the brand I suppose, but I know this for Ford dealers…
there is a maximum number of vehicle models allowed for each dealer for each year.
If they have all of the Explorers that they are allotted then you can NOT simply order another one !
How fureeekin stupid is that ?
Our dealer has been stung by that on hundreds of occasions since that stupid rule came to life about ten years ago.
THAT has all but ruined our customer base and past history as one of the largest volume small town dealers in pickup trucks.
We are a reservation border town and pickups is THE vehicle of choice for extremely good reason.
Back in the 70s and 80s we’d sell 2 cars for every 100 pickups.
pickups
pickups
pickups
and then FORD gets a wild hair up their butt that they want us to sell more cars.
so they implement a dealer wide quota list that now puts cars in the hands of , and in the terrain of people who do not want them. …and vice versa… too many pickups in the city dealers who don’ want any !
That is where the ‘‘dealer trade’’ system works best to swap the inventory that Ford has so horribly screwed up…so horribly that , sometimes, you can NOT special order the vehicle you want !
( in fact we have one full time sales employee who is never in the office. Oh, you’ll see him walk through once in a while but he is the dealer trade salesman and driver…and flyer if need be…to take and get dealer trade vehicles accrost the country. back in the 90s the position did not exist and was not even conceived. )
Back in the day, many car buyers ordered exactly what they wanted. There were few if any “packages” you could order anything on the options list piece by piece…Employees of the company, especially production line employees, could order a “Domestic Order Special”…These cars were virtually custom built from any parts available on the line…This is how very rare cars like a 427 Galaxy Convertible 4-speed, black with a red leather interior, competition suspension package, Wonder Bar radio, you name it, got built…What fun!