How long does it take to build a car

rousetafarian

Your new motor will arrive before your new Meerkat probably

mjn

They're built pretty fast. (I've done the tour of the BMW plant in Munich)

nheather

Probably, but that is a bad thing.

I have a company car that goes back on 14th Dec - I can't return it earlier.

So when I ordered this I expalined that I wanted the car on or after 14th Dec.  Not a problem, the delivery time was stated as 16-18 weeks which would have put it as last week of December but most likely early January.

I was then told it would be first of December which would mean that the dealer would have to hold it for a week.

Now fear it might be third week of November and the dealer is going to pressure me to take delivery early.

Cheers,

Nigel

rousetafarian

They shouldn’t pressurise you, and will probably just hold it.

nvingo

29 years ago (aargh - where's it all gone?) I had a Ford Orion built to my spec. I think it was 8 weeks lead time, from plant in Belgium.
When I was in sixth form, ww went on a visit to Ford at Dagenham to see assembly of Sierras, Fiestas and the new 1.6L diesel engine.
As said, the sourcing of parts (seats,  trim etc) takes the time, bolting it all together only takes moments.

kimberlin

I've been to both the BMW factory at Rosslyn in South Africa, and the Nissan Plant in Oppama, Japan. Absolutely facinating visits. To see just how quickly the production line technicians work, is quite something. Slot in an entire engine/drivetrain in around a minute, fully bolted in and along comes the next one.

I was surprised that when I visited the BMW plant in South Africa, that quite a lot of the vehicles on the production line that I saw that day, were in fact destined for the UK. I suppose it shouldn't really have come as much of a surprise, after all, South Africa is a right hand drive vehicle market, so building cars for the UK and other right hand drive markets makes sense.

mikes48

Did the TVR factory tour in Blackpool a good number of years ago, really fascinating. Not really my kind of car, tbh, but hope to see them on the road again sometime.

ukdan

Just checked at work and it's approx 18 hours from start to finish for a Civic or CRV.

Jules Winfield

It doesn't take more than a couple of days to build mass-produced cars.  When I've asked before, I've been quoted three days (I think that was a Golf Mk6).  Remember that it's all precisely planned and (usually) everything runs like clockwork, so whilst the shell is being painted and dried in an oven, the drive train and other bits can be worked on elsewhere and things like seats and interiors lined up so they go on cars in the correct order as they move down the line.

I did go on a tour of the Land Rover Defender plant shortly before it stopped production.  Now that's labour-intensive!  We had a glimpse of one of the Range Rover lines too - that was eerily quiet and had very few people around.  The Defender one had people with hammers and very few automated areas.

Anyway, it's nice to see you're finally getting your car, Nigel.

Bl4ckGryph0n

And don’t worry it will take longer to transport than to build it. First will go on a train, get all that lovely dust on fresh paint, then the boat, there maybe some damage at the docks and the the garage body shop will have to fix it which again will take longer. Then you wait until the PDI check. Heck before you know it you’ll be knocking on their door to ask them whether they can hurry up