All of these 'long' delays.............Think yourselves lucky. It took exactly 8 months from me placing my order (Nov 2010) to taking delivery of my car in July 2011 (and 7 months from the time the factory accepted the order)!
I take it you got a hire car if it was 7 months from when the factory accepted the order? I've been lucky as it's been less than 4 months since the factory accepted mine. My delay came from when I placed the order with a dealership who weren't honest and didn't have any factory allocation for a GTI, despite saying they had. If they did in fact have allocation then I would have took delivery in Dec at the earliest or Jan at the latest. This was my intentions. Unfortunately (or fortunately as I now get a new 12 plate) it just so happens that my car is arriving (hopefully......) a couple of days before the beginning of March so it doesn't make sense to have it registered before.
Even so, like you say, it will be worth the wait. 
Cheers,
Scott
Scott, actually I didn't get a free loan car.
I asked my dealer to arrange for VW to supply me with one as I didn't want the trade-in allowance of my previous car to be adversely affected as a result of the long wait. When I ordered my car, I was quoted a trade-in value, based on an April 2011 delivery.
The dealer was happy to let me continue to use my own car until I got my new car. They stood by the trade-in value I'd been quoted and I also got them to agree to cover the cost of my MOT, cambelt change, and half the cost of the service that was due.
They're not the closest VW dealership to my home, but I've dealt with them now for 10 years and have always had good service from them - much better than the service I've received from the aforementioned nearby dealership on the odd occasion I've used them!
