Factory Delays

[Jwebb02]

Hi there, I’m wondering if anyone has heard about any delays about current factory orders? I had a call from my lease company who ordered the car, they said the car I ordered isn’t looking likely to make estimated delivery by the end of June.

It’s a GTI Clubsport 300 in solid pure white with GTI Performance pack and the black 19’’ Estoril alloys, and the cloth soul black/tournado red seats.

We agreed the car with the lease company back in November, who said that the car had already been ordered at that stage.

Waiting to hear back from the lease company once they’ve asked the dealership what’s going on, was just curious as to if anyone knows or heard of any delays recently!

[CrunchtheApple78]

Hi, oh yes.. I can give you my perspective and theory. I too ordered a CS at the beginning of December.

Oryx white with every option available ticked except HUD and leather. I chose the Estoril wheels.

Mine did not enter build until 20th April. It was radio silence pretty much up to this point. 4 and a half months before anything happened… I still do not have mine, likely early June…

However, what was happening was the build and supply to customers of ED50’s. You’ll see plenty of action in the other threads of folks receiving their ED50’s already. Given that the order books didn’t open for another 4 weeks after I placed my order, what I firmly believe VW have done is deprioritise any CS orders in favour of using the same parts required to enable the ED50 builds. VW wanted these cars out asap to make a big song and dance you see…

I have directly called this out to VW who have flat denied it of course, and given the same feedback to my dealer. I don’t see any other reason mine would just sit in order accepted stage for so long before anything happened. All the while a significant number of ED50’s were produced and supplied despite ordering after me.

The dealer said it was due to a shortage of parts for the performance pack. Funny how there were no such shortages for the Perf pack ED50’s… I know the suspension components are different but they share the same exhaust etc.

A poor deal from VW in my view. They should prioritise based on order date, not publicity…

[Jwebb02]

Just had a call from the Lease company again. They’ve managed to speak to the dealership and apparently now it’s pushed back to roughly week 44 (end of October!!) and this is due to ‘parts of the performance pack’ which I can only imagine being the Akrapovic Exhaust, and the alloy wheels.

[GTI_for_her!]

Hi there, for whatever reason I seem to have the opposite result than you chaps.
It may be down to the fact that I ordered a standard Gti 265 although it is well spec'd but I cant see why its so much quicker than a Clubsport.
Anyway, I ordered it on 10 April, built last week and apparently on its way.
Not sure why your cars are taking so long.

Similarly, last year I ordered a Clubsport on 31 Jan and picked it up on 10 April.

[SRGTD]

Hi, oh yes.. I can give you my perspective and theory. I too ordered a CS at the beginning of December.

Oryx white with every option available ticked except HUD and leather. I chose the Estoril wheels.

Mine did not enter build until 20th April. It was radio silence pretty much up to this point. 4 and a half months before anything happened… I still do not have mine, likely early June…

However, what was happening was the build and supply to customers of ED50’s. You’ll see plenty of action in the other threads of folks receiving their ED50’s already. Given that the order books didn’t open for another 4 weeks after I placed my order, what I firmly believe VW have done is deprioritise any CS orders in favour of using the same parts required to enable the ED50 builds. VW wanted these cars out asap to make a big song and dance you see…

I have directly called this out to VW who have flat denied it of course, and given the same feedback to my dealer. I don’t see any other reason mine would just sit in order accepted stage for so long before anything happened. All the while a significant number of ED50’s were produced and supplied despite ordering after me.

The dealer said it was due to a shortage of parts for the performance pack. Funny how there were no such shortages for the Perf pack ED50’s… I know the suspension components are different but they share the same exhaust etc.

A poor deal from VW in my view. They should prioritise based on order date, not publicity…

I sense your frustration and can sympathise.

VW’s system (if indeed there is a system) for scheduling customer cars for production had always been a bit of a mystery. It’s possible the ED50 may be given priority to ensure cars are delivered to customers in the anniversary year. However the numbers of ED50’s involved will be quite small in the grand scheme of things so even if they are given priority, IMHO they ought not impact significantly on the lead times of other non-ED50 cars.

IMHO what’s more likely to impact production and lead times are the following;

• Supply chain issues; With highly spec’d cars such as yours, there’s always an increased risk of delays and extended lead times due to the more complex supply chain - i.e. more suppliers in the chain than with a ‘vanilla’ standard spec car because of the additional parts / components for the options spec’d. VW won’t schedule a car for production to a specific confirmed build week until all suppliers have confirmed they can supply the necessary parts - and when they can supply those parts - for build. It only takes one supplier to have issues with the production of specific parts / components they need to supply to VW and lead times may be adversely impacted.
• Dealers taking more orders than the number of build slots allocated to them by VW; The system may have changed as it’s a few years since I ordered a new VW, but historically VW allocated build slots to dealers on (I think) a quarterly basis. If the number of customer orders accepted by a dealer in any given period exceeded the number of allocated build slots, then the dealer had to wait until they were allocated more build slots before they could submit those excess orders. The result being extended lead times for those customers affected. If this system is still operated by VW and if your dealer had accepted more customer orders than the number of build slots allocated to them (lots of ‘ifs’) it might be the reason your order took longer to enter build than you expected it to - something you’ll never know as the dealer is highly unlikely to admit to this.

Hopefully long to wait now though………

[Sniffer]

Yes, it sounds very much like an issue specific to the Clubsport.

I ordered a standard GTI 265 only in March and it's due to arrive at the dealership within the next few days. It's already arrived at the UK port. 

[Jwebb02]

After a little back and forth with the lease company we’ve finally got a build week. Unfortunately it’s not until November! Seems absolutely crazy to me with the delays on this build considering it was ordered in November 2025

[valentino]

I wanted a standard Gti 265 near the end of Feb this year. March 4th was collecting it. cant be bothered with all this pre ordering, just get one from whats already available. on the road in a few days, job sorted

[SRGTD]

I wanted a standard Gti 265 near the end of Feb this year. March 4th was collecting it. cant be bothered with all this pre ordering, just get one from whats already available. on the road in a few days, job sorted

I know it wouldn’t suit everyone but there’s a lot to be said for building cars with a standardised equipment package for each trim level, leaving just the paint colour for the customer to choose. The downside is that customers couldn’t pick and choose specific options, but such a system must remove potential complexities from the supply chain and vehicle build process, and reduce lead times.

Easier to find a Golf GTi in a specific colour from stock than a wait months for a car to be built to a customer’s specific spec requirements.

[candywhite12]

I wanted a standard Gti 265 near the end of Feb this year. March 4th was collecting it. cant be bothered with all this pre ordering, just get one from whats already available. on the road in a few days, job sorted

I know it wouldn’t suit everyone but there’s a lot to be said for building cars with a standardised equipment package for each trim level, leaving just the paint colour for the customer to choose. The downside is that customers couldn’t pick and choose specific options, but such a system must remove potential complexities from the supply chain and vehicle build process, and reduce lead times.

Easier to find a Golf GTi in a specific colour from stock than a wait months for a car to be built to a customer’s specific spec requirements.

personally i wouldn't want to be spending all that money without having absolute freedom in choosing options.  It's one of the things that i despise about car manufacturers, forcing trim levels down our throats.  I get it that it might be a faster built process that way but for the money spent, customers should have the right to choose.  Think about it this way: get a car with pre-determined standardized settings with minimum fuss or wait a bit longer and get a car just the way you like it.  Just my 2 cents