Got lucky with a Dealer Allocation

Amaris said:

I got lucky with a dealer allocation on the exact model I wanted and color (not interior tho but I can deal with that). My worry is that they had just got their incoming list and told me they would be receiving their shipment on THANKSGIVING but they don’t have the VIN for the vehicle yet. Is that possible?

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Yes, from my experience VIN numbers are provided to the dealers a few weeks before the delivery. In your case I think they should give you the VIN by end of this month.

M J said:

Yes, from my experience VIN numbers are provided to the dealers a few weeks before the delivery. In your case I think they should give you the VIN by end of this month.

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Okay. I was a little nervous. Are their delivery dates normally on time? So I was given the date of thanksgiving but he said it could be a little before is that normal?

Amaris said:

Okay. I was a little nervous. Are their delivery dates normally on time? So I was given the date of thanksgiving but he said it could be a little before is that normal?

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The delivery date is just a guess based on average transit times. It does not factor holidays or sundays into the estimate, so you can expect the shipment to arrive sometime around the estimated date, weather permitting.

Our first go at getting a Carnival had delivery times that got extended by over a month (through port of Philly). We had the VIN and could see from the dealer it was at the port but it just sat there. Given all the shipping / port delays, it could be an "on or around" timeframe but I would anticipate delays. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Amaris said:

I got lucky with a dealer allocation on the exact model I wanted and color (not interior tho but I can deal with that). My worry is that they had just got their incoming list and told me they would be receiving their shipment on THANKSGIVING but they don’t have the VIN for the vehicle yet. Is that possible?

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The previous comments indicate a lack of understanding of how the auto industry works. Which is ok.

No vin = your carnival hasn't been built yet

Your van can be pushed back, the original build I secured for a family member was on October 30th and was pushed back to November 19th then December 2 and finally December 23rd. After it got pushed back twice I went looking elsewhere.

I never pay a dime over msrp so my search was a lot tougher and I was looking for an sx prestige.

We're all here to share and to learn from one another so thanks for the info! Were you able to get your SX-P for under MSRP? Those reports are far and few between.

Phantasm22 said:

We're all here to share and to learn from one another so thanks for the info! Were you able to get your SX-P for under MSRP? Those reports are far and few between.

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I only started shopping mid August as my family members lease on their sienna was up end of September and pretty much everything was above msrp aside from a few dealers who had no stock.

At this point almost everything on lot is over msrp, I would recommend using kia locator, cars.com, autotrader, cargurus, etc etc

You can call dealers and see if they have any coming in.

It's possible q1 of this year you could get these under msrp but I would wager those are rare deals.

At this current point an at msrp is considered a steal as the majority of dealers have 5k markup, the range is anywhere from 3k above msrp to 10k above msrp.... seen some at 15k above msrp but they tend to drop the price rather quickly.

I actually got lucky in a customer backing out, the original unit I secured had a delivery date of November 22nd, my sales guy was able to hook it up first week of october.

Amaris said:

I got lucky with a dealer allocation on the exact model I wanted and color (not interior tho but I can deal with that). My worry is that they had just got their incoming list and told me they would be receiving their shipment on THANKSGIVING but they don’t have the VIN for the vehicle yet. Is that possible?

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Best of luck with that, I live in Virginia and ordered my Carnival SXP with the exact color and interior color i wanted back on 9/01/2021. Got a call on 11/16/2021 from my dealer (so 2 1/2 months after deposit and ordering) saying that my order had just gotten manually allocated, the first step to them getting the order on the books to actually be built. So i dont know how long from now it will be ready but it took 2 1/2 months to get an allocation so that it will actually be made to the specs i want. So we'll see how long it takes, hoping before christmas but not holding my breath honestly!