I'm looking for experiences on how long it has taken for others to find the Z they want.

If I want to pick up an '07-350Z around 22-MAY, how soon should I start shopping? Its supposed to be a surprise gift, so the closer the better but I can't go beyond that date.

One scenario is that the car I want is at the dealer's when I first start looking. Another scenario would be that I have to order the car from production; will most dealers go thru this order process? At least this should guarantee that I "find" what I want.

A 3rd scenario would be to shop from dealer to dealer and have a dealer search for what I want. Can I count on a dealer doing a good search or do they have a motivation for locking in on cars slated for their dealership?

I really don't want to visit a dealership until I'm ready to buy.

 

It can take up to 3 months for an ordered car to arrive. They may be able to locate one already here or getting shipped over. That would reduce the time.

 

+1 check with local dealers to see what they have coming in or what they can resource for you.

 

I wanted a white 350Z. Took me about 4 months to find one. As soon as I found it, I bought it.

In May dealers will have the 2007 on the lot. If you have several model and color choices, it should be no problem finding one.

 

I'm still waiting on mine. I went in the first weekend of February and they found one sitting at the port in LA. They went through the process of bringing it in (which suprisingly only required the click of a button...) and they said it would be about 2 weeks, but could be the end of the month. I talked to them 2 weeks ago to see if there was anymore news and they said the car was in "staging" to be sent out, and should be here in the next few days from right now. So we'll see...

 

My car was ordered in January and delivered to the East coast dealer in April '06.

 

Just spoke with the dealership. They tell me that the car is now "in transit" from LA, so then it will probably be another week. From the way it sounded, when I was first in there looking for the car, it must've been over in Japan at the time, and just recently arrived on the boat over here. That would explain why it's taken so long from the time the dealership took ownership of the vehicle.

And also keep in mind that this car was supposedly finished with production. I can only imagine how long it would've been if I needed to special order this car...

So now the revised schedule:

ETA: ~1 week
Total time: ~4.5 weeks

 

That can take many different routes depending on what happens when/after you order it.

If it is a full custom order, i.e. the factory will build the car just for YOU, it will take approx. 90 days. Mine took exactly 93. The car was assembled 61 days after ordering and arrived at the dealer a month later.

If the dealer spots one somewhere in the country at another dealership, he can get it dispatched to him to be sold to you. Car will be available in 10 days or less.

If the dealer does not see a 100% match in any other dealer's inventory but a few days later, one pops up on the grid as being in the "build queue" at the factory but destined for a different dealer, your dealer can do an electronic inventory swap with them and in that case the car can arrive in as little as a month or so.

So it's all in your luck, really. Call me crazy, but I find a certain uniqueness in a car built only because I walked into a dealership one day and ordered it. 99% of people would consider that silly.