Fall Delivery: An Educated Guess

There has been a lot of information exchanged online about the question as to when people will be getting their Spyders.  There has also been some speculation as to whether or not dealers, knowing, or not, may have had their assumed initial orders allocated to other dealerships.  There is also some concern as to any relationship between when a deposit was forwarded from the dealer to BRP, and that timing directly effecting delivery.

The situation is exacerbated by at least two factors.  The first is that BRP in notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to giving out information, even to its own dealers.  The second issue is that it appears, again, in the absence of word from BRP, that at least one individual at the Spyder Hotline is asking questions of, and making statements to, prospective Spyder consumers that may be misleading and downright untrue (more on this to follow).

Because of this, a theory has developed among the online community that perhaps as more proactive dealers oversold their initial allotments, they were rewarded with additional units culled from the dealers that had not yet claimed them trough deposit receipt.  This would not mean that the dealer had not received deposits, but that they may have failed to record the deposits a timely manner.  This would lead to consumers placing a deposit on a Spyder, only to have another consumer at another dealership place a later deposit but receive their Spyder earlier if their dealer acting faster.

This theory was further bolstered by the fact that people were receiving confirmation numbers from BRP with numbers higher than the total initial offering, leading many to believe that their confirmation number indicated their place in line for a Spyder, and that therefore they would not receive their Spyder in the Fall as promised/ presumed.

After speaking with other individuals at the Spyder Hotline, discussing it with my local, and trusted, dealer, and observing the forum discussion on the matter, I would like to make the following “educated guess” as to what the situation really is.

Dealers have been allocated an initial Fall allotment of varying number of units based on statistical information I wouldn’t even guess at.  Those will be delivered, barring production complications, early in October.  If you made a deposit on one of those initial allotments, and your dealer dealt honestly with you, you will receive you Spyder at that time.  For all orders exceeding the initial allotment, the only “guarantee” is that orders placed before July should be in by March 2008, and orders before September in by May 2008.

I place the caveat of dealer honesty because there is reason to believe that some dealers have “overstated” their initial allotment and took deposits in bad faith.

The “confirmation” number is automatically generated as BRP receives and processes deposits and is unrelated to the serial number or the delivery order of the initial allotment.  For those not receiving in the initial allotment, it remains to be seen if and how the order in which BRP received deposits will reflect on delivery.

Again, this is my best guess.  It would be nice for BRP to respond to the growing concern over this subject directly, but don’t anybody hold their breathe.

If you have information relating to the above, please, leave a comment or email me.