What makes it "worth it" to factory order?

[AnthonyRI]

A simple poll about your decisions to order a new vehicle or not! For this purpose, lets assume that everything is apples to apples.
You'd already be in the market for a new truck, and what you were looking for is reasonably easy to find at a dealer that is reasonably smooth to work with, etc.
What would make you

QUESTION #1 - How much savings do you need to see to delay instant gratification of buying instock, versus placing an order?

QUESTION #2 - What do you think a reasonably amount of time is to expect your factory order, to achieve the savings in question #1?

QUESTION #3 - What other hurdles have their been for you in your decision to do a special order in the past?

Looking forward to all of your feedback! If we could - lets try to keep this away from "I'm not ordering because I'm waiting for XX to get released" lol we all understand THAT part of it, lets just assume in this case what you wanted was both available instock near you AND available to order, etc.

 

[Shots]

Having placed custom orders and bought off the lot before, this is a pretty straight forward using your questions.
Typically, I'd only bother with ordering to get specific options or a combination of options that aren't available on the lot. In your question, the theoretical truck is available on the lot, so I don't really see any reason to bother with an order. Truck A and truck B are identical, and I can have one of them today? Let's take the one I can get today, unless there's an incentive to wait.

You mention a savings by placing an order in lieu of buying off the lot, which would be an incentive to order. With all else being equal, I'd deal with the delay of ordering for a few hundred bucks. To be fair, I typically buy new trucks while my current one is still in good condition. If the old one needs replaced or is on it's last leg, then that's a different story. Then I'd buy off the lot. But if I'm buying just because I want something different, then any savings would be worth the wait.

As for how long to wait is worth the savings? The last truck I ordered took 6 months from start to finish (which I'm told was longer than normal), but I've also had them come in 3-4 months. To save a few hundred dollars, while I'm driving a perfectly good truck that I still like, I'd say 3-6 months is acceptable.

 

[techman]

#1 None. The price is the price you negotiate regardless of how the truck gets to you. Take the emotion out of it.
#2 If I have to wait to get ALL the options I want so be it. No compromises.
#3 Rebates, incentives, 0%. Take advantage even if it means delaying gratification.