What is a "FIF Locked" date and can I make it happen faster?

I'm just back from putting deposit down for my dealer's first allocation. His system did not populate with all the production data he expected. It shows a "FIF Locked" date of 4/1/16. He thought it was the last date to change anything. I told him I didn't want to change anything and to see if we could confirm/lock things NOW and speed things up. He did not know the answer to this.

Anyone know?

Feels like I'm middle of the pack in terms of "first allocations." I'm hoping for late May / early June delivery-- but who knows?

Given that your lock date is April 1, but production does not begin until late April, I doubt you would accomplish anything by locking earlier. Moreover, it sounds like you are in the second group/batch of first allocation orders. If so, your car will not be produced until all the first batch/group cars are produced. Lastly, the production date of your car within the second group/batch will likely be according to exterior color -- in other words, I suspect that Acura will produce all second group/batch blue cars together.

Late May/early June sounds a bit early for a second group/batch car. I suspect that first group/batch cars will be delivered in approximately June, Second batch in approximately July, etc.

Thanks for bursting my bubble with your logic! My only hope is that the $6K premium for Blue puts me (along with Red) at the front of my batch. I'll be out of town for a month starting early July. I assume I will get the call to pick up the car as I am boarding my flight. Damn it.

On the FIF thing, I guess the issue is: at what point is "order in line" established. If by allocation then I agree it doesn't matter. If by "order accepted" (post Lock), then an "early Lock" could (in theory but perhaps not in practice) accelerate things a bit.

My original expectation was August, so at some level (due to prior ignorance) I am still ahead.

Praying for late June / Early July. If anyone concludes that this is impossible, please keep that info to yourself.

Edit: Thinking through the queuing theory of all of this, it seems like the only *real* batching that matters is the production rule of "make X Blue cars, then make Y White cars." Even within the first batch, the "same color for a while, then switch" rule could make order #1 get produced as the 50th car (or whatever). So, unless we know the order of color production within batches, we don't really know if being in Batch 1 or Batch 2 matters, right? If they make the Blue ones first (a solid, wise plan), I could be at the front of Batch 2....

I thought the production starts in April, why are you expecting for July delivery? Just curious

I think Superfluous makes a fair point that there likely were enough allocations/orders accepted prior to today in the "First Batch" to soak up production through May, implying an order today will be built in ~June and delivered ~July. First deliveries will happen in early May I assume.

Serial production should be define as mass production. Assuming April 25 is the start of the mass production, in about a week, the first allocation should be able to be deliver to the dealer.

chrisn said:

I think Superfluous makes a fair point that there likely were enough allocations/orders accepted prior to today in the "First Batch" to soak up production through May, implying an order today will be built in ~June and delivered ~July. First deliveries will happen in early May I assume.

Click to expand...

At 8 cars per day, four days per week -- the low end of projected maximum capacity -- Acura could produce 32 cars per week. However, that assumes that Acura hits the ground running at near capacity. I suspect Acura will not be producing 32 cars per week right out of the gate. 5 cars per day, or 20 cars per week, might be a more reasonable estimate in the beginning (this is, of course, a complete guess).

There are 250 certified NSX dealers. At 20 cars per week, Acura would produce all first allocation cars in 12.5 weeks. That would take Acura into mid-July (assuming a late April commencement of production). On the other hand, if Acura achieved the lower limit of projected capacity -- 32 cars per week -- right from the beginning, and there were no delays or hold-ups (e.g., supply issues), all first allocation cars would be produced by late June.

I hadn't heard that color impacts schedule

My dealer said the car they were given the ok to order would be the 160th

i woul think that your car is in the same group given the ok, your production number would be in the American range

Superfluous, where did you hear that 250 dealers opted in for the NSX program? Nice trivia info and higher than I would have guessed.

stevenlucksek said:

Serial production should be define as mass production. Assuming April 25 is the start of the mass production, in about a week, the first allocation should be able to be deliver to the dealer.

Click to expand...

Steven, one week of start-up production would be 20 - 32 cars
With 250 dealers, as superfluous mentions, how would one week's production supply one car to 250 dealers?
It would take 8-10 weeks for the each dealer to get one made and finally shipped.
Or do you mean after one week, 20-32 cars would be on their way to dealers?

Bricks and Bio said:

I hadn't heard that color impacts schedule.

Click to expand...

I am told that, in general, car manufacturers produce cars in batches according to color. I suspect that producing cars in color batches is more efficient in the painting stage.

Bricks and Bio said:

My dealer said the car they were given the ok to order would be the 160th

Click to expand...

That is interesting. I didn't know that Acura had already begun accepting orders this far into the first car allocations. I though 160 would be in the third group -- perhaps 160 squeezed into the second group.

Bricks and Bio said:

Superfluous, where did you hear that 250 dealers opted in for the NSX program? Nice trivia info and higher than I would have guessed.

Click to expand...

I too would have guessed that a much smaller number of dealers would spend the money necessary to become a certified NSX dealer. That said, the number comes from a reliable source.

JD Cross said:

Steven, one week of start-up production would be 20 - 32 cars
With 250 dealers, as superfluous mentions, how would one week's production supply one car to 250 dealers?
It would take 8-10 weeks for the each dealer to get one made and finally shipped.
Or do you mean after one week, 20-32 cars would be on their way to dealers?

Click to expand...

yes what I mean is that assuming for people who order led early will get their NSX probably at the end of the month(April)

Superfluous, you seem to be plugged into the factory situation.
Could we have something like the following unfold?

The factory has been building NSXs for some time now, over 120 prototypes that we know of.
Let's assume they'll be up to pro-forma in May making 128 cars plus some from April.
Lets say 130 by end of May.
Let's also assume they'll be heading to the sunbelt states so we'll have 130 cars arriving May/early June from FL to CA.
Then let's assume June production is 128 cars and heads to the mid-states in June/early July.
That would leave the July production of 128 cars hitting the Northern States/Canada July/early Aug.
So that would put approx 386 cars in dealerships and on the road before the end of summer, say about half the expected production.

Then perhaps a RHD run for August and put 128 cars into the UK/Japan/HK.
The August cars cars could go to the Europe/Northern States/Canada for Aug/early Sept.
Then back to the mid-States for Sept production and sunbelt again for Oct production.
Nov/Dec production could hit the Southern hemisphere and the US sunbelt to fill out the years' production.

Jim, you need to add one month just to add the 8 to your VIN. They all have DRLs so that shouldn't delay it.

JD Cross said:

Superfluous, you seem to be plugged into the factory situation.
Could we have something like the following unfold?

The factory has been building NSXs for some time now, over 120 prototypes that we know of.
Let's assume they'll be up to pro-forma in May making 128 cars plus some from April.
Lets say 130 by end of May.
Let's also assume they'll be heading to the sunbelt states so we'll have 130 cars arriving May/early June from FL to CA.
Then let's assume June production is 128 cars and heads to the mid-states in June/early July.
That would leave the July production of 128 cars hitting the Northern States/Canada July/early Aug.
So that would put approx 386 cars in dealerships and on the road before the end of summer, say about half the expected production.

Then perhaps a RHD run for August and put 128 cars into the UK/Japan/HK.
The August cars cars could go to the Europe/Northern States/Canada for Aug/early Sept.
Then back to the mid-States for Sept production and sunbelt again for Oct production.
Nov/Dec production could hit the Southern hemisphere and the US sunbelt to fill out the years' production.

Click to expand...

They have already made a number of RHD cars already, perhaps they're building it in a sales percentage.
So that the slots are equally divided percentage wise (destination)

I do not think moving the FIF date is something a dealer can do.

My HondaWeb generated sheet lists April 1 for the FIF date.

My dealer had mentioned this will be the 160th car.

It would appear that Acura assigns a build slot for each allocated car.

I sent my signed contract and 10% deposit in the mail yesterday.

Once they push the send button for placing the order (expect Tuesday), maybe more info will become available.

Bricks and Bio said:

My HondaWeb generated sheet lists April 1 for the FIF date.

Click to expand...

All of my FIF lock dates are also 4/1/2016. I was in the dealer's office when AFAIK, he pushed all buttons to submit my order in the firmest possible way. I think he expected the system to populate more details, but it did not. He said the FIF dates were the window to make changes. I said "I won't make any changes, can we lock it now?" He made a call and could only tell me "We hope to get more information soon."

My guess is that the order system for NSX had been put into "manual over-ride" kind of mode and that actual humans will be working out the production schedule in batches and not in continuous, automated and sequential manner. Otherwise, why would our lock dates be the same (curiously "round" number of April 1) when my dealer submitted my oder a week ago?