[evanevery]

I have an inside contact at BMWNA. (She originally helped me walk my custom M4 order backwards from Garching/Munich -> BMWNA -> Dealership in 2015). She also stepped up when my sales advisor was clueless as to why we could not get ZMQ added to my i7 M70 order (and when we might be able to do so). She actually hand built (reconstructed) the allocation over the phone with me. She even pro-actively contacted me last week to let me know my car was on the boat and which one! She is like GOLD.

I'm not going to throw her into the whirlwind here, but BMW has "VIP Ordering Specialists". No one seems to know that these folks exist. Not the dealers and not the genius line. Out of curiosity, I asked her if she works primarily with customers or sales advisors and she says she works directly with both. I don't want to expose her contact info (for obvious reasons) but its pretty simple to locate the group. I originally found her (2015) via a couple of friends I have at the PDC.

BTW - BMW online garage is still showing my car "at the port" this morning (although it departed on the 15th). I decided to call the Genius line to see if they are just looking at the same info (and give the same status). They told me my car was "on the way to the dealership". (So much for that). I told them that wasn't possible, and after a little pushback, he was able to confirm it WAS on the boat and which one. So the Genius line DOES have access to better info than the Online Garage but you might have to push a little harder to get accurate details. The "online" status of my car (BMW Garage) has been wrong now for 5 days...

FYI: I think the thing that qualifies you as a "VIP" is merely that you can locate these folks. (Hint: Its really not that hard...)