It was the worst of times, it was the best of times

From the moment we saw the LRX concept we decided that, provided we could afford it, this was the car for us. We waited with baited breath as report after report was published during the testing programme. Watched in awe as the pictures were published of the undisguised prototypes. With each passing month, our anticipation grew until finally launch weekend arrived. We went straight to the local dealers to book a test drive in their manual Evoque. At last the day arrived, we drove straight back to our house to make sure that it would fit on the drive and allow us to get out! With this test passed it was onto the actual drive, what a dream, all concerns with regard to the manual 'box instantly evaporated in the first few changes. So back to the dealership and several iterations later we had our first order... delivery estimated as 1st April (the irony!).
Obviously in the weeks/months following this order changed; pure to dynamic; white to red to white again, finally we had the final order. The dealership, after some prompting, suggested that we would be getting some "good news" in January, then nothing. January came and went, February arrived but still no word. We called into the dealership on a couple of occasions, but our salesperson was unavailable, his colleagues promised they would get him to call us, no call was forthcoming.
Finally on the 25th March I managed to catch him in and requested an update. Off he went to get the printed list of orders, he then showed me a list of orders that Land Rover had given them for April/May and assured me that our order would be built and delivered in May. Only a month late I thought, not too bad all things considered. "We have a sales meeting on Monday, the orders will be loaded onto the system on Tuesday/Wednesday, we will contact you Thursday/Friday" he said. Friday, Saturday and Sunday all came and went, but, of course, no contact from them was forthcoming. So, patience finally at an end, I emailed them to be told that our order was to be built on July 13th!!! (A Friday at that :shock.
Words can't express my reaction to that news, there certainly isn't a single expletive in the English language that I missed as I read the email. Despite his assurances that private orders would be prioritised over business orders this obviously wasn't the case. After not too much consideration we decided that this just wasn't good enough and requested that they cancel the order. Almost four years of waiting (from the concept), and our dream car was swiftly becoming a nightmare.
What to do next, "Is the Evoque worth it?" we asked, "is it still our dream car?", the answer to both these was an emphatic yes. So onto Land Rovers website and pretend I live all over the North of England to obtain a list of email addresses. Summarise the sorry story of how our local dealership had under performed and see what happens.
What happened was two things; strangely, several dealers never even bothered replying. I realise that the Evoque is currently selling itself but I hadn't expected that level of apathy. In the end it didn't matter because a Yorkshire dealership came to our rescue. Their staff are well aware of our local dealership because three of them used to work there. They were unsurprised by our story and bent over backwards to help us and we are just awaiting the DVLA to return the paperwork from the cherished transfer and we will, at last, be Evoque owners.

Thank you Rocar Moores Land Rover.

You made it - and the end result is you will get to drive a very together vehicle, it will make you smile just seeing it on the drive.

A sadly familiar story but congrats on your new car!

Sorry to hear such a torrid story, but the best of it is you'll have your Evoque and the dealer that earned it gets the business.

Far too many LR dealers have a similar attitude and I always vote with my feet. Hence why two dealers missed out on my business

Thanks for the support, it is much appreciated. I think that we were a little naive with our first order, especially with the way orders are allocated. If only I had found this forum beforehand, I would certainly have done things very differently.

Here is what we are waiting for...
   

I don't think you were naive. You just trusted your sales man and they followed the unacceptable, albeit classic, trend of misleading customers to maximize orders, in the hope that the fact they will have waited some time anyway will mean they'll just wait longer anyway.

Glad you bucked the trend.

Good luck and hope the new car arrives sooner and the car will definately exceed your expectations.

Can't believe it, what a weekend; as you can see from the change in signature we collected her on Saturday afternoon. Only driven her for one and half days but WOW! More details when I have a bit more time, mundane work related things keep getting in the way

Enjoy! and Pics when you can!