There is a type of order that is 'beyond' dealer allocations. The CA that sold us our BTO 35d in Aug. says that they have been out of allocations for 35d for quite a while but they could still order a 35d using this 'other type of order'.* Sorry I can't remember the exact name he used. This sounds like what your CA is using. FWIW the US is split into sales regions. My CA says has consistently told me that dealers stick within their region when trading allocations. I've never asked whether this is a BMW NA requirement or just custom. But he says this produces availability anomalies for specific models in various parts of the US. For example, he says dealers in Central Texas sell a lot of X5s but almost no Tourings (station wagons). While dealers in the NE sell far more Tourings and far fewer X5s.

The story about the factory running one type of engine at a time is simply BS. The factory takes pride in being able to build any of their products (X5, X5M, X535d, X6 and X6M) in any order on the same assembly line. However (this is pure speculation) there MAY be a temporary shortage of 35d engines coming in from Europe due to the quick ramp up in demand for the X5 35d.

Funf Dreisig

*yes I know dealers can trade allocations but dealers become reluctant to trade allocations on a "hot" product that they can probably sell themselves.