An order is placed at a dealer, routed to corporate, assigned a production slot / week and the info is bounced back to the dealer (NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD). Instead of actual production dates, BMW revolves around production weeks, weeks 1 - 52 of a given year, 52 in a year. If a dealer has an allocation, meaning they were already set to receive a vehicle already assigned to a particular production slot / week AND there is still enough time for the order to be modified, such that the order is not definite (i.e.: the dealer simply knows they will receive a 7 Series assigned to production week 26 in the year 2012, which is the last week of June, 2012), THEN when taking your order, the dealer need not first reach out to corporate before telling you their soonest available production slot for the order would be the last week of June, 2012; as if they knew they would be selling a vehicle and reserved a spot in line for their customer even before one transpired. So, production slots / weeks have NOTHING to do with model years! In the United States, model years are mere gimmick, having no regulation. Manufactures can brand models they sell in 2012 as 2014 model year vehicles for all they care; it's all about marketing and getting a leg up on the competition; how far they can push the envelope of reality. However, Germany is more true in that vehicles are advertised for sale based on their ACTUAL month and year - sometimes season and year - of FINAL production, not their model year, therefore the actual month and year of final production ends up being close to the vehicle's production slot / week, but the former is the start of production for the vehicle and the latter, the model year, is the end of production. Otherwise, there is NO question that when there is a new model debut, you're almost certain to see same delivered and hit German roads before US roads; I'm pretty sure that's even the case with the X5 and Z4, which are built in the US.