At the top of the car market, wanting a car and being able to buy one are different things. Long waiting lists have become a normal feature of the segment, and they are managed rather than merely tolerated.
Why supply is held below demand
A luxury manufacturer could usually build more cars than it sells. Choosing not to is a decision about what the brand is worth over decades rather than what revenue is available this year.
Scarcity supports used values, and strong used values support new prices, because a buyer weighing a purchase is partly weighing what it will be worth later.
Once production is set below demand, the queue forms automatically and becomes an asset in itself.
What a waiting list signals
A delivery date years away tells a prospective buyer that others have already made the same judgement. That is a form of reassurance no advertisement provides.
It also converts the car from something purchasable into something granted, which changes the relationship between customer and brand considerably.
For the owner, the wait itself becomes part of the story attached to the car, and stories are a substantial part of what the segment sells.
How allocation is actually decided
Places in a queue are rarely first come, first served. Manufacturers and dealers weigh existing ownership history, participation in brand events and whether a customer has bought less desirable models.
The most limited cars are frequently offered only to those with a record of buying and keeping previous ones, which is a direct attempt to reward loyalty over speculation.
This is why two buyers with identical funds can receive very different answers at the same dealership.
The problem of immediate resale
Where a car sells above list price on delivery, a buyer can take possession and resell at a profit, capturing value the manufacturer deliberately left on the table.
Manufacturers respond with contractual restrictions on early resale, rights of first refusal, and the informal but effective threat of exclusion from future allocations.
Enforcement is imperfect, and the practice remains a persistent irritation to brands whose scarcity strategy depends on cars reaching the customers they chose.
Where the strategy strains
A queue that grows too long invites customers to place deposits with more than one manufacturer, which distorts the demand signal the strategy relies on.
Very long waits also expose a buyer to the risk that tastes, regulations or personal circumstances change before the car arrives.
Balancing that is the actual skill involved. The queue has to be long enough to signal desirability and short enough that the person at the end of it still wants the car.