Team-BHP - What happens after booking a car?

Booked a Skoda Octavia a couple of weeks ago and am now waiting for further news of my new purchase. Last time it felt this way was when we were expecting our first baby!
Was curious about how the system works:
1. The octavia is supposedly imported as a CKD unit. What exactly is a CKD unit? Do parts, sheet metal panels etc come from the parent company in containers and does our local factory puts it together?
2. What happens after the booking? The long wait period suggests that there is no ready stock in the manufacturers yard. They seem to be assembling in a continous process.
3. When does the actual allocation take place. Does it happen at the manufacturer's end or does it happen at the dealer level? In other words does the dealer have a quota and then allocates it in which ever order he pleases.

A clearer and holistic picture would be really welcome.
Regards.

Completely knocked down car is one which is imported in parts and not as one assembled unit. Such units are first sent to an assembly plant in the country where all these parts are assembled and one complete vehicle is made using the imported components.

It is the CBU (Completely Built Unit) import in which a completely manufactured vehicle is imported. For example high end luxury cars.

Booking doesn't means that your car is in assembly line manufacturing plant, it can be ready in company's yard. Booking simply indicates that your are in queue and company will send dealer quota vehicles to them and then the dealer will allocate you the car according to your booking number. It also takes some time to send vehicles from factories to dealers. One must have seen those big trucks carrying cars. For ex Maruti has its plant in Haryana and it will take some time in transporting cars from Haryana To say, Chennai.

Dear docsr, congrats for booking the new car, once the quota of the cars is allocated to the dealer, he gets to know the engine number and chassis number of the car. This is when the company bills the car to the dealer. The car is then transported and the details of the transport carrier are available with the dealer and he can check the current status of the big truck through the tracking system.

Someone, had mentioned to me that these days car companies have started asking dealers to provide them with the complete details of the person or the firm which has booked a particular car and allotment is done from the factory itself. The reason behind this step is to keep a check on the waiting queue at the dealers end.

I would suggest you to remain in touch with your dealer and ask for a firm date of delivery. This will help you get your car at the earliest. Best of luck.

My two cents, CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kits contains all parts in dismantled form (sheet metal panels, engine, transmission and cock pit etc). So the selling company will have to set up a facility to weld, paint and assemble the complete vehicle. There is another form of CKD operation - Semi Knocked Down (SKD). In SKD operation the bodies may come to the selling company as welded and painted form.

The decision to select the strategy is depends upon the duty/tax structure, logistics costs and capital investments etc.

Different companies follow different strategies to handle booking process. Some companies accepts booking against their inventories while others manufacture vehicles against booking. In your case, Skoda may be following the second route.