This is my first posting on TMC. This is what I have experienced with the M3 ordering process.
First a short background. I placed a reservation of an M3 for my wife on mothers day, May 2017. Then hurricane Harvey hit Houston and my Lexus LS was flooded/totaled. We decided to buy her a Model S (I took her old car) and took delivery early October. This bumped me up on the wait-list for the M3.
We got the invite to configure on Feb 14th while vacationing in Asia. Decided to place the order from overseas on Feb 23rd and paid the deposit. Almost 6 weeks later, I was assigned a VIN on April 3rd. Talking to my Delivery Specialist (DS) a few days later, she said the car had already been made and moved to some town in Calif. where it was 'waiting for all documentations' to be completed. It so happens that Texas laws do not allow Tesla to sell any cars inside the state lines. So all financial transactions have to be completed before they ship the car.
I was calling my DS everyday to push the process along, or else nothing would get done. No sure what their workload is. So finally, on April 16th, they scheduled a delivery date of April 26th. So the wait continues............
PS. My config is Pearl white, long range, premium upgrade, E auto-pilot, Aero.