I rang my local Renault dealer today, Marshall Motor Group in Bletchley, to arrange a ZOE test drive as a demonstrator is due in there later this week.

To my surprise I learned that my order for the ZOE had progressed through the Renault system to the point where I had been allocated a chassis number – a major milestone as far as I am concerned. I drove down and picked up a copy of the order paperwork.

Some comments on it, from top to bottom:

• It starts with “The vehicle is expected to be delayed ie CPosAAD is > CDD” which is rather worrying.
• “Owning account no. 037000 MARSHA” presumably is a code for Marshalls.
• “Flag buy/lease” – it says Lease but this should be Buy, though I haven’t yet discussed finance details, etc.
• “Date de lancement” (launch date) – I don’t understand the significance of this.
• “Date d’affectation” (assignment date) – I guess this is when the order finally went onto the computer system.
• “The vehicle is in factory (not yet built) with flexibility (M+2)” – apparently M+2 indicates that most options can be changed, this will become restricted when it moves to M+1, at that point it may be possible to change the choice of wheels, for example, but not the bodywork colour.
• “Location UFLINS” – this presumably refers to the Flins factory.
• “Fcast AAD” / “Prom AAD” – don’t know.
• “Provisional Factory Exit Date 03/07/2013” – when it’s due to be completed, later than I had hoped.
• “CCat DDD 29/07/2013” – Dealer Delivery Date (?), much later than I had hoped.