Every Tesla owner will tell you that the most painful part of the purchase process is waiting for delivery.

For people more used to going to a dealer’s lot and picking out a car, it may seem crazy that Tesla buyers are willing to wait anywhere from 6 to 26 weeks to be able to buy an expensive electric car. While the Tesla factory is presently making 2,000 model S and X cars every week, roughly double of what Tesla achieved in 2015, every Tesla buyer has to wait in the production queue for their car. There are no cars on Tesla lots for you to choose from; everyone has to wait for their new Tesla.

Said another way, despite doing no advertising whatsoever and doubling production capacity each year, Tesla sells every car it can make with no discounts and still maintains a nearly 2 month backlog of orders.

Here’s how my delivery evolved. Because of a pending business trip, I had ordered by car in early April and hoped for delivery in May. My actual timeline was:

• 2016-04-01: Order entered and deposit paid
• 2016-04-04: Order modified from S70D to S90D
• 2016-04-08: Order committed to production queue and VIN number assigned
• 2016-05-24: Production start
• 2016-05-30: Production complete
• 2016-05-31: Car in transit
• 2016-06-07: Car arrived in Dedham
• 2016-06-09: Final payment made
• 2016-06-11: Car delivered and accepted

In summary, my car took 72 days from order confirmed to delivery, or roughly 10 weeks. Once I had a VIN committed, Tesla had given me an estimated delivery date of late May-early June. On production start, that changed to June-early July, but I think Tesla was simply being conservative about how long it would take to batch up my car with others going to the East Coast and actually transport it (it can take 3 weeks, depending on rail and truck schedules).

The mean time between order confirmation and delivery during April through June was only 45 days, so clearly my 72 day production time was a bit of an outlier. I attribute that to the fact that I had bought during a model design change. I originally was scheduled to get a model S version 1, and what I actually received was a version 2. Clearly the production line must have had some slowdowns to accommodate the production changes.

The best thing about the ordering process is that Tesla assigns you your own Web page for your car and updates that regularly. To smooth the delivery process, you upload all your documentation to that page for the delivery specialists to work with, and they in turn provide you with instruction manuals, videos, and updates on the delivery process. While it was a very long 10 week process, I felt like Tesla kept me informed and made the process as painless and efficient as possible. I used that information to have substantive conversations with the delivery specialists along the way, and when delivery day rolled around, I felt like I was ready. For an expensive car ordered over the Internet, it’s probably the most relaxing experience I can imagine.

The bottom line: Just like Heinz Ketchup, ordering a Tesla requires patience, but it’s worth the wait.