There are no Monday cars
"Of course, the famous Monday car doesn't really exist," was how a BMW plant information document began in 1981. The three-page press release explained that BMW had left nothing to chance and had set up a pilot plant, a kind of Mini car factory, to ensure particularly perfect preparations for series production.
Around two years before the start of series production, the employees of the pilot plant worked on the new car and built the first prototypes. This meant that later series production problems could be identified at an early stage. One year later, and still one year before the actual start of series production, another four work preparation cars were built. This made it possible to identify around half of all production problems that would otherwise have had to be dealt with later on the production line. New production processes were also developed and tested as part of pilot production.
Whether this meticulousness could really prevent a faulty vehicle, i.e. a Monday car, from going on sale is of course another story ...
