I would argue that VW doesn't go far enough in terms of that.... I used to be a Mini Cooper driver -- when customers order their car, they were given a build number. From there, customers can register online and see the status of their car -- whether it's being scheduled to be produced, are in production, production complete and waiting transport, waiting at the docks to be put on a boat, in transit to destination port, arrived at port, in transit to distribution / inspection / testing center and finally at the dealer. It makes it a much more customer-friendly experience.
On the contrary, my ordering experience with VW/Audi is less satisfactory.... You kind of have to rely on the word of the dealer that your car is properly ordered (or even on the date they said the order was placed). I cannot access the status of the car myself -- I have to constantly pestering my dealer to get a minor status update. I understand that it's a dealer-centric and somewhat more personal approach to selling cars, but it's a hassle and annoying for newer generation of tech- and internet-savvy buyers like myself.
There is a conflict of interest with VW's way as well. The dealer have incentive to sell the cars they have on the lot (or which ever cars they can trade for). So they can lie and scam their customers with false promises during the order, and then just delay, delay, delay -- which gives the dealer a chance to convince the customer to settle for a car on the lot. I've had this happen to me once -- the dealer made the order, and promised, promised, promised the order was made correctly. Then there's one delay after another. Finally when the car came, the car had options that I didn't want (and supposedly didn't order).
Now, if BMW/Mini can do it with high rate of success with their "open" ordering system. Why couldn't VW do the same?