Just my .02 here, but the dealers know very little about when the cars will actually arrive. That said, if they know the car is in production they should be able to supply a VIN and give you a fairly accurate ETA.
I'd recommend looking into a "bridge loan" from your bank or credit union if the car does show up before 1 January. With any luck, your first payment would be due in January, by which point you could get into your other funds and end up at worst making only one payment on the loan.