Deposits Required for Waiting List?

Alton Toyota (Dave Mungenast) in IL does not want a deposit. I've been on their list for a few months and they are expecting my car any day. It has arrived in port.

I was also on the list at another dealership for a few weeks, and they said they would not charge the deposit until they found me a car. I gave them my CC# and they never charged it. I ended up cancelling the order since the first dealership came through.

Andy

 

If there is not shortage of buyers and the deposit is refundable and I wonder why any dealer would bother collecting a deposit?

My dealer said they weren't asking for deposits since they knew they would have no problem selling the car if I didn't want it.

Andy

 

Well, it's one way to discourage people from getting on muliple dealers' waiting lists and totally skewing the picture as to the actual demand for the Prius, as well as a way of trying to "lock in" your loyalty to a particular dealer while encouraging your patience during the wait.

Joe

 

This is similar to what I did. I found the car I wanted at a nearby dealership using the online inventory search. I also saw that a dealership about 30 miles away had about six Prii on their lot. I went to the local dealer with my trade-in, which I had previously estimated a fair value for by using kbb.com.

My strategy was to show interest in the Prius I knew they had already, get them to assign a value to my trade-in (which I completely expected to be low to start with) and then get them to either give me a better value for my trade-in or discount MSRP on the Prius by bringing up the fact that the dealer 30 miles away had six Prii on their lot and that it was worth it to me to see what they would give me for my trade-in.

That's pretty much exactly how it worked. My trade-in was worth 3500 tops. They initially offered 2500. I told them I needed 4400. They came back with an offer of 3500. (They did the same research I did.) I told them about the dealership with six Prii, and that it was worth it to me to go there to see what they would give me for my trade-in. "Hold on, let me talk to the general manager..." They then gave me the price I had initially asked for. They wanted the sale and since I was a previous customer they knew my money was good. I got a deal worth about $900 off MSRP, at my local dealership, the same day I began looking, without actually having to travel to farther dealerships or call around.

Obviously, in this case there was no discussion of a deposit, because I just went to the dealer that already had the car I wanted.

If inventory is low or non-existent in your area, you might not be able to do this, but rather than take the dealer's word for it that "everyone pays a deposit" or "everyone pays MSRP" you should do a little research yourself to determine if there are any unsold Prii on local lots.

 

Depends on the dealer's policy. If that's important to the OP, I'd make sure that the dealer states in writing that it's refundable.

FWIW, I went and got my deposit check back from a dealer here in SJ a few days ago since Toyota of Sunnyvale got my Prius for me first. Both dealers stated their deposits were refundable.

Of course, after I told them to take me off the list and got my check back, it occurred to me that I should've offered my spot to someone [placed deposit in late November 05], possibly for some $. Oh well, too late. I wasn't thinking at the time...

 

When I started looking last December, I spoke with three different dealers in my area. They all wanted a $500 deposit (I think it's to discourage people from ordering cars willy-nilly). I put a deposit down at two of them and when my car came in, the other dealer cheerfully refunded my deposit (really!). He said, "It's not your fault and it's not our fault. We get what they [Toyota] send us!"