[HouseStark]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

As a dealer, I'm going to try and explain to you why we require a deposit. Some dealers don't, we do. Here's why.

When someone wants to submit a sold order, they are taking an allocation that I would otherwise use to order a stock unit. The reason I take a deposit is because most of the time, folks are ordering because they want something out of norm. Something that might not be desirable to the masses. That's usually why they can't find what they want anywhere.

Now, this is not necessarily the case right now as inventory is at an all time low and everyone is struggling to find inventory that would normally be easily available.

A deposit helps the dealer if they are stuck with a car that isn't desirable and hard to sell. As a buyer, anyone that is serious about buying the car should have no problem putting a deposit down as it goes toward the purchase price of the car. If I had someone complain or balk at putting a deposit down, well that's a huge red flag to me that they probably aren't that serious about buying the car and I will part ways with them with no hard feelings.

The only way I will order a vehicle without a deposit is if it's something that I would normally order for stock.

There are circumstances where I would refund a deposit. Such as a life event that would prevent them from completing the purchase. A death in the family or the loss of a job for example. Or if the vehicle came in damaged or if it was mis-built or mis-ordered. Something like that, I would refund the deposit.

Otherwise, once the order hits 3000 status, the deposit is non-refundable.

Not all dealers are the same but just because a dealer requires a deposit, it doesn't mean that it's just "dealer BS".

I've never put a deposit down and I've ordered twice in the past 3 years. The logic that 500 dollars proves someone's serious is ridiculous. You'd rather lose out on selling two 42k cars over a 500 dollar deposit on each?