ryanc44

I've been working with some dealerships via e-mail trying finalize a price and determine who I am going to do my business with. Anyway, during the course of an e-mail conversation, I was told this by one dealer:

..."A lot of dealers take your deposit and tell you what you want to hear and will deliver you the car if they happen to get it and cannot sell it to someone else for more money than they
told you. In fact, there is an official term in the car business for this. It's called "taking them off the market"...

They go on to say that when I put a deposit down and I'm told an in-bound date for the car, I should get that in writing. I think this dealership was questioning another dealership's 10-week "worst-case-scenario" wait quote for my configuration of car. To be honest with you guys, it never even crossed my mind about getting even a rough delivery date in writing, but now I wonder? Has anyone experienced constant delays of their promised delivery date? Curious...

Regards,
Ryan C.

shaf

When you put a deposit down, you usually get a VIN as soon as the car has shipped. If you get a VIN, I doubt that they could get away with selling it to someone else.

Lung Fu Mo Shi

I agree with shaf. When I put a deposit on my car, I got a little sheet that had all my information, dealer's, etc. and the vehicle confirmed VIN. The delivery date was estimated, but not guaranteed (for obvious reasons) but within 1-2weeks of the initial estimate is reasonable.

But, I would recommend you put a deposit on a SPECIFIC car and get the VIN. If you don't get a VIN they probably don't have it on order yet.

Now in contrast, certain colors/combos are more popular and are "backordered" and have no VIN available. At that point, you just have to trust the dealer to get it for you.

KC 2004 TSX

You pose a very interesting topic... Some dealers do this type of selling. They can and do get away with it. These guys are both accurate in there advise. Being a former dealer I can confirm that I had my competition do this on a few occasions.

A dealer gets a VIN for a vehicle as soon as it is built. The KC,MO market gets a TSX 45 days after that. I'm sure So Cal is sooner. If they are giving you anything less than 30 days the dealer should be able to produce the VIN.

fuque

Oh My God!!! An honest car salesman!!!

That's one of the signs of the apocalypse!!!!

But seriously, this guy's telling you the absolute truth. Once a dealership has your deposit, he knows you won't be shopping anywhere else. So when "your" car comes in, he'll have no qualms about selling it to an "up" - he'll just tell you that your car has been delayed, or that it fell off the truck when they were unloading it and was declared a total loss, or some other bullshit story.

If you must "order" a car, definitely get the VIN and other info in writing to prevent this sort of game playing. However, I strongly urge you not to place an "order," but instead just tell all the dealers in your area what you want and ask them to call you when they get one that meets your requirements. Chances are they will suddenly "find" one for you - perhaps even one that was ordered for someone else!

ryanc44

From what I gathered from this dealer is that the $500 deposit was only to "guarantee" me first dibs on the next MSM/Auto/No Nav TSX that hit their lot. He told me that the next one that they had coming in would arrive at his dealership early Jan (basically 10 weeks.) He went on to say he could do a dealer trade if he had some inventory and another dealer had the car I wanted and would be willing to trade, blah, blah, blah- but Jan would be a worst case scenario of when the car would definitely arrive. So assuming he's being honest with this Jan drop date, when would he potentially have a VIN for this car?

I'm also wondering, since it sounds like if you actually "order" a specific car it takes about two months to get it, should I question as to why this car isn't being ordered if I'm willing to put down a deposit?

Anyway, I'm going to call this dealership this weekend and try to determine if this guy is on the level. If there are any specific questions I should ask to put him on the hot seat please let me know...

ClutchPerformer

Ask him if they're trying to allocate (order) the car for you, or just waiting for a dealer trade (luck). If it's an order, ask him what the build date is/will be, and bully him for the VIN number (mention it every time you talk to him). Once you get the VIN, that specific car is yours. I got my VIN about a month before delivery (around the build date).