Question for the brain-trust...

I am considering putting down a deposit on an Arctic Blue/Ebony arriving at a local dealership in the next two weeks (that's a tough color to come by in my area). Does Acura have any official policy regarding the terms of deposits or is it dealer-by-dealer? T

he dealer asked for a $1,000 non-refundable deposit, which seems a little harsh to me.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Sound like bullshit to me. I know my Acura dealer will refund the deposit no questions asked. I guess some are different but if you do NOT sign anything i do not think you are obligated. I don;t think they actually cash the checks, again they would have to provide you some form of value if they did.

Bottom line it sounds like your salesperson is a dick I'd go elsewhere or go to the manager and ask for a different salesperson.

 

I agree with Packrat.

I think my deposit was $200, and it was refundable -- but that was before the car was available even for test-drives. If I had been able to test-drive it first, I wouldn't have minded putting down a non-refundable deposit -- but $1000 sounds steep.

On the other hand, it's always supply-and-demand, and if all the dealers can get enough people who are willing to put down a thou, then you have no choice. But I doubt the car's THAT hot.

 

Salesperson @ Bellevue Acura gave me the same line a week or so ago... $1000 non-refundable deposit and that cars are selling at MSRP (to which I told him I'd seen people reporting getting $1500 off MSRP and he seemed appaled: "Not in this area, they're not!" he exclaimed, to which I lied, "Well, the highest around here I've read is $1000").

 

Then what happened?

 

Acura’s policy is A $500 refundable police, Any salesperson who says otherwise is lying

 

There is no printed policy when it comes to Acura having control over dealers and deposits. The system may vary dealer-to-dealer. As for the deposits themselves, by law they are refundable. There is no way around that. Some events may change someone's buying ability.

 

I had a 500$ REFUNDABLE deposit.... Don't let anybody tell you different

 

After that, he kind of trailed off and I drove in the bliss of silence for a time - a rarity with a car salesperson in the front seat (apologies to the 1 in a million car salesperson that isn't annoying - I wish I could deal with you). Based on what I've read here, I may not continue to deal with this guy - but maybe I'll just go the "You lied and I didn't appreciate it, what are you going to do to keep my business" tact. Not sure yet. I'm still pondering whether to wait until Honda addresses some of the annoying quality problems or not. If I don't wait, I'll prob put a deposit down in late Oct/early Nov.

 

whoa, you better put down your deposit quick! looks like the 15,000 limit for 2004 is quickly approaching!!!

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...&threadid=1753

btw, my dealer had a $500 refundable deposit...but it didnt seem like he wanted to take my deposit since 2 other dealers had already called about my car...so i went ahead and got it then and there!!! hahaha you aint transferring my car !!! its mine, all mine!!!

 

Quick story about my original deposit. I put down a $1000 deposit with the first Acura dealer I went too -- where I did my test drive and stuff. My salesman said that he would try to arrange a dealer trade. He called back my wife the next day and said he found what we wanted and that we have it in about 10 days. I called back a week later and he told me that the car I thought was ours had been sold already at the original dealer. I was upset because I waited a whole week, and he never bothered to tell me and then tried to sell me a totally different color and options. I called other dealers and one of them has mine coming in soon that's 'their' order and I put down another deposit on that one.

I called my first salesperson and asked for my deposit back. He said no problem and was happy I found what I wanted. Called me the next day to ask for my card number again so he could put through the credit. I thought everything was cool... a week goes by and I don't have my $1000 credit on my card yet. I'm kind of pissed and decide to call American Express and just have them stalk that dealer for my deposit. American Express was great. I only spent 5 minutes on the phone with them and the very next day they call me and had my money back!! Great job AMEX. I'm still pissed at dealer # 1 but at least I got my money back and my car is in transit from San Diego as I write this.. VIN 11419

Sorry, for the long story but my advise is that if you have ANY trouble getting your deposit back just call your credit card company to dispute it. Let them do the work for ya.

 

Wow. I wonder how many people know that.

I've never had a bad experience with this -- no dealer ever asked for a non-refundable deposit, and I never wanted a refund anyway. But this is great to know, and it makes you wonder about the dealers who say "non-refundable."

Thanks, Kurt!

 

Thanks to all for your input. I'm headed to the dealer after work and will tell them that I am willing to give $500 refundable. Bottom line, I plan on buying the car (which is scheduled to arrive next week), so it will likely not be an issue.

Thanks again.

 

Im calling you out on this one. Show me the policy and call me a liar.

Acura says...yeah right like Acura really cares.

 

It's quite possible for a dealer to write and have you execute a contract that makes a deposit non-refundable, but in all the cases where I have given deposits they have been refundable. With cars that offer wider ranges of options than Acura, or where there are special order options or colors (I'm thinking of the German mfrs here) there can be some justification of a non-refundable deposit (who wants to be stuck with a lipstick pink Porsche 911?) but it's utter BS for a dealer of Acuras (that have almost zero options and a standard range of colors) to try for a non-ref. deposit.

However, here's the deal - unless there's a specific contract that states non-refundable, it doesn't matter what the salesman says, you can get it back.

C.

 

When I bought my Arctic Blue Baby, they had to search all over over Florida to find my car. they told me that I had to put a deposit of $1000.00 to secure my car, because it was very hard to find and Arctic blue, with a navigation. I gladly obliged, with doubts. I used my American Express, so if there was any problems, American Express would have easily cancelled the charges. NEVER PAY CASH OR CHECK ON A DEPOSIT!!

 

Deposit mean dick... all this does is allow the dealers to sell your car to somebody else who isn't willing to put down a deposit. They assume that if you are that gullible to put down a deposit you are going to buy a car no matter what happens. So they will sell your car to somebody else and then get you another car when nobody is buying.

 

lol i don't think that completely accurate. Im sure that deposits do matter sometimes as in for the dealer to get some kind of assurance of you buying the car. Otherwise if the person just says maybe and tells the dealer to hold the car no matter what, how is the dealer supposed to react. If the person does not buy the car then the dealer lost precious other customers. If the person does buy the car but the dealer already sold it, then the person might be talk bad about that dealer/dealership. I think the deposit is reasonable as long as its 500 or under and its completely refundable.