FRS Deposit, pre-order, or down payment yet?
 

Have any FRS buyers had any luck putting down some cash to guarantee a car yet? I went to my local dealer with my checkbook, and they had a nice argument with their GM. He wouldn't let them take a deposit or downpayment or anything yet.

Has anyone had any luck with that yet? I know the BRZ folks were able to put in orders already.

I've got $500 down on an FR-S. We will see if that actually means anything once the car comes in. They might just rip the check up and sell it first come first serve.

I just did, and have it in writing as a refundable deposit.

Hey which dealership did you go to? My dad works at the one in Burlingame. As far as I know, he already had a few old customers ask him about the FR-S. All he did was add him to a calling list to be notified when it comes, but I don't think they asked for a deposit. Although I haven't heard anything else than that.

I put my deposit down yesterday. I had to go to 2 dealerships because the first one was just going to sell them on a first come first serve basis. I guess it is being left up to the dealership whether or not they will take deposits.

When I put my deposit down, the salesman I was talking to went to get his boss and his boss actually tried to talk me out of leaving one. As it sits now, I am on the list to have first right of refusal on the ones that come in (basically when they do come in, people on the list will be notified and asked if they want the specific model that came in or if they want to wait on another).

I put a deposit down at one of the dealerships by me. They started taking deposits 3/22 and at 3/26, they already had about 10 people put deposits. They are also doing the call list thing though. If you don't answer the phone when the cars get in, they move onto to the next person on the list, and you lose your spot.

What dealer handleing, doc fees, etc. have you guys been quoted? Due to Pure Price the only negotation point is on D&H and I really don't think $499 on top of $24,930 for doing 20 minutes of paperwork is very cool.

Please share your experience with D&H fees - both good and bad.

Thanks in advance,
k

I went to Scion of Slidell (just north of New Orleans) and walked right up to a guy and said "Im looking to pre-order an FR-S". They gladly told me they would take a refundable $500 deposit, took all my information down, then asked me what color, trim, and transmission I wanted so they could put the order in ASAP. They said there is a chance they wont be able to get the exact car I want for the first shipment, but they will try their best. I was the 2nd person to put down a deposit. First was a chick who wanted a blue automatic. Im going for a red, base model, manual. Was told I would have first dibs on any red manual FR-S.

Interesting. Yeah they wouldn't take a deposit or anything. I'm on a call list though. I guess I'll have to keep watching for news of being able to actually pre-order at my local dealer and just head on over and get in line.

We are taking deposits on the FR-S at the dealership I work at. Also our Doc Fee is only $299, $499 seems a little high to me.

What do people mean when they say trim level. All of them are essentially the same trim level. You can choose color and transmission, that's it. It would be nice if you could build them online right now with a list of all the extras that are available from TRD, but that's wishful thinking.

Heh, tell the dealerships in San Jose to start accepting pre-orders. I'll gladly give them a check. I'll also be there on day 1 with cash in hand.

I've got a deposit in my area, tried to get two but one of the other dealerships is trying to charge a $1200 markup in addition to the scion.com prices.

Standard $500 check, clipped to the folder with the other files with pre-order info.

Apprentely there is going to be a black list, posted on the internet, for Scion dealers that charge above MSRP. Pure Price is their marketing term after all and I'm sure corportate will not like rogue dealers.

k

Your "deposit" counts as a down payment, right? My local Scion dealership wants $1000 refundable to get on the list, but I assume that's $1000 off the final purchase price, right? It's not $1000 on top of whatever it is

^^^^it depends on what your preorder contract says and what you've agreed to at the dealership.

Keep in mind that there are different distributors for Toyota cars, and that their destination fee will probably be different. However, there's nothing preventing a scion dealer from charging over MSRP as long as it is their advertised price. If they put one price on their website and then try to jack you in the store, a strongly worded letter to scion corporate would get them in trouble big time.

I wouldn't buy over MSRP anyway, any more than what scion is already asking is getting into Subaru BRZ territory.

If they are over MSRP they will get black listed just like the Subaru dealers who got black listed for selling over MSRP.

That is what they get...hehe!

My Scion dealership in particular said that my deposit would go towards the price of the FRS (if I choose to) and would not be counted on top of the final price they list. I agree though, if they do try to put that $1000 on top of the final price, just refund it and go to another dealership.

I'm gonna go to Longo Toyota tomorrow to check. Will report back later tomorrow nite.

Yeah, just confirmed with my dealer, it's towards the final price of the car. Deposit = down payment.

I just stopped by another Scion dealer, and they took my deposit. $1,000. Goes towards the price of the car. If I don't get it, or I do $0 down, I get my money back.

Also they had a date listed of June 1st 2012. The one guy had an FRS poster on his desk as well and in big black sharpie he had written "June 1st, 2012!!!!!" So I think he's just as excited as we are.

As has been mentioned, if they tell you about it up front, they're free to do it unfortunately.

I emailed scion with a question regarding that, given that the only published price is the MSRP on the scion website. They simply replied saying that the website is nothing more than a suggestion.

since dealers don't seem privy on updating their websites anytime soon, you basically get the shaft and waste time when they want to charge a markup.

Had I not gotten to a dealership w/o markups in my area, I'd be waiting on a BRZ.

Went to Toyota of Pasadena today to inquire about preordering. Read about my adventures in the California section of the forums. Thx.