Question about deposits?
 

Bought a 2013 FRS and sold it for a Tacoma in 2015. Now the tacoma is paid off and I'm looking to buy the 2nd gen when it comes out. For those that have experiences putting deposits down on cars, can you tell me how it works?

Obviously with the car coming out in the fall, here in VA the weather can get pretty cold and I have my tacoma for the fall/winter months. Is it possible to put a deposit down for a build in April? Or should I just wait until the spring to see if a local dealer has inventory and if not put a order in with a deposit? Also what would the dealer want as a deposit on this vehicle?

as you might be aware, toyota does sales differently. as in, they just build whatever the heck they want, with no custom ordering, allot it to whoever the heck they feel, and we the customers are the ones that are ever so fortunate to be able to plop money down to take them home.

so if you're looking for a specific color or features, it'd be up to you and/or your dealer to track down where and who got that allotment off the boat, and hope that they're willing to play ball and do a dealer vehicle trade to get it without too greedy a markup.

pre-orders and downpayment amounts generally are extremely dealer specific. some of them don't. some of them do. some of them don't trust you'll ever have more than pocket lint on you, others just ask that you fog a mirror.

Yeah. Probably pie in the sky for the time being.
If you have the transportation and disposable income in hand, you'd be best served by waiting for things to settle out of the present maelstrom and the new models actually hit the lots.

Is it burning a hole in your pocket?

In my admittedly very limited experience in Australia (I've done it three times twice at the same dealer), orders are generally done based by contract date with your dealer.

When you deposit you sign a contract for the car, with a condition like pending finance and test drive.

The VERY first batch of cars is quite often pre-allocated BY TOYOTA with a range of colours and spec variants that are a little bit dictated by the size of the dealership. And its not going to be many cars - like a dozen for a big dealership

In this batch you chosen colour preference may not be available, but the cars will be offered to you in order of your contract. I've not had any issues in the past when I have done this, but I admit I find out where I am in the list of pre-orders with my dealer and get them to advise me in an email, I then tactfully remind the dealer than "hey you have 5 cars, I know I'm number 2 on that list!"

If you don't get your colour, you will almost certainly get one not too long from that point in the next batch of dealer ordered cars.

The long story short is (in my experience), that yes you can, but the first batch might not have your colour and you will have to wait a bit more or buy a different colour.

Talk to your local dealer. If you don't like their answer talk to another one nearby.
It is completely up to the individual dealership how they handle deposits and orders.
Remember the dealers are not owned nor run by Toyota so they can do as they wish.

As an example in my area:
The small rural based town I work in has very little knowledge or market for the 86 but they will have a couple in stock and you can order one (they will probably bring it from another dealer) for a $500 deposit. The deposit is refundable if you change your mind before the car comes in. They deal in so few that they thought my Hakone was a custom wrap with after market wheels!

The slightly larger town where I have my cottage loves these cars and will get every single one in for stock they can get their hands on. They usually take a couple of each of the special editions that other dealers don't want. If you even have to order through them they will bring whatever you are after in with no deposit since they know they will sell it anyway.

The very large dealer in my city HATES the things and will not stock them at any time if they can possibly avoid it. I never got the full story but it seems that their dislike came from spending piles of time with tire kickers and test drivers that never ever actually bought the car. If you order one from them it is a firm $1,000 deposit that is non refundable (unless of course they can't deliver) from the time you place the order. They had to bring my Hakone in from Calgary which is half way across the continent. Even then they seemed reluctant to bring it in. Was funny though since they were also the place with the best deal!

All in all it doesn't matter what any individual here says since each dealer will do their own thing anyway so shop around. It may be worth your while to go a bit further away.

Based on the current gen, a dealer within reasonable driving distance will have inventory. It will depend on how many they are targeted to build Year 1, but we have no reason to think it will be rare. In 2019 - 2020, Toyota was even offering $1,500 off the car, and from my experience of keeping an eye on stock levels, many 86s sat on lots and people were getting good prices on what was available.

I thought we were going to talk about valves. :(

No no no it is the bestest engine ever built there is a thread all about that. Doesn’t matter that there is zero real life data yet. That 15% increase in power will make such a huge difference that everybody will either dump their first gen or swap the new engine since it will be a drop in plug and play and there will be oodles of them around for cheap.
Also just think of how much money the guys that like to to run half a body kit can save since it comes pre installed.
Just wait until the price comes out and the screaming starts that it cost more than it did in 2013.

Oh god I am on your side now!

your not on his side unless you ditch your twin and hate all of the twins!

another anecdotal story. my brother worked at a chrysler jeep dodge, and then was transferred to the companies newly built fiat/alfa romeo store as it's lead tech.

this was around that time when dodge started releasing the hellcat and other super-powered specialty vehicles, as well as people excited for alfa to finally be back in the states. so while he pulled cars in and out of the service area, he routinely heard stories of people wanting to put money down to pre-order any one of these more specialty vehicles, usually complete with when the cars would be be shipping to dealers, and what colors were available.

in almost all cases with the parent company now known as 'stelanis', all of the dealer employee's would almost always first learn of when a new model was going to be coming to them based on customers walking in the front door looking to put down a deposit.

he once said that (pre-)stelanis would be mum about release dates and such, to the point that most dealers didn't know what they were getting until the truck would show up with the vehicles on them.

so in a lot of cases, a pre-order agreement is with the dealer only, and is only an agreement to consume one of their unit allotments, of which they might not actually have any knowledge of until the car shows up on the truck for delivery.

just some food for thought before you start throwing money at random storefronts.