Quote:
Originally Posted by Sport-Tech
@ Rustyoid, I would appreciate your take on a conversation I had with a dealership sales manager yesterday, who admitted that their dealership cannot place orders for the GR86, they just get what stock Toyota chooses to allocate to them, and can only trade with other dealers to try to meet a customer's specs. When I asked if I could make a deposit over the phone he said I needed to come in and sign a sales contract because Toyota had tightened up ordering rules as dealers having difficulties getting cars they wanted to sell had been submitting phony orders in order to get stock, and now Toyota wants to see real orders before shipping vehicles. Asked under what conditions a deposit would be refundable, he said it would be refunded if they are not able to deliver to me the GR colour/trim/transmission I specify in the order within a mutually agreed upon time frame.
The problem with that of course is that unless you are willing to kiss your deposit goodbye, it ties you to that one dealer when trying to find a car, as you have no way of getting that deposit returned as long as they find a car for you within the time frame specified in the contract. And the rationale the manager gave for this may make sense for other models that can be ordered by the dealership from Toyota, but as the GR86 can't be it makes absolutely no sense at all for that car - whatever orders the dealership has signed with customers have no impact on what 86s are allocated to the dealer and Toyota would presumably have no interest in seeing them. Is this manager trying to pull a fast one on me, or are the conditions he's specified for the deposit being refunded legitimate and SOP? |
That is correct that we cannot simply "Order" a GR86. But it is incorrect that we can order other models, it is the EXACT same process for every vehicle. Every "order" entered into the system is actually an allocation request, to be allocated that specific config with the customers name attached. Dealers are given a yearly sales plan. These requests would be allocated against the sales plan numbers. You cannot place additional orders to get more than your sales plan. Obviously SUVs and trucks have a massive sales plan compared to GR models
We are in a similar situation with all models. We want to make sure our vehicles are staying in our market and going to real customers so we do not just take deposits like a free for all.
I've said this before regarding deposits and markup in Canada.
The "sales contract" is only legally binding if there is a VIN number on the contract.
A dealer CANNOT legally keep your deposit in Canada if they did not specify a VIN. At the same time, they can legally change the selling price to whatever they feel, if there was not a VIN on your sales contract.
Dealers often use the non-refundable to keep tire kickers and such away. But it is simply not true.