I have a question to folks who special-ordered their cars.

How did your special order work? Did you negotiate the price before leaving a deposit? And if so, what kind of paperwork did you take with you out-the-door supporting that price?

I am trying to figure out what stops the dealer from charging me extra $$$ over MSRP when the car finally arrives to dealership ("pay more or we'll sell the car to somebody else"). That would be a bummer, after waiting 4 months.

 

I talked to a dealer over the phone today about special ordering and he told me that I would need to put down a $500 deposit (they can either charge my credit card or accept a personal check). The deposit is refundable in the case I don't want the car anymore, but I will only get my money back when the car actually arrives at the dealership.

At the end of the process, I am supposed to get a receipt specifying what options I ordered and how much they will sell the car for in the form of invoice + $xxxx.

Anybody please correct me if I am wrong. I have not gone through the process myself.

 

Actually, I am also curious as to what prevents the dealer from selling the car to somebody else when the car arrives.

Suppose I negotiate the price to be invoice + $1000 and the prevailing market price when the car arrives is invoice + $2000, I can see the dealer will sell the car to somebody else and tell me they screwed up the ordering.....

 

I special ordered my car and here is the status list....

1) I am a Toyota Employee so, didn't have to negotiate
2) Went to the Dealership with what I wanted and he placed the order.
3) After placing the order, he gave me an "Order" form which says what car, model, color, options, etc I ordered.
4) I ordered my car on Sept. 26th and it's been 3 months now.
5) After about a month of placing the order, I followed up with him about the status and the dealer said the order was "confirmed", meaning, it was "sent" to the manufacturer
6) After about a 1.5 - 2 months, I got a call from the dealer saying that my order was confirmed to be "Built" in December!
7) Few days ago, I got a call from the dealer again and he gave me the VIN# and the Vessel# and told me that it would *probably* be built by end of December. And he was *expecting* to hear something from the manufacturer about the ship date of the car!
8) After the manufacturer ships the car, it will take about 3weeks to hit the states (USA) and maybe a few more days to get to ME!!

Now, I am REALLY TIRED of waiting and WANT my car already!!! So, I am hoping to get it in late January....

Hope this helps!

 

They won't or (don't) want to sell the car to somebody else is because someone might not want the same packages that you ordered. And if that happens, than they are stuck with that car for a long time...

Also, the longer the car stays on the dealers lot, the more it costs them. This is a situation where the phrase "Time is Money" becomes True!

 

yup this is true...i 2nd pimp350

i too went through the special order process and yes you negociate the price before you order and you do get ur deposit back if you don't want to take delivery. and i dun think they would sell ur order to a higher bidder becuz thats a real **** move and you being the person who would get screwed if it happens can really screw the dealer back far worse by taking it to the higher ups. so given its lexus...they won't take the risk

 

3) After placing the order, he gave me an "Order" form which says what car, model, color, options, etc I ordered.

Is this "Order" form a printout directly from their ordering system or is it just a letter typed up by the dealer specifying what they are going to order for you?

I am paranoid that they may make a mistake when they actually enter the order in their system and I won't get the car I wanted after waiting for 3 months.

Is the negotiated price also specified on this "Order" form?

 

I also special ordered my IS250 with Luxury, Navi+ML. I got an agreement on the price before I even set my foot into the dealership (I did the whole fool.com thing) Once I got an acceptable offer ($500 over invoice, whatever invoice is going to be) I went to the dealership and gave them $500 deposit, which they charged few weeks later. Now I am waiting. They will not sell it to anyone else b/c it will hurt their reputation. If anything, they are more afraid of you changing your mind and walking out on them (they HAVE to give you the deposit back) and they get stuck with a car other folks might not want, plus it's taking up space on the parking lot, people take test drives in it, the value and profit immediately drops. So the power of bargain is actually on your side. I am planning on asking for reduced price on spoiler or some other perks before signing the dotted line.

BTW - anyone else got something out of the delaer before picking up their special order?

Thanks

 

But what about if it is during a sales event like the December to Rememeber
which is more for lease rates, Dealer says you have to take delivery by Jan 2nd so what happens to a special order? I mean you could get a really good quote but loose it because the color or options you want are not in the dealers inventory. Is there a way to lock in the quote?

 

The form I got listed the model year of the car, color, packages, exterior color, etc.... This is the form that the dealer sent it to TMS (Toyota Motor Sales) to be given to the manufacturer. However, I had to ask for a copy! I also asked him to give me a copy of the form that had all the options on it! He wrote down the options on a paper first than entered it onto the computer to be sent to TMS. So, I got both of them as backup!

As for pricing, I don't have that yet because I get a fixed discount so there was no negotiation.

If you wanna look at what 1 of the forms look like........click on the CL member name "Technique" and goto his website which is listed under his user profile. He has a picture of the form that would be sent to the manufacturer....