Ever refused delivery of new truck after deposit?

With supply being constrained, I have had 2 dealers agree in accepting $500 , non-reimbursable deposit to hold a truck that has been allocated. Their perspective is you are committing to buy the truck. I understand they may be losing a buyer to hold it. I have also seen Utubes containing issues that had the buyer noticed, they would have refused the truck. These are instances where quality control broke down at factory. One was the hood panels being severely misaligned. Has anyone ordered a truck and after inspecting it and/or driving it, decided to not buy it? I have found some better buys (lower price and getting truck equipped the way I want it) 5 hours away and considering flying to that City, taxi to dealer, drive home. Is there much risk I will be disappointed? It probably comes down to their perspective on what is acceptable vs the buyer’s perspective. My last Tacoma was fine from factory. I’m wondering if quality is still good.

 

There are many stories here of purchasing on the internet and doing a fly and drive. I have not seen one where problems were mentioned, at least not to the point they did not take delivery of the vehicle (Cant say I have read all of them.).

What better way to become familiar with the truck!

Go for it.

 

It only costs $500 to back out. And then two one way tickets!

 

Good point. My “out the door price” savings is >3000, primarily from not having equipment I don’t want. So two trips is not a big deal. Ticket one way is 140-220 depending on day.

 

The non-refundable deposit is BS. If you are to back out there are plenty other buyers who will take the vehicle. That's the first thing I made sure about was the option to back out and get my deposit back if there was any kind of problem. I wouldn't buy from a store with no refundable $500.

 

By ‘non-reimbursable deposit’ I am assuming you are saying non-refundable.

There are dealers who will reserve a truck for you with a refundable deposit and then sell at MSRP. With the automotive market starting to normalize there is no need to give away a deposit.

I have done the fly-to-buy twice to get what i wanted at the price I wanted. In both cases a refundable deposit kept the vehicle there until I got there. The dealer does have a reasonable expectation you will show up in the next day or two to collect the vehicle. One worked as planned and I road-tripped home. The other did not and i booked a flight home the next day.

As of January 2023, Tacoma’s are available. Longo Toyota (El Monte, CA) has 198 Tacomas (in hand or on way with VINs) as of today (28 January). They are the biggest Toyota dealer in the world and they don’t do the ADM BS.

Other dealers will eventually catch up on regular Tacomas if Longo has that many for walk-ins. BTW, 141 of them are Off Road and 5 are Trail’s. No need to donate a $500 non-refundable to a dealer.

My anticipation is incentives will show up on some vehicles later this year as the production catches back up and the pent-up demand is filled.

Good luck.

 

I second that the non refundable deposit is BS, and in a few states, not exactly legal. Push come to shove some members here say they have gotten theirs back once they got their credit card agent involved.

That said, I'd rather fly and drive than plunk any kind of deposit. Deposits are a fools game for me, you can't negotiate on good faith when they are holding a chunk of your money hostage.

But I'd book the flight with the mindset that if one thing is not to my liking, I'm fully prepared to fly back home.

 

23TacoSR, so your perspective was the truck may have an issue that would make you want to wait? I was discussing this with the out of town dealer (very nice and has more of what I want). I asked him if a test drive was permitted. He laughed at me as if that was ridiculous; of course a test drive is permitted. I asked him why? Don’t you think the truck was built right? After we talked he could see my point. My brother drove a Chevy Silverado that had an overhead console rattle so bad he talked with service about “can they fix it”? They were describing taking the console out, possibly affecting the headliner? He just said for $70,000 he didn’t relish a service dept trip before he could feel good about buying it. I think Toyota has good quality. My 2016 TRDOR (San Antonio built) was great. I don’t know how the Mexico plant compares and I don’t know if overall quality has declined?

 

^ This ^

 

^^^ This ^^^

Had a deposit on a 2023 Pro with no add-ons, for MSRP. Ended up going back and buying the 2021 Pro that I had test driven. Dealer refunded my deposit with no questions asked. Pretty grateful to have the dealer we have around here after hearing some of the BS that other dealers have pulled during this time.

 

I flew to the east coast to buy my truck and the drive back home took a few days. I told the dealership I will want my deposit back if I find the truck has something I really do not want on a brand new truck like too many miles, different specs from advertised, etc. etc. Looked ok when I got there, nothing that made me not sign papers and hand over a check. They did tell me it comes with a Toyota factory warranty minus wear items for (is it 3 years or 2, I don't remember) so I figured if anything comes up later I'm good.

The truck did have issues on the drive back home. the used Tacomas I tested braked much much better than this brand new truck. the first Toyo dealership I brought it to told me I warped the rotors. told me he was 99% sure that's the problem. they turned the fronts but the shuddering and shaking came back a week later and I went to the next dealership. they told me the drums are out of spec, turned them and the problem got worse. brake shake but now I can hear this thumping/rubbing/out of round type noise and I can even feel it with both shoes on the floor, first gear in a parking lot. the service person was very easy to deal with so I decided to go back. this time they told me the drums were out of spec again so they replaced the drums. so far so good, no noise and more importantly it stops the way a new vehicle should stop.

OP just saying in my case, the truck looked perfectly fine on the lot but issues can of course come up after taking delivery. the first dealership was ... yeah. after taking it back to the next dealership the second time I was researching lemon laws for a truck purchased out of state. at that point this truck was starting life like a BMW I owned that seemed to live at the service bay even though it only had 12 miles when purchased. never again.

as far as the deposit goes, if something was flat out unacceptable I would not take the truck and fight for the deposit. if a panel is misaligned enough for you to notice, wouldn't small claims court notice it too? when I had a deposit at a local dealership, the estimated wait time was 9 months. they can say what they want, it's not like someone else isn't going to buy the truck. we're going out of state to buy these things. it's not like the local dealerships have lots to choose from and I went out of state to buy just for fun (it wasn't).

 

I wouldn't bother with a dealer that does the non-refundable deposit BS. Its not like they'll have trouble selling the truck if you dont take it.

 

We refused delivery of our Taco, when it was in the well light dealerships garage and the wife noticed a bunch of (what looked like scratches). Really only needed buffing, but their buffing guy was down with a broken arm, so we settled on a long range two-way car starter. That was a bonus, as you dont even notice the scratches in the real world.

Even the OEM remote starts the Taco too. Only diff is the long range remote starts it from farther away, like inside my office at work, or inside the arena when I play hockey and come out to -20 or -30 winters.

 

The bottom line is that you have to be 100% happy with what you are getting, that's it. You are spending good money (or making payments) on something that hopefully you will have a while. If you need to explore outside your area, so be it, find the right one. I was going to get a gray SR with some lame add-ons that I didn't want because I could get one faster. Then realized I didn't want another gray (our 4Runner is that color), so I put money down on a silver SR completely stripped which took longer. My point being that I got exactly what I wanted by waiting a little longer.

As far as quality, mine was built in Baja and I have yet to find any issues. Well, except the weak rear speakers which I guess they all have. I didn't buy a truck to listen to music so I'm good.

 

I've seen 2 in 15 years that have been rejected because of legitimate reasons.

Usually scratches or dents are taken care of immediately.

But build quality, especially on Tacoma is usually near perfect.

The mexico plant has had far less issues than the initial 2016-2017 models.

 

If a dealer won’t give a deposit back, just slow roll the paperwork signing for a few weeks or more. They’ll eventually get tired of holding the truck and beg to give you the deposit back so they can sell it.

 

I have no idea what you are really saying in all that ramble. Do you have a deposit placed or not? In one place or two?

If you have no deposit placed buy what you want where you want.

But if what you want is via one of the $500 places, just stand up and say 'no thank you' and walk out. They may relent, or they may not. But I'd never recommend a non refundable deposit on something sight unseen. No matter how much small print they wave in front of you.

 

Use your credit card for the deposit. Zero doubt my card company would refund it back.

 

I have never refused delivery, but I have made them note in writing they would rectify any deficiencies that were found before I drove away. Anytime I have bought a vehicle I have also had them include a clause, in writing that the deposit is refundable for any reason. Convey yourself in a manner that they know you're a serious buyer and they should have no issues with this. When I bought mine during Covid the salesman even said they could care less as they know the truck will be sold to the next guy if I did decide to drop out.

 

I ordered a Chevy about 5 years ago, went to pick it up and after test driving a few times refused to buy it. There were a few others on lot with fewer options. So the dealer told me no refund and asked me to sign a refusal disclosure. I had already signed something similar when I paid them $500 to order it. I refused. Two weeks later, dealer called me and offered me $2500 off price. I went to the dealer again to test drive it and again told them no. Salesman told me they had another buyer and wanted to give me first choice. 10 minutes later, they handed me a check and I signed their release. But I learned a lesson and wouldn’t do that no refunds deposit again.