My local dealer, Land Rover of Portland wants $5,000 deposit. Land Rover Seattle wants $5,000 deposit. There are a couple other smaller town dealers in Washington, but one (Spokane) has no defender inventory, which Im guessing would mean that order queue would be pretty long.

The next options for me would be Northern California or Possibly Reno, NV. Both are a bit of a drive from the Portland metro area. Land Rover Seattle told me that I cant remotely place a factory order and would have to go into their dealership. I dont have an issue having a car shipped, but if other dealers require in person paperwork in the day of covid it would but just another thing that rubs me the wrong way.

 

Just ordered mine tonight in Dallas. $2,000 refundable deposit

 

I ordered a 2021 D90 a couple weeks ago. Ordered from another state dealer as I want to make a vacation trip out of picking up the car and bringing it home. Have never worked with the dealer I ordered from, but the client advisor was referred to us by someone my wife knows. Did the whole process via email. I followed the advise from forums as to agreeing on price when ordering, when one still has a bit of leverage and no emotional baggage (the idea that I'll stick to my guns in a negotiation after having waited for several months for the exact car I want, is absolutely unrealistic). Managed to get a discount which, from what I read around, is a major win. Dealer asked for a $3k deposit, which seemed high for me, but it is refundable. The terms on which is refundable are interesting, but make sense (I get refunded once someone else has bought the car from them). Accepted and signed. Interestingly, the dealer has not run my credit card for the deposit, but I would expect them to run it at some point anyway. A dealer asking for a $5K non refundable deposit from the get go, seems like a red flag to me. If I were you, I would just contact other dealers until you find one that you are comfortable with and seems reasonable. The apparent high demand for these cars lends itself to bring out the dark side of dealers.

 

Congrats on your purchase. I inquired with several dealers. They all provided the exact same terms as my local dealer. The out of state dealers also required me to complete the order in person, and I could not do it via email or phone. So it appears that "mileage may vary by location." I first met my sales guy back in October. I finally moved forward with an order over the weekend. I had multiple conversations about movement on price including discussions with other dealers on the west coast. The only thing that I was able to get lowered was the deposit amount.

I didn't reach out to any areas outside of a same day drive. The idea of making a vacation out of picking up the vehicle is appealing, but since the delivery date seems very fluid, I don't have that type of flexibility at the moment to schedule a vacation without at least a month notice.

 

I purchased mine without ever seeing it in person. First I saw of it was coming out of a transporter.

New cars are commodities, find one you want, negotiate price and get is shipped. I did have an odd exchange with a dealer in North Carolina that told me that "Land Rover won't let us sell out side of North Carolina." Which seems completely against the law, but I didn't care because I found a more suitable truck in Wisconsin (I'm in Maryland).

I did my deal the 1st week of January, a good deal of inventory was out and the 21's were just starting to arrive.

 

I ordered mine at LR Portland back in October and only needed to put down a $2k deposit for a special build X-Dyanmic HSE. I collect it on Saturday. Third LR / RR build from them so a repeat customer.

We’re you specifying a build that is very very unique? That’s where the dealer may ask for a bigger deposit.

 

That is interesting especially considering I was told of the deposit parameters back in October as well. Specifically I was told the deposit requirement was 10% if I was ordering a base model or if the order was lacking marketable configurations (like heated seats).

I ordered a x dynamic HSE which fit their requirements of the 5k deposit. I have no prior purchases or any history with this dealership, so maybe that plays a part in their decision making. The high deposit and lack of negotiating off MSRP doesn't really align with the reasoning of them losing money if I bail on the order (IE demand is out pacing their supply), but I recognize that I am paying a premium for an early model defender.

Graham what color did you chose with for yours? I have only seen a couple around town, both were silver.

 

I’m in Philly and I was able to reserve a base model build for a $2k refundable deposit. They did say they wouldn’t be able to refund the deposit once the wheel arch protection is installed at the dealer and said they couldn’t refund a base build with one of the two more expensive metallic paints. I went with Gondwana stone so it wasn’t an issue.

I’ve ever owned an JLR vehicle. We rolled in in a base Mini 4 door.

 

I dont know if these are exactly flying out of the dealership.
They order a few, they sell a few.
IDK, why else are they so concerned about the amount of deposit, etc?

The problem with negotiating a price now is that delivery can be 6 months out.
In 6 months the going price might be MSRP, might be 3k off sticker, maybe it will be will 1500 off sticker.
No one knows.
I cant see the price going up in 6 months.
In 6-12 months when the "newness" wears off I have to think the negotiated price will be less than at order time.
It would be different if delivery times were a month or two but they're not.

 

I dont know the business side of a car dealership so I can only view it from my experience. At least at my dealer, all the defenders they order are sold, with the majority of them being sold prior to actually arriving. They seem to keep a couple on hand to showcase but those turnover quickly as well. It took me a few weeks to able to test drive both a p300 and p400 as they did not have the availability. The day I did my test drive in January they had a second defender in the show room that was already sold and the owner was letting them keep as another showcase defender. I thought that was strange as I wouldn't be up for the same deal.

I had a choice to either reserve a defender that was on its way, or make my own factory order. Both had deposit requirements. I don't know what the deposit requirement was for a vehicle that was already on its way to the dealership. None fit my specifications so I didn't inquire.

I guess they are hedging their bets against people ordering defenders and then bailing. We are in a pandemic so maybe that is just smart on their part.

Regarding the price negotiation timeline, your point about how long it will take to receive the vehicle is a solid point. Typically there is a range that dealerships will offer off MSRP and all other variables are relatively consistent. We are seeing both minimal if any moving off MSRP and a wide unknowns on build time, shipping time, part supply etc. I think its challenging to use conventional thinking in unconventional times.