Hi all,

new to the forum and looking to order a Defender (there isnt a single one within 250 miles of me that has the electronic diff. I was just curious about your experience with what dealers are asking for a deposit to get one on order. The dealer I test drove one at said they required a $5k deposit (which seems ridiculous unless they plan to pay me interest) and another one said they required $2k. I've never ordered a car from the factory before, but my expectation would have been in the range of $1000 refundable deposit. I was just curious what you guys were experiencing.

Cheers
Eitan

 

I paid a $1k refundable deposit. This was back in August of '20.

 

$2500 paid in March for order to arrive in July. Was told it was refundable and they said they will have to problem selling my D110 if I were to back out.

 

Long going thread on this

https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...eposit-103596/

FWIW I was asked for $3,000 when I ordered in Jan, which is higher than I had ever been asked for (5th car I custom order). I signed the form, dealer never ran my card and I take delivery in 3 weeks.

 

My dealer asked for 10%. I got them down to $5k. Ordered in February. Expecting a September delivery now...imagine had I invested that in dogecoin...haha

 

No deposit for me - but I had a relationship with the dealer already.

They can't keep Defenders on the lot, so I guess they aren't too worried about selling it if I flake out (which I won't)

 

My dealer asked for 1k, I've never bought a car from them before though so they asked me to fill out a whole bunch of paperwork, asking where I work, how much I make etc, I wasn't worried because my FICO alternates from 833 to 850 for a long time now. I didn't ask if the deposit was refundable or not, I brought cash for the deposit, they didn't have anyone there to accept cash on a Saturday morning so I ended up putting it on a credit card.

Anyway I wasn't planning on backing out so refundable wasn't really on my radar. There's a local credit union offering 2.47% on the 72 month financing that I'm going to try to grab before I take delivery. It will be nice to have the financing in my back pocket before I show up to take away the potential for any last minute BS, like surprise JLR just raised their rates to whatever arbitrary number. I'm paying way more for a vehicle than I want to be paying. Child support is crushing me for another two years, then I'll be fine.

 

1k down, fully refundable. This was right before covid in early 2020

 

Here down under its non refundable 5k, and they even make you sign a contract saying they can come after you for loss (if any). I don’t think they’d chase it as there is almost 0 stock.

they may refund you if it’s a regular order, they may make it difficult if it’s a highly modified one.

 

I just made a $1K refundable deposit yesterday for my order here in Ft. Lauderdale area. No red tape or hoops to jump through.