I received a telephone call from the dealership late this afternoon stating that they needed a deposit to finalize the order. Toyota wouldn't give them a VIN until th dealership had proof of deposit. They knew this at 10:00 but waited until 4:00 to tell me. Hopefully it didn't cause much of a delay in delivery. I placed the deposit and they stated that they would get me a delivery date as soon as they got one from Toyota.

Same thing happened with us. I gave all the info. but they needed $500.00 down. I was told we would here whether or not we get the car next week. I find that hard to believe, but we will keep our fingers crossed. This seems like such a strange process where nobody really know whats going on. (Including the dealerships and toyota.com)

Ok you lost me. Not sure what you mean with the IF word. If you get the car? Why wouldn't you get one? Are they saying they sold out of 12,000 cars that quickly? I expect to be on a waiting list, but I sort of expect to be getting a car.<br><br>My dealer wanted $1000 until I told him that other people were saying $500. So I have you all to thank. :) I asked to make sure that the deposit is refundable should we test drive the car and find out it's not for us. <br><br>Yeah, I agree that the system needed a lot of work. I'm considering informing toyota what a mess the situation was, though I'm certain that it would be a waste of my time. Funny thing is, I really think that using the web could have worked well, except for the fact that not everyone has internet access. <br><br>I read a message posted to the newsgroup a month or so ago about someone having the right to first refusal. They arranged the deal with a dealership. I hoping that it meant that the person got the right to a Prius if someone ordered one and didn't buy it. He stated that a $500 deposit was required though. Hoping that they really didn't take preorders through dealerships months ago.

The dealer gave me a call the other day and I ordered the car without any deposit. I asked him and he stated that no deposit was required.<br><br>I called another dealer today and asked him when a demo prius would be available to test out. He said July 11. I asked him how much to see his response. He said MSRP is about $20,000 but it cost Toyota about $40,000 so we'll have to charge higher. What kind of b

Rajah,<br><br>You might want to check again. My dealer said that Toyota wouldn't give them a VIN number without a fax of proof of deposit. Might have just been a line, but I gave the deposit anyway.

Your dealer is getting a model for test drives? I'm jealous. I was told that my test drive would be in my car when it arrived. Even if they received a car before mine it would already be "sold" and they couldn't let people test drive it. I guess I wouldn't want people test driving my car.

The impression I have from my dealer is that when you place an online order or what order number you get has less to do with when you get a car than when you provide the license/ssn/deposit confirmation. Our dealer has got about 200 people on an email list, but we moved from that list ot #8 on their "actual waiting list" by providing the 3 items above. <br><br>I think Toyota may be encouraging the dealers to do this. The comment made earlier about not getting a VIN til they have the 3 items seems to match my dealer's expectations, but the dealer won't know colors til VINs are assigned and the dealer doesn't get to pick what's been ordered.<br><br>Right of first refusal, according to our dealer, means if we don't want the 8th car we can refuse it and look at the 9th car instead, then the 10th, etc til we're offered one we like. <br><br>If we choose not to get a car anytime before we complete the papers and drive it off the lot, we get 100% of our deposit back. We can test drive it, buy it, do the financing, drive it around the parking lot, even put it up on a lift or jack it up and climb under it, and still get all our money back. State law in Washington says we own it as soon as we drive it off the lot, and not before. In fact dealers don't like to drop the car off for you at work or home, because if you take delivery off their premises you get 72 hours more to cancel the deal.