What is a reasonable deposit ?

[mr_blibby]

Finalising an order for a Yaris Cross. I'm a cash buyer and price would be c£29k - I'm seeing quite a variance on what dealers are asking for on a deposit ranging for £250 to £2k (obs the one with lowest deposit also has the highest price 🙄)... be interested to hear from any members who are buying or recently purchased as to what level of deposit they paid. Thanks

 

 

[Primus1]

We were asked by the dealer to put £250 down as deposit, we were cash buyers too, not sure if you can put more down , I guess you could speak to the dealer..

[Gren]

I bought an almost-new one as a cash buyer last year and the Toyota dealer asked for £250.

[MC1216]

£1000 at Mazda for my partners car.

[APS]

I paid £100 on a larger, non-Toyota cash price. But the amount of deposit is somewhat academic when it's cash, since the full amount needs to be handed over sooner rather than later anyway. It is more a reflection of the scarcity of supply. A dealer will want a larger commitment if they are selling a car that is in high demand. The GR86 required a £1000 deposit.

[Roy124]

My dealer wanted £1000 but settled for £500.

[Dezzer21]

I didn’t have to put down a deposit last year when buying my Y Cross.

 

[Primus1]

The salesperson we dealt with was very concerned about us having the cash and paying for the car, despite having the money to cover it, and asked us to contact our bank before we picked up the car as they didn’t want  it to be rejected, we paid by card and didn’t even require verification from the bank, it all went very smoothly, but it seemed a bit mercenary from the dealer…

[MardyMarvin]

I was a cash buyer and bought a yaris excel so not quite as much but only left a £200 deposit. 

[Paul john]

£250 here

[mr_blibby]

Thanks everyone you for all your useful insight....Overnight we have settled on a more reasonable £500 deposit, which I'm OK with.

[flash22]

£500 card, cheque or draft only

[Cyker]

So bringing in  5 million 1p's would be considered an unreasonable deposit...?   

 

[Pumatron]

14 minutes ago, Cyker said:

So bringing in  5 million 1p's would be considered an unreasonable deposit...?   

 

I hope the car is less than 20p then, because after that I thought it wasn’t classed as legal tender?🙃

[RonYarisX]

With the Yaris X, it was £100 deposit for me.

Typically deposits on cars range from £100-£500.

The lower deposit is normally if you're present in the showroom at time of ordering, the higher if it's over the phone or internet.

I've always thought anything over that would only apply if the car is to be ordered with extras, the theory being you may order an extra which if you pulled out of the deal, limits the sellers audience. For instance if you order a car is Shocking Pink, that's going to be a hard sell 🤣.

On 3/26/2024 at 6:43 PM, Primus1 said:

The salesperson we dealt with was very concerned about us having the cash and paying for the car, despite having the money to cover it, and asked us to contact our bank before we picked up the car as they didn’t want  it to be rejected, we paid by card and didn’t even require verification from the bank, it all went very smoothly, but it seemed a bit mercenary from the dealer…

Are you taking about physical cash or pay via electronic transfer from your bank account?

There are few dealers who'd entertain hard cash these days, they normally have a limit on it. Even if it's just £100 deposit, I can't stress enough how important it is to pay this via card ( preferably credit card ) as it gives you all sorts of additional legal protection on the purchase.

It's worthy of a thread on it's own, but if you paid a £100 deposit in cash and then £28999 bank transfer on the Wednesday and the dealership went bust Thursday morning, you could find yourself in deep ******. You'd certainly be bottom of the pile as far as the administrators are concerned. Worst case scenario, you'd be lucky to get your deposit back. Please, Please, Please - anyone considering buying a car using cash, at least pay £100 min using a credit card. ( the debit card is a weird one - I think some have guarantees, but it makes more sense using a credit card ). 

[mr_blibby]

Will be £500 on Visa (was hoping for Amex)  followed by £28500 Visa debit on delivery/acceptance.... maybe worth noting for any of you considering a purchase over £30k, that section 75 card and chargeback protection only applies on purchases up to £30k... which these days isn't a particularly expensive car   

[RonYarisX]

1 hour ago, mr_blibby said:

Will be £500 on Visa (was hoping for Amex)  followed by £28500 Visa debit on delivery/acceptance.... maybe worth noting for any of you considering a purchase over £30k, that section 75 card and chargeback protection only applies on purchases up to £30k... which these days isn't a particularly expensive car   

WOW !   Is the garage accepting that?  The charges on £28500 are...  Well it depends on how much the transaction fee is on your card but it's normally between 1.5% and 3%.  Even if it was 1.5% best case scenario, the garage will be paying your bank £427.

Everyone to their own, but if that was me, I'd be asking what about me giving you £28100 and I'll pay via bank transfer. £400 is better off in my pocket than my bank's.  It's all coming out the same account anyway.

More and more local cafe's around here have signs that say 'cash only' for that very reason. And that's me buying just a latte 🤣

Normally I'd recommend anyone looking to purchase cash, to investigate taking out a PCP then settling it within a few days but Toyota finance are a shower of bar-stewards. Unlike most other financial providers ( I've never com across any other that does ), they hide behind a near £600 processing fee for settlement. Out of interest I've just had a look at the Toyota website and the current PCP incentive is only £600 on the Yaris X so there's no gain whatsoever for cash purchasers to save anything buying their car using the PCP method at this moment in time.

Hope you enjoy the car when it arrives 👍

[MikeSh]

1 hour ago, RonYarisX said:

Well it depends on how much the transaction fee is on your card but it's normally between 1.5% and 3%.  Even if it was 1.5% best case scenario, the garage will be paying your bank £427.

That's for a credit card. Debit cards are typically 0.25% to 0.35%.

[hind]

11 hours ago, RonYarisX said:

More and more local cafe's around here have signs that say 'cash only' for that very reason

I thought that's for "income optimization" 😛 

[skidlid]

When we ordered the Yaris in Sept 2023 it was £100.

Other brands and dealers were vastly different.

Shop around.

[Parts-King]

A deposit should reflect the loss connected with you walking away from the transaction, whatever it is. If you wanted a car and the dealer had to pay for say transportation costs, then that is the loss and you should pay for it. In reality dealers will just want a deposit to show a commitment that you want to buy, they might have people interested in the car as well as you, and will pull it from sale based on a deposit. What you should ask is "If I don't like the car or change my mind, can I have my deposit back" Deposits are not typically refundable, but ask when paying it

[Torrox]

I paid £500 deposit for the rav4 phev.

[flash22]

main stealers don't take cash.............. so I found out

[1928KH]

£60 deposit for our RAV4 and even then the dealer forgot to take it!
 

We returned to the garage and paid it because we didn’t want to miss out on the deal we’d agreed.

GDB

[RonYarisX]

22 hours ago, MikeSh said:

That's for a credit card. Debit cards are typically 0.25% to 0.35%.

Are you sure that's not part of the fee that makes up the transaction fee?

To cite one example, Barclaycard Debit can charge up to something like 1.75% if the transaction is done in person, or 2% if it's done online. I don't know about other providers.