I have a new 2009 car on order. It's a fairly expensive model at over $100k. It's suppose to arrive end of Jan early Feb. I've already paid a $10k deposit as good faith.

For work reason, I'm about to move out of the country to London for 2 or so. My 3 yr lease would be pretty damn useless. This is a very sudden event that came up just last week and is an opportunity I cannot refuse.

I'm in California. When we were joking about the subject of backing out of the deal a month ago he said "I can't take your deposit even if you back out later... what if you lose your job?"

Well, I need to back it out now. Can they legally hold my deposit? How are these situations normally handled? I have not talked to the dealer yet. I'm looking for some supporting info before I do.

Many thx in advance.

Well, in general, the deposit should be non-refundable, but look at what you signed to see if it details refunds. It also depends on the dealer.

Let me know what they say.

I dug out the contract... here's what it says:

Terms and Conditions: I understand that a 1,000-dollar refundable deposit is required to secure a position on the order priority list. I understand that when the time to process this order for production is at hand, I, the Intended Registered Owner, will be contacted for the purpose of finalizing the order details and at that time an additional 4,000-dollar will be required for order submission to the factory....l... my order can't change. I can't transfer order...... nothing more important.

I gave them 10k directly for good faith. That word refundable is not a typo... Given that contract, I would think there's no legal reason they can hold my deposit. Any objections before I contact the dealer?

Sounds like it should be refundable based on the working you provided.

Let us know!

That was easy... It's done. I'm suppose to get my deposit check in a couple of weeks. I'm sure it will come.

My sales guy was VERY professional. He's certainly upset to lose a deal in a time like this, especially the fact the order can no longer be changed and I had a very special dual tone full leather interior. But he understood that career is more important than a car and asked me to take care of my family during the move. Now that is a sales guy I'll go back to for sure!

Unless I don't get my money back in two weeks, I'll call this a wrap.