Ordering a Telluride confusion

[TN Gal]

I'm confused. I admit I haven't bought a car in a very long time. I tend to keep cars way after they are paid off. My current vehicle has 200,000 mileage. I test drove the various SUV's and decided on the Telluride. Went to my Kia dealer today and wanted to order a Telluride with the trim and features I want in the car and not all the dealer add-ons. The sales manager wasn't there but our salesman told us that I had to wait until their "allocation" came in. He said it would be in tomorrow. He also said they required a $2,000 non-refundable deposit. They will sell it to me for MSRP which I expected since I was special ordering the car. So I'm confused. I thought you could just special order a vehicle exactly the way you want it. I know all the supply and demand stuff for the Telluride and expect to wait several months for it. Can someone explain the Telluride ordering process to an elderly retired gal??

Cumberland Kia is the Dealer and is the only one in my immediate area of Cookeville, TN.

 

[jw_tx21]

A useful thread:

Three Different Ways to Acquire a Telluride

Since joining this forum I've learned so much but it took me a while to browse through all the threads to collect the info I needed to order a Telly. Some stuff I wish I knew before I ordered and so I wanted to make a step-by-step list of how to acquire a Telly for the new folks. I hope this...

tellurideforum.org

You can order - many dealers require a deposit. I wouldn't put down a non-refundable deposit, especially one so high. I'd find a different dealer. Post your location - folks will make recommendations - and check out the Good dealer thread.

You can order at a dealer based on the dealer's allocations. It's not entirely custom.

 

[Bossman-Don]

I'm confused. I admit I haven't bought a car in a very long time. I tend to keep cars way after they are paid off. My current vehicle has 200,000 mileage. I test drove the various SUV's and decided on the Telluride. Went to my Kia dealer today and wanted to order a Telluride with the trim and features I want in the car and not all the dealer add-ons. The sales manager wasn't there but our salesman told us that I had to wait until their "allocation" came in. He said it would be in tomorrow. He also said they required a $2,000 non-refundable deposit. They will sell it to me for MSRP which I expected since I was special ordering the car. So I'm confused. I thought you could just special order a vehicle exactly the way you want it. I know all the supply and demand stuff for the Telluride and expect to wait several months for it. Can someone explain the Telluride ordering process to an elderly retired gal??

Find another dealer...asap

 

[TN Gal]

Find another dealer...asap

Can you clarify why?

______________________________

 

[rfdacm02]

Just saying, up here in Maine two dealers are offering to order with a $500 deposit, one says refundable, the other non-refundable. Both report sale will be MSRP, no mark ups. Only question will the size of the dealer make a difference in making my order?

 

[rbfromma]

Just saying, up here in Maine two dealers are offering to order with a $500 deposit, one says refundable, the other non-refundable. Both report sale will be MSRP, no mark ups. Only question will the size of the dealer make a difference in making my order?

In general, you would think that a larger dealer may receive more Tellurides. However, they also may have more people waiting. The 2 primary questions to ask them at this point would be, 1. how many people are in front of you waiting for the trim you are looking to order? (ex., SX AWD or EX AWD) and 2. how many Tellurides of that trim do they receive on average per month? You can also check the website failcat . com and search for those 2 dealers to get a sense of how many Tellurides they receive.

 

[Bossman-Don]

Can you clarify why?

$2k non refundable seems like a red flag tbh. You will find that most on this forum have been able to order what they want at or under MSRP with a $500 refundable deposit.