I recently resumed my car shopping, went back to the somewhat dealership and spoke about buying the car I wanted. The guy didn’t have the trim that I wanted, but had the next highest one. The price was about 2k more than I’d anticipated, but given that I needed the car, I said okay I’ll put down a deposit.

I actually found another dealer (Autonation) who seemingly wasn’t charging a market adjustment, had no addons and also had the lower trim I wanted, coming in not too much later than the higher trim. They even had the higher trim at a lower price. Seemed a little too good to be true so I went in and spoke to them in person. They didn’t give me a price then, but mentioned that it would be available for the particular car a little later on. They mentioned that their deposit is refundable no questions asked. (Dealership number 1 also does refundable deposits, but not sure if it is conditional). So I put down a 1k deposit there and asked for pricing on the particular car to be sent to me as soon as it became available.

Now - assuming that the initial pricing from Autonation was accurate or in the ballpark (which I will find out once I get the final pricing from them) I’m wondering how to talk to dealer #1 to ask if they can reduce the price on their car, so that I can buy it from them. The price difference is 2k so even if I lose the deposit it’s still a good deal.