Randy Chase said:
The important thing is that the dealer not screw around and offer $$ incentives to move up on the list. But nothing I read here indicates that.
Let me play the devil's advocate for a moment. If there are at least 83 orders guaranteed for MSRP, that means almost the entire first year of allocation will be sold for MSRP. Assuming that the first year's allocation at Criswell is 100 units, do you think cars will be going for over MSRP for the second year? It's possible, but it makes more sense to charge over MSRP for the first cars because they attract those willing to pay extra. So I think buyers offered to pay more than MSRP could be slipped in early, possibly.
On the positive side (for MSRP deposit holders), is that there will be many more deposits placed at each dealership after the LA Autoshow and up until the time the list is being served. This creates potential for Criswell to get over MSRP well after the minimum of 83 MSRP orders are filled.
The third thing that might happen is that they will not be able to get over MSRP after 83 orders, because of the large amount of dealers only charging MSRP, and they will lower their price. I remember seeing the same $15k over MSRP M3 sittting in a Bay Area dealership for months.