After Putting Down a $500 Deposit, a 2025 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Buyer Says a San Diego Dealer Sold His Car the Same Day, “Everything Just Happened So Fast,” Management Told Him, Then Went Silent for Over a Week

There is a special kind of frustration reserved for buyers who do everything right and still lose the car. 

A recent post in r/rav4club captures that feeling with painful clarity, detailing how a dealership sold a 2025 RAV4 XLE Hybrid with the JBL package and SofTex interior to another customer despite a $500 deposit and an explicit green light to come in and finalize paperwork the next day.

The timeline is what makes the story sting. The buyer placed a deposit, waited for the vehicle to arrive, and then received confirmation from their salesperson that the car was on the lot and ready. The response was immediate and reasonable. “Sweet. I’ll be in tomorrow.” Hours later, a late-night phone call delivered the gut punch. Another salesperson had sold the car out from under them. Even the original salesperson sounded upset, likely because they lost the sale themselves, underscoring that this was not a miscommunication between buyer and rep, but a breakdown higher up the chain.

“Dealership sold the car I put a deposit on to someone else…

Pretty frustrated about this because I put a $500 deposit down, and it was waiting for the car to arrive. I got a message from one of the salespeople on Wednesday morning telling me that the car had arrived and that I was able to come in and finalize the paperwork. I said sweet. I’ll be in tomorrow.

I then got a phone call late at night on Wednesday from my salesperson telling me that another salesman ended up selling the car that I had a deposit on. And honestly, my salesperson will seem like he was pretty upset over the phone, which probably… I mean, he did lose a sale.

So now I guess I’m just asking what the whole point of the deposit is if this can happen

2025 Rav 4 XLE Hybrid with JBL package and softex.

Update:

First, I just want to start off by saying my salesman is a great person, and I really appreciate their time and effort trying to get things sorted out and helping me figure out which car is best for me. This is purely on management.

Someone from the dealership reached out to me and gave me a phone call stating that ‘everything just happened so fast, and we apologize for selling the car’.

I told them that it makes no sense that they sold the car when I initially put a deposit on it, and they didn’t even give me 24 hours to get the car.

Pretty much, they told me that there’s nothing they can do since the car is no longer here, and they will try to get a different car, same model from a different dealership for me. This was a week ago. It has been crickets ever since.

So if anyone is in the San Diego location, I would highly recommend that you do not purchase or go look at anything.”

That breakdown leads to the obvious question the buyer asked. What is the point of a deposit if it does not actually reserve the vehicle? In theory, a deposit is supposed to take a car off the market, or at the very least put a clear hold on it pending final paperwork. In practice, deposits often live in a gray area. Some are fully binding. Others are little more than a gentleman’s agreement, especially when management decides that a faster or more lucrative deal is available.

Toyota RAV4: Urban-Friendly Practicality

• The RAV4’s compact exterior dimensions and upright seating position make it well-suited to dense urban driving, balancing easy maneuverability with a sense of space from the driver’s seat.
• Powertrain tuning favors efficiency and predictability over outright performance, resulting in smooth but unhurried acceleration that aligns with its everyday commuter focus.
• Interior layout prioritizes straightforward usability, with physical buttons retained for key functions even as infotainment and driver assistance systems grow more prominent.
• Cargo capacity and rear-seat flexibility support practical family use, though road noise and suspension firmness become more noticeable on rough highway surfaces.

The follow-up post only deepened the disappointment. Management reached out with an apology and an explanation that “everything just happened so fast,” a phrase that tends to translate to “someone ignored the notes.” The buyer pushed back, pointing out that they were not even given 24 hours to complete the deal. The response was blunt. The car was gone. There was nothing they could do. The promise to locate a similar vehicle from another dealership quietly dissolved into silence.

Context matters here. Hybrid RAV4s, especially well-optioned ones, are not easy to replace on short notice. The buyer now finds themselves stuck between scarcity and uncertainty. The 2025 model year is thinning out, and the 2026 RAV4 is expected to be a first-year redesign. For many buyers, that is not an appealing fallback. Waiting becomes a gamble rather than a plan.

Community reactions were swift and sympathetic. Some admitted they had feared the same thing during their own purchase and resorted to being relentlessly persistent just to make sure their reserved vehicle stayed reserved. Others encouraged the buyer to leave detailed reviews on Google and Yelp, not out of spite, but to document behavior that future customers deserve to know about. A few suggested demanding a discount if the dealer ever followed through with a replacement, though the buyer reported that management would not budge, citing their large base of “satisfied customers.”

What makes this situation particularly frustrating is that it was avoidable. A simple internal process, a hold tag, a VIN note, or a manager enforcing the deposit agreement would have prevented the entire episode. Instead, the burden fell on the customer, who lost time, momentum, and trust. The refund of a deposit does not compensate for weeks of waiting or the opportunity cost of passing on other vehicles.

This story is not unique, but it is instructive. Deposits mean different things at different dealerships, and unless the terms are spelled out in writing, they may not mean much at all. Buyers chasing in-demand vehicles are often at the mercy of inventory pressure and internal sales competition, neither of which favors patience or fairness.

The buyer did not just lose a RAV4. They lost confidence in a process that is supposed to reward commitment. For anyone shopping in a tight market, the lesson is uncomfortable but clear. Ask exactly what a deposit guarantees. Get it in writing. And remember that until the paperwork is signed and the keys are in your hand, some dealerships still treat a car as available, no matter what they told you the day before.

Image Sources: Toyota Media Center

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.