General question - amount of pymt requested at time of order?

[waterpro]

I'm curious, since we have a lot of dealers online here.  Are the manufacturers requiring a down payment, or is it just the dealers that are requesting a down payment?   Reason I ask, is that I too am being asked to put 50% down.  It's not that I don't trust that they'll be in business, it's the fact that I'll have $7k wrapped up ($14 total) in a hot tub that I won't get for at least 6 months from now.  I understand that dealers want a deposit to make sure that the buyers are serious and can afford the final price when it comes, but when the wait is over 6 months now, 50% seems excessive. 

To give you perspective on this, I'm selling some of my personal investments to pay for the hot tub.  $7k upfront for the hot tub down payment, invested at 10% rate of return over the 6 months I have to wait, is about $350.  I'm losing $350 just by having the dealer hold my money versus letting my investments build more money until the hot tub arrives.  That would almost completely pay for my EOS Ozone Generator. 

I'm just trying to figure out why the down payments are so large. 

I understand having to put down something, but 50% seems outrageous.  I mean to reserve a Tesla Model 3, all you had to do was put down $1000 and that was a significantly more expensive purchase than a hot tub.

I am not meaning any disrespect to the dealers on here, I'm just trying to understand why the deposit is so high.

Thanks!

[Hottubguy]

No manufacturers I deal with require downpayments. You either pay for the tubs before they ship out which I do sometimes or some dealers have a floor planning system where you pay as they are sold. Like I said in a previous post I’m doing small deposits once tub goes into production in x number of weeks or months I get a second deposit and on delivery final payment. Personally I don’t want the large down payment right now because I’m being very flexible with my cancellation policy. What other dealers are doing is really up to them as well as up to the clients. Have you asked about putting a smaller deposit down and maybe upping deposit when tub goes into production?