I only put money down when I had a date three months from when we were first speaking. Mine was $1800 Canadian.

Then I found out that they were not able to keep up with their overhead as we went along, they would ask for money ahead of work being done.

After a few months got a call on a Thursday to come pick up my car Saturday as they were going out of business, I had two hours to get my car out of there.

Just beware.