This sounds like an excellent idea to me Mario. In all seriousness this kind of thing is done in a lot of areas of business. Most notably for most is when you have a home built. This is how the banks handle paying the contractor. A contract is setup, progress inspections are done and money "draws" are issued based on the actual progress. To me this protects both parties. The vendor knows you have the funds and the customer has some level of comfort they will get what they want. If a vendor is unwilling to enter in to this agreement, then you have to ask why. This may sound odd, but make sure you spell out the consequences to either of you not living up to your ends of the agreement. I have friend right now that had a contract drawn up that said what each agreed to, but had no consequences if it didn't happen. At that point it means nothing. In the industry I work in, it is not uncommon to have an incentive adder too. If the vendor delivers on time, you pay the agreed amount. If they deliver early give them a 2-5% bonus. If they are late then they loose some percentage. If it goes too long, you have the right to cancel the deal. I really think you are on the right track and that if this was done more, people would be happier and more of the bad vendors would go away. Keep us posted on how you go forward.
By the way, you should talk to Casey Wegner at Wegner Automotive. They are first class and deliver on what they say. They actually had to wait for us and had no issue with that. We gave them a down payment and they told us call when your ready and we'll get it done. They did just that!
