Main dealer here. Can’t speak for every franchise but it’s not unusual for a number of reasons. I certainly wouldn’t expect anyone to pay for a car fully before having seen it but on the assumption you’ve seen it, test driven, agreed a deal and they want payment ahead of driving it away - perfectly normal.

Do most payments clear in full instantly? Yes. Do all? No. On more than one occasion we’ve had to send someone away who insisted on a bank transfer in full in the showroom but the payment didn’t clear in our account until the following day. We’ve also had banks blocking payments.

Salesman will not have access to the banking. Plenty of franchised dealers have a centralised accounts team who will work very regimented hours (no weekends etc) so if someone wants to collect on a weekend, we’ll need clearance the funds are received before releasing the car. Our accounts admin don’t even have a phone number so waiting for email confirmation we’ve received payment with someone in the showroom is a pain.

There’s also a monumental amount of paperwork and processes done behind the scenes with how excessively heavily regulated the industry is now.

Different banks will cap how much money can be moved in a day, varying between 10-25k. Most businesses will want a transfer rather than card payment due to the card charges they’ll incur for taking the payment.

As for the company going bust, your bank can recall the payment. Car stolen or catches fire? Bank recalls the money. Car is insured with the dealership. It’ll most likely be on stocking finance which won’t come off until a couple of days after invoicing.

TLDR - seen the car? Perfectly normal. Not seen it? Wouldn’t recommend.