Yesterday I went with my girlfriend Karen to go shopping for a car for her. She's one of those young urban professional types who works in a cube putting the Penske file in an accordian folder (or whatever it is you businesspeople do). ANyway, there were only a few criteria to meet: A/C, auto, ABS, and a price ranging from 13k to 18k. So we went out to several dealerships in the Atlanta area to find her a car. Here's what we found: First stop was a local Honda dealership to check out the Civic. One of the salsemen greeted us at the door initially seemed interested, but when we said we were looking to get the car "in the next few weeks" he lost interest (I guess "today" would have been the right answer). He then pointed the direction to the parking deck of cars and that was the last we saw of him. So we spent the next twenty minutes in a light drizzle looking the cars over ourselves. The next stop was a Toyota dealership to check out the Corolla and the Celica. After having to ask someone to help us, we discovered that ABS is a special-order option on the Corolla and would take 120 days to arrive. The Celica, which was her favorite of the cars we looked at, was a little over budget. Then came the Ford dealership to chekc out teh Focus. Ugh. Immediately after exiting our car and before we had even reached the corner of the lot with the Focuses (Foci?)the salesman was trying to convince us to take the car today. We looked them over and had a few questions, none of which he was able to answer. When we asked if they had ABS, he wasn't sure (it's an option) and he tried to talk us out of it anyway, saying it's neccessary. Plus, he called Karen "Katie" several times, which is bad enough as it is, but is even worse in this case since Katie is my ex-girlfriend's name. After we had looked, he then went into a five-minute monologue about how George Bush and the Republicans were ruining the economy and that we needed to buy an american car (keep in mind this was after he saw me pull up in my 535i). Not a good experience. Finally, we visited Ed Voyles Acura (I'm mentioning the name because it was a positive experience) to see if any 2001 Integras were available. A salesman met us at the door, and even though they had sold their last 2001, he showed us two on the used car lot. He answered all of our questions and even went back inside to check if one was Certified Pre-Owned. The entire time he never pressured us into buying. Unfortunately, the car was a manual, and while it was more than OK with me, Karen needs an auto. Oh well. I can't see how people put up with this sort of stuff. Aside from the Acura dealership, we were either ignored or manipulated by salesmen at all of the dealerships. I hope we can settle all of this soon, and I hope she doesn't get the Cavalier her father wants her to test-drive tomorrow (may God have mercy on us all if she does). Sean H '92 535i
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