[antimatr]

I've had my share of outstanding and horrible dealership experiences from both GM and Ford....

My most recent was when I visited my local Ford dealer last month, before I ordered my '11 GT. I had just received an offer of a dealer 50 miles away willing to order me one for $300 below invoice. I stopped by my local dealership, and told the salesmen there my offer from the other dealer.

When I asked them if they could meet or beat that offer, they called both me and the other dealership liars and stopped short of saying I was full of shit. One of the salesmen, in a rather condescending tone, offered to order me an '11 at MSRP as if he were doing me a favor. Another one suggested I buy a leftover '10. Somehow I found new limits of self-restraint I didn't know existed previously, managed to thank them for their time, got their cards (which I duly shot to pieces at my shooting range the next day) and walked away with no bloodshed.

Pretty much a no-brainer that I ended up ordering my GT from the other dealer the same day...

By contrast, the dealership I ordered my GT from has been nothing but awesome from the get-go. Unlike the other eight or nine Ford dealerships I've had to deal with, this dealership went the extra mile for me; Not only did they offer to order me a 2011 for $300 under invoice (whereas the other local dealers were not even willing to entertain to go near unless I had an X-plan PIN), their staff was courteous, informed about their product (rare these days...), answered all of my questions HONESTLY(!!) with no hesitation, were completely forthright with regards to the vehicle price, and the salesman who I'm working with has always made himself available for questions I might have, even on his own time! When I arrived at the dealership, everything went so smoothly that it only took 10-15 minutes to take care of my order, paperwork included!

Earlier, around March, I visited my local Chevy dealership in hopes of test-driving an SS. Upon pulling up in my Mustang, a salesman saw me, walked up to me and correctly deduced that I was interested in a new Camaro. I told him explicitly the configuration of the vehicle I wanted to test drive (a manual 1SS or 2SS).

After hearing this, he walked me over to the only '10 Camaro on their lot, a Victory Red 2SS. Just as I walked up to the driver side door, the engine fires up. OK, so the car has keyless ignition, which by extension means it's probably an automatic. The salesman gave me a look which was all "wasn't that cool?". I tried my best to look impressed, and he unlocked the doors.

We both go inside the car, I give the interior a good looking-over, and after a couple of minutes, the salesman goes into "what can we do to get you to drive home in this today?" mode. At the same time, I look at the odometer and notice the car already has over 15000 miles on it. The salesman then asks if I'm ready to test drive the car.

I tell him no, and to shut off the engine. At this point he's got a confused look on his face. I tell him I wanted to drive a vehicle representative of what I was interested in buying, an SS with a manual transmission, and that this car was not it. He shuts off the engine, we get out of the car. But he's not done with me yet; he tells their finance department can give me some great rates and that with TAPshift, I won't miss having a manual. I then notice the window sticker (over $40000!). I finally have enough of him, and tell him again that I do not want an automatic SS, and ESPECIALLY a used one with over 15000 miles on it, and sure as hell not for $40k (I later found out I could order one equipped as the same as the one I looked at for almost $2500 less). He then apologizes to me for not having the car I was looking for, says to come back in around a month.

Well, almost one month later, I stop by the same dealership, which now has eight brand new SSes sitting in their front lot. I walk out of my car, walk over to the Camaros, and peek through the windows of each one, until I find what I'm looking for; an SS with manual transmission. A salesman notices me looking at this car, walks over, and introduces himself. This one is nowhere near as pushy as the last one. I tell him I'm in the market for a new car, and that I'm interested in a manual SS. I told him I visited the dealership before, and how they had no manual SSes at the time, but that the situation had obviously now changed. When I eventually asked about taking the car for a test drive, the salesman politely declined. I was rather surprised at this, and asked for an explanation.

The salesman (reluctantly) informed me that upper management had a new policy regarding Camaros: no one may test drive one unless they can prove they're a 'serious customer'. I ask the salesman what a serious customer is, and he proceeds to tell me if I'm ready to go inside, we can go ahead and 'talk numbers' and then I MIGHT get to test drive an SS. Upon hearing this, I tell him my own policy regarding new car purchases: I will not 'talk numbers' or anything else until AFTER I test-drive a car and not before. He tells me he understands, and that he'll go to his managers and see what he can do; couple minutes later, he returns and tells me management is adamant on their stance. No test drives unless you're a 'serious customer'. Since I have the gall to ask to test-drive a car before putting $30k+ down on it, I'm apparently not a serious customer, and I thank the salesman for his time and leave.

When I get home, I get on my desktop, locate the next-closest Chevy dealership which is some 45 miles away, get in contact with one of their CSRs via chat, and inform them of my visit to the other dealership, and relate to them my experience, especially with regards to their policy regarding test drives.

In less than 5 minutes, I get a call from this dealership. The salesman speaking apologizes for the other dealer's behavior and tells me that their policy regarding test drives is one of the dumbest things he's ever heard. He also tells me he's more than willing to let me get behind the wheel of a manual SS and take it for a spin. I set up an appointment later that day...

...and ended up being over an hour late (thanks to my wonderful sense of direction, as well as the chicken alfredo I had earlier). A guy who looks barely out of his teens approaches and greets me, and I immediately recognize his voice; he's the one I spoke to earlier on the phone. I apologize profusely for being so late, but he'll have none of it; he's still apologizing for the other dealer's behavior/policies.

I'm only inside the dealership for 5 minutes while they check my license; After that, the salesman hands me some keys and we walk towards one of Bumblebee's twin brothers. To make this already too-long story a bit shorter, I enjoyed the test drive; in fact, I enjoyed it so much I ended up in another county without realizing it! I thanked the salesman for giving me the opportunity to drive such an awesome car, and he thanked me for giving him the opportunity to ride in one (apparently it was his first in a Camaro; he told me he'd be usually riding along with a customer inside a Malibu, Cobalt or Equinox...). Although ultimately I decided to go with another Mustang instead of the Camaro, this dealership treated me very well, didn't try to twist my arm to sell me a car, and was pleasant to deal with. Perhaps around 2014-2015 they'll have a chance to earn my business...