Saturday afternoon, having left the girls at my parents’ Jessica and I went out in our rental roach car to test drive two vehicles (we’ve narrowed our desired car down to a mid-sized SUV): The Honda CRV and the Saturn VUE. The similarities of the vehicles include having a similar classification, both run Honda engines, both have a V in their names, and both were at car dealers. From there, it went completely opposite of what I was expecting. I warned Jessica that if the Honda salesman wanted to get pushy I was out of there. The Saturn guy I wasn’t worried about because Saturn is supposed to be a no pressure, no haggle place. That’s their policy.

Honda First

We went to the Honda dealership and after parking walked over to the CRVs and started looking. Bam! We liked the exteriors and just needed to get into the car and do a bit of a test drive. No salesperson ran up to us and shook our hands and asked how much money we were intending to spend. Instead after he had finished helping another family that was looking at CRV’s he asked if we needed help. I told him that we wanted to look at the CRV’s and since he had the key for the SE model (SE stands for Price, deluxe, bells and whistles) he let us in. I told him that we weren’t looking to spend that much and asked that we be shown the LX (LX stands for Low End. This car has so many more bells and whistles than our Honda that it seems funny that it is considered low end). He walked into the dealership after asking me questions that I evasively answered. I indicated that we weren’t going to be buying today. He got the clue, went into the dealership and got the keys for the LX.

He got into the back seat and Jessica was in the passenger seat. He didn’t say too much other than to suggest some things for me to be able to experience how the CRV handled. I have to confess to having bubbled over several times while driving about how great the 4 cylinder engine performed compared to the Civic. The CRV was a little slow on the starts but once it got going was nicely responsive due to the iVTEC technology Honda uses to get extra power out of the otherwise tiny engine. The interior had little details all over it that were major improvements over the 2000 Civic we had before. The exterior had lines we liked and it comes in a cobalt blue that we love.

After driving it up some hills quite quickly (without noticable engine noise) and after taking some corners a little faster than I would normally and having it not roll over I was impressed. I parked back at the dealership and messed with the factory stereo. Music. Sounding good [note that for a factory stereo it sounds good, I know that its not a high end system]. Space in the backend of the Honda was nice for a smaller SUV and the back passenger seats slide forward a few inches, if that is all you need, as well as folding up if you need lots more space. In short we loved the car. The salesman showed us the blue model with black interior because we asked if they had a blue model (which only comes with a black interior. Ouch in the heat but we’ll see). He then told me that his manager required him to ask us if there was anything he could do to get us into the car (he asked with the conviction of a man who knew he wasn’t going to get an affirmative answer). I told him no but asked for his card. He gave me his card and indicated that due to dealer incentives he thought we could get a prime deal if we purchased towards the end of the month. We shook hands and Jessica and I walked out of the showroom floor happily discussing the experience.

Saturn – Like Uranus

The Saturn dealership was not like I was expecting. The guy who was scheduled to show us the vehicles pretty quickly took us to a used VUE at the back of the dealership. It wasn’t old, it only had 256 miles on it. It was a bright blue color. It was the deluxe package. It had everything, including a 6 cylinder Honda engine and drive train (iVTEC included). Except that the body had lines that Jessica and I didn’t like. The sales guy started singing the praises of the safety features to which Jessica replied, “Yes, we like that it has the LATCH system for the seatbelts.”

Salesman: “What?”

Jessica: “The car seat attachment system is called LATCH.”

Salesman: “Whatever. blah, blah, blah, we’re better, safer, stronger, blah, blah.”

So we went and drove for a while and the salesguy said to us as he got into the car, “I’ll just be back here ready to answer your questions.” And then the dialog began. He started asking us questions, telling us more and more things, and upping the annoyance factor. Note to any car salesperson who reads this: let the customers experience the car, if you’re going to point out things that they should notice (because the manufacturer hasn’t already made them obvious), do it before (or after) the customer starts driving. It will save you a lot of annoyance points because
they will get to experience the vehicle. Cars are about experience as well as monetary commitments and safety cages.
Upon arriving back at the dealership we sat in the car and talked about a few things. I loved the engine’s power, but not so much the rest of the car, so I just noted how nice the engine was. Upon debarking the VUE he asked if we were going to pass such a sweet deal up and the pressure began. At Saturn. The no pressure dealership. He said that they hadn’t sold any cars that day so he was sure we could get them to bump the price down. At Saturn. The no haggle dealership. Jessica and I declined and departed. About 7 minutes later my cell phone began playing the MP3 song that is my ringtone. It was him telling me about some financing options they had.

Unsold! We’re not going to buy a VUE this time around because we don’t like the features and design of the car with a few minor exceptions. We didn’t like the pressure and we didn’t like the idea that we could haggle after being told that they were a no haggle dealership.

When we get back from our family trip at the end of the month we’re going to buy a CRV and may even buy it from the salesman who was so polite, courteous and attentive to our buying approach.