You know Bob, the people at the dealership make a big difference in their sales.
For instance, I went to a Subaru/Mazda dealership and was looking at the WRX when they pointed out the MP3 to me. But, they wouldn't even let me get in it and they had a $10k mark up on it! I was really interested in the car and had money to spend but when they couldn't take the next step with me on the MP3 they began to really hard sell me on the WRX which makes me just want to vomit so I took off to one of the other dealerships in my area. At the next one I got to drive one after much arm twisting(not like it was on a showroom floor or anything it was sitting right by the entrance to the lot, and I don't look like some punk kid wasting time, I'm 30 for god sakes!).
I loved the drive but when I asked if they were at all flexible on the $21,800 price tag the salesperson shot back with an almost instantaneous "NO". I shot back with an almost instantaneous "BYE". Then their "Manager" came over and couldn't figure out why we were leaving. BTW, that MP3 sat on the lot for months before it was finally gone. The next day I called the last Mazda dealership in my area. They had one, it was on the showroom floor, nice guy on the phone, gave me a fair price over the phone, said he would be as flexible as he could be. The vibe was already far more low pressure and accomodating. I made an appointment to come down and talk to him. They pulled it out of the showroom to give me a test drive before we ever started talking numbers. Good test drive, informed salesman, although you could tell he was more used to selling MPV's and Hyundais. We came back batted some numbers back and forth a couple times, but no pressure and no heavy-handed sales techniques. They were willing to come down to my stopping point on price and the paperwork was done without hassle and as quickly as possible. I've done my fair share of car deals and this was the smoothest, most hassle-free deal I have ever done. I've found the weak spot at this dealership is their service dept. They are connected with a large Ford dealership and we actually went over to the Ford offices to finish up the deal, which made me nervous because I HATE Ford dealerships, but even they were nice over there. The salesman even gave me a $20 out of his own wallet to buy my wife and I dinner!
ANyway, the point is that I just can't bring myself to spend that kind of money at a place where I'm being treated disrepectfully and like they could care less if I drop my $20k there or not. If the last dealership would have been as bad as the other two I probably would have just gave up and never bought an MP3.
I've never been into a Ford dealership that treated me any better than a bum trying to steal their sandwich and I've been stupid enough to buy two cars from them. But after my last experience I will NEVER even go into a Ford dealership again, no matter how badly I want a car their selling. It strikes me as very naive of a dealership or a carmaker to not insure that the people making the face-to-face contact with their customers are the nicest, most professional, best trained people they have. It makes a huge difference in sales.