I started my quest for a new car with a visit to Edmunds.com. They've got some great research on vehicles, both new and used. You can find out MSRP's, dealer invoice prices, online reviews. There's also a section to do side-by-side comparisons of vehicles. Cool.
From what I read, I narrowed down my choices to the Honda CR-V, the Mazda CX7 and the Saturn VUE Greenline. I was able to request quotes from local dealers through the website, which I thought would make my life easy. On each of the forms, I requested to be contacted via e-mail only.
That was great. The Honda internet sales manager did just that - answered my inquiry by e-mail and sent me a quote to get the ball rolling, inviting me to come by the dealership at any time to check out the car in person. Cool!
The Saturn guy was just as nice. Didn't call, e-mailed only, but unfortunately, couldn't write a complete sentence to save his life. But at least I didn't have to talk to him.
The Mazda guy was the worst. 3 messages on my answering machine the same day I filled out the request. Not an e-mail in sight. I kept thinking, 'what part of e-mail contact only did you not understand?' So of course, when I received an e-mail about customer satisfaction from the dealership a few days later, I ripped off a really great nasty gram to them about how they couldn't follow directions and no, I hadn't received any useful information from them yet. Not surprisingly, that same afternoon, an e-mail arrived from the sales person with an invitation to call him to discuss my upcoming purchase. Hello? Where the heck is the info to make me want to purchase the car from you? Dork.
I exchanged e-mails with all 3 for about two weeks. They all understood that I was not interested in talking to them until I could get in there to test drive, and that I would continue to contact them only through e-mails. That seemed to go well.
Next installment: The Test Drives.
Until then,
Kel
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