Annoyances about car dealers

[merlin]

I have recently been shopping for a RAV4 V6 (new or used) for the wife. I was initially dreading going to all the yards as I hate having to fend off 50,000 salesmen as soon as you set foot on their turf when you just want to check out the car first (at least that was my experience when I bought my first new car in 2003 - a BA).

Well I have to say I was expecting even worse this time around given the sales slump - but I couldn't have been more wrong. Went to four seperate Toyota dealers and also tried out some competitors - CX7, Territory ect. and spent 99% of the time being ignored. We are a youngish couple (late twenties) so maybe they thought we didn't have the money, I'm not sure, but we have cash ready to go, no loan even needed and we were dressed well enough (several times I was wearing a suit as I went straight from work).

We went to Mazda first - "sorry sir no CX7's here to drive" me "can you get one in?" him "oh they are very rare at the moment, dont think so". So walked.

Then went to Ford to drive a Terry - couldn't get served at all. Ignored so we walked.

Then went to two Toyota dealers - couldn't get served at all so once again walked.

Ended up going home scratching our heads, me thinking maybe they are short of staff with the financial crisis. So I went on the net and booked test drives through their websites - one each for Ford, Mazda and Toyota.

After 1 week a guy from Mazda head office calls and states "So how did you enjoy your testdrive sir" - me "well no one has called me yet for one..." "Oh so sorry I'll fix that for you". Two days later local Mazda calls and books in a date for a drive. When we get there they are nice enough, we go for a good drive ect, but they are very condesending. We got annoyed that he asked about 3 times "do you know how much a CX7 is sir, they are not cheap". - I was thinking... mate why would I waste my weekend driving it, if I didnt have the money to buy it (well it probably involved a lot more swear words but you get the drift).

Its 2 weeks later and still no call from Ford or Toyota about our supposed "booked test drives". So we ended up going back to Toyota this weekend off our own bat and demanding a drive. Very uninterested salesman at first dealership goes "sorry no RAV4's here but you can take a Kluger". Throws us the keys and tells us to take our time (he dosn't want to go with us). So we went for a drive, it was very good actually, came back, give back the keys and he basically said "how'd you go" we said "good, but we still want to drive a RAV sometime" him - "yeah I have no idea when one will be in", didnt offer to take our number and call us or anything - I HAD TO ASK HIM FOR HIS CARD!

Next Toyota dealer did have some RAVs, we took one for a drive came back to the dealership - wife loved it, probably would have bought one but he didnt want to engage in price negotiations, seemed too busy and uninterested, once again I asked for HIS card not the other way round.

So in the end still sitting on our money, still no RAV4 for the wife and very puzzled why these guys dont want our money. What financial crisis?

Sorry for the long post.