I think I've told this story before, but this is a good place for it. It's a little long I'm afraid.
I bought my first new car back in 1972 but didn't buy another new one until 1989 when I bought the a Sonata in it's first year in the U.S. I don't remember much about the sales experience honestly. I probably paid too much and got taken advantage of. But I didn't know any better at the time. I only had 1 service experience and it was really great. I had a dead battery, my fault. Tried to jump start the car and must have done something wrong. I blew a bunch of fuses and almost every light bulb in the car. Of course, since all the fuses were blown I didn't know about the bulbs. Not only did they fix it all without charge, they did it while I waited without me even making an appointment.
I was really happy with the car, very pleased with the service and 3 years later decided to trade up to a newer model since they now offered a 6 cyl (sound familiar?). Well I had the worst buying experience I've had other than the few times I got into shouting matches with idiot salesmen. When I showed up at the dealership they only had 1 salesperson on the floor. So when I asked for a test drive I was told I'd have to take one on my own. OK, not a big deal. So the sales buy goes and looks for a car. Sat there about 15 minutes all alone waiting in the showroom. Finally he pulls a car up to the side door. This thing looked like it came off the truck 5 minutes before. Not only did it still have plastic on the seats, it had plastic bags of misc. parts sitting on the passenger seat. But I went and took it for a little test drive anyway because I wanted to see how the 6 performed. Drove about 2 miles and turned around to go back to the dealer. About half a mile from getting back the car ran out of gas. Walked back to the dealer, told him where the car was, handed him the keys and left.
Fast forward to 2010 and I end up buying my new Sonata from the same dealer. It wasn't by design, but they were one of the few that responded to requests for quotes and they came in with the best price. Well actually, some might consider it slightly shady because they came through with an unbelievable price. The reason they were able to do that was because they didn't include the destination charges in the quote. But even with that, it was still about $500 better than any other quote.
Other than that, the rest of the sales experience was really pretty good. The Internet sales person (Tammy) did her job and tried to push all the add-ons like paint protection, extended warranties and whatever else. But she was respectful enough to not push when I said no. The finance guy was a little pushier trying to sell me wheel and tire protection, but honestly, I think it's because he really believed in the policy. I ended up buying it for about 60% of the original asking price. He also made himself a little bit of extra money by getting me a better rate through a local bank than Hyundai financing.
Back in 1989 when I bought my first Hyundai, the choice of dealers was scant. This dealer is about 15 miles from where I live and back then it was the closest around. Now I have 20 dealers within 25 miles of where I live. There's at least 3 or 4 closer than this dealer. But I still remember that one service experience. I only have to deal with the sales people once when I buy a car. But I might have to deal with the service people many times over the time of ownership.
I'm taking mine in Wednesday for the first service. Getting my 1K oil change and I'll ask them to look at a rattle near the glove box. It will be interesting to see how the service matches up with my previous experience. I really never expect much when trying to get rattles fixed, so it will be interesting.
Just reread this long rambling text and realize I haven't actually mentioned the dealer. Sorry, it's Loren Hyundai in Gleveiw Illinois.
Oh, almost forget to the best part of the whole sales experience. After I'd agreed to the purchase and while I was waiting for them to run my credit, the owner of the dealership came out to 'congratulate' me on my purchase. You know, add that little extra schmooze. So he comes in, introduces himself, and thanks me for my business. Then he says, "Wow, that really is a sharp looking car in black." I said, "Yea, probably is, but I'm buying a white one." He looked really angry that someone fed him the wrong information.