Pinch me. I have had an exceptional car buying experience. We stopped by after walking away from another dealership in the middle of paperwork. I had no intention of getting a VW (truth be told, I thought it would be beyond my price point). We were promptly greeted by our sales guy, Michael Thomas, who has outstanding customer service skills and is a great listener.
We described what we were looking for and emphasized our price point and he led us right to a car that met the criteria. From there, it came down to finding "the perfect car." Michael was patient and even allowed us to drive multiple vehicles as we compared the options.
It must be a fun place to work: his fellow co-workers came together to get some great options out there for us as well -- a friendly competition that in no way felt targeted at us (the customer).
The entire experience was super low pressure -- in fact, we left for a bite to eat and to think about the pricing and when we called back close to closing time to assure them we were still interested but were still at the restaurant there was no urgency. We just pushed the negotiating to the next day.
Michael has greeted me by name every time I've returned to the dealership: for paperwork, to take delivery or to have them do a biosweep to get the faint smell of smoke out of the car ( that only I and other former smokers could pick up on and; which, so far as I can tell, was really effective!).
It truly has been a great experience. I'm super happy with my purchase so far and I've already referred someone to the dealership!
My compliments (and thanks) to Michael and the rest of the folks who helped on this purchase.
(P.S. I like to tease him that he's such a good salesman he was able to sell a sun devil red car to a wildcat! ;) ...it's actually quite literal, though!)