We stopped by Saturday to look at a car we noticed on the internet. Gosh, my wife and I were even dressed what would be considered respectfully and everything. Our Ford Edge looks brand new and hardly conveys an impression of poverty, but we wanted to look at a change of vehicles.
We found the car and asked the sales person if he might unlock it so we could have a closer look inside. Imagine my surprise when told that he couldn't do that until we went inside for an analysis discussion! What??...you might ask as we did??? "We can't look inside, never mind being as bold as asking to sit on any of the seats until we are evaluated for our sincerity and ability to purchase a car????", we asked. He went out of his way to explain that, sorry, that's policy at AutoNation and he certainly had nothing to do with it.
I haven't been treated a lot of rude ways so I can't blithely say, "I've been treated a lot of ways by dealers" in a snarky way, but I have never been told I can't have a car door unlocked until I can prove I'm serious about buying one. On the walk back to our (very nice looking, now) car after refusing to have to prove my intensions to buy a car it did occur to us there were absolutely no other customers on the lot and our sales guy was just waiting for something better to come along.
Don't go looking to buy here unless you go straight into the sales office and submit to getting cleared for purchase privileges first! I've always at least been able to sit in a prospective car before being thrown into the clutches of "The Closer".