Wanting some test drives, I went to 3 different car dealerships.
Chevrolet Dealership:
Went to test drive a new Corvette. Showed up, and the sales guy took me to a nicer one than the one I wanted to drive, and removed the plastic from it to let me drive it. He just tossed me the keys. He answered my questions. If I was an annoyance, he never let on. I never felt rushed, and he gave me space, but always told me where he would be. I never felt pressure, and he only took a copy of my driver's license. No paperwork. No financial questions. I think the 'Vette I drove was a $120K vehicle. If was awesome, anf fit like a glove. The attitude seemed to be that the car sold itself, and the salesman believed in his product.
KIA dealership:
Called to see if they had a Stinger. They said yes, then gave me an appointment time, and said to ask for a VIP manager. When I got there, there was no VIP manager to be found. I was told they were all offsite. I re-iterated that I had an appointment. No one offered to help, although a sales person said that the VIP manager would just pass me off on a salesperson like him. I felt like a walking dollar sign. I explained that I wanted to drive a Stinger. I was instructed to wait at a table. 10 minutes later, the guy came back with a form that had been copied so many times as to be unreadable. He started asking me all sorts of ginancial questions. I re-iterated that I wanted to see a Stinger. They wanted to do a credit check. I refused. The guy said he'd check. He returned with a sales manager, who said that they can't let people drive the new cars, because then they'll get miles on them. Apparently, you have to purchase a vehicle to drive it. I told them I never buy a vehicle without driving it first. They said that this is a KIA, with twin turbos, and worth $55K. I explained that what I was hearing is that this is an overpriced, problematic, high-maintenance vehicle, and again asked to see the vehicle. The sales manager said OK, but asked me if I'd be buying the car today. No, not even if they gave it to me. I'm just looking. They both walked off to get the key. About 10 minutes later, I figured they had forgotten about me. Another salesperson asked if they could sell me a car. Finally, the original sales person showed up with the car. I wish he'd have said he was going to get the car. Who knows. Maybe it has starting issues they didn't want me to see? Anyhow, it was a gosh-awful modeling clay color. At this point, it had been a 45-minute waste of time.
The salesperson told me that the Stinger is very fast, and competing against cars that cose $30K more. Looking at the cheap interior of the Stinger, I think it should be priced $33K less. When the shipping plastic was removed, some of the interior coating came off with the plastic. Very cheap. The throttle response was interesting: press throttle to the floor, let up, wait for 2 seconds, then the engine would respond. Seating put me at the B-pillar, but at least not behind it. Some of the controls are awkward, but the paddle shifters are nice. I was unable to get the steering wheel to a comfortable driving position. Driving for 10 miles would probably be OK, but not an hour. The arm rests were very awkward. Anyway, I asked the salesperson a few questions, like how to release the emergency brake, how to open the fuel door, where the puddle lights were, if it had lane change warnings, etc. He either did not know, or gave what I later showed him were incorrect answers. He told me the car had certain features, which we later found the car did not have. He even told me that ghe car did not have a spare tire. It did. The entire time, I felt pressured and rushed. He happily pointed out the tubes for the turbos. I was reminded of a computer technician who interviewed with me, years ago, and didn't know what type of slot an EigerCom PCI modem plugged into.
Anyway, I left. More than 2 hours later, I received a follow-up call. The woman wanted to know why I had not showed up for my appointment. I told her that I did, but they had no idea, and didn't seem to care. She insisted that this was important, and that she wanted to know more, and that she would relate to her managers, but then she had to go to make the next call. Wow!
The entire experience felt as if they wanted to forcefully separate me from my money, using the gimmick of a cheap car. I never felt valued, or that they believed in their KIA's.
Maserati dealership:
I just showed up. It was a rather distant greeting. The guy saw me looking as a Maserati V6 twin turbo, and brought me the keys. He offered to get a plate, which I accepted. He made a copy of my license, and off I went for a drive. Very nice. Not for me, but still nice. The guy's attitude was such that maybe he was selling Rolls Royces in the UK, and the car was too good for me. Very stiff, cold, and formal. Still, I felt as if he was selling cars--not cheap gimmicks. I think it was about 20 minutes from the time I walked onto the lot, until I walked off the lot. Again, the salesman believed in his product, but knew I wasn't buying. Seriously, his attitude was like the butler Geoffrey's, in Fresh Prince of Bel Air, without the sarcasm. Had I asked to buy the Maserati, I fully expected his reply would have been, "Are you feeling well, Sir?"
I had planned on also test driving a Tesla, but the KIA dealership wasted too much of my time.
Who buys a car without driving it, first? Maybe it's a new era for car sales.
