I remember when I was shoppping for an HHR I got ignored at a few dealerships. I suppose they looked at me an me g/f (I'm 21 and she's 18) and figured we were kids and didn't have money to buy a car or something, because we got completely ignored at the first 2 places we went. We finally came across a dealership that the salesperson was nice to us, but he didn't have any HHR's. They had another dealership about 10min down the road, so we headed there to take one out for a drive. We get there, the salesperson tells me he doesn't want to go outside and go over the car with me because 'it's too cold out'. I ask if he can just unlock it so I can look at it. He gets the keys, and decides to just come out with me. I'm looking over the car, he's telling me what it has. He tells me it has the Pioneer system, I politely tell him that I want to do without the Pioneer system, since I'm a car audio installer and will be putting in my own audio system, so I just want the base stereo. He starts to get into an arguement with me about how it's better to get the Pioneer system so I don't have to buy a stereo system, I told him as slow as I possibly could, "I'm an installer, I don't want the Pioneer system, if I have the Pioneer system, I will rip it all out regardless, so why would I pay more for something I'm just going to rip out?!?!?!".

All this time, he's reading things off of a cue card, because he doesn't know anything about the car. I ask him if it's a 1LT or 2LT, he looks at me like I have 12 heads. Then, he asks "Are we done here? I'm really cold". I just said yep, I'm going to take a trip to ____ Chevy anyway.

Anyway, I went to yet another dealership and although they ignored me for a while I finally got to drive on. Then, I went to the dealership that I ended up buying my HHR from, and the salesperson was a great guy. I told him what I was looking for (either 1LT or 2LT, metallic blue, side curtain air bags, ABS, and base stereo). They had a 1LT that had all of that +floormats and sunroof. They didn't have it at the dealership, they had it at their storage lot which was about 20 minutes away, he went and got someone in the shop to go pick up the car just so I can look at it. The whole time I waited for the car to get there he sat with me and talked with me, for about a half hour or so. Great guy. The next day after I got the car, I noticed there were no mats in the car. I called him, he apologized and told me to swing by, I showed up the next day, he went and looked for a brand new set of mats, found me a set that was still in the shipping box and gave them to me.

:smile: I think we are all handling our buying experience incorrectly.

;) The correct way:

1) Pickup a brochure on the vehicle of interest (sometimes hard to get one at some dealerships).
2) Go home and study the brochure for three (3) days.
3) Check the vehicle out on the Internet for another three (3) days.
4) Summarize all of your study and put it in a notebook - another three (3) days.
5) Then go to any dealership and see if the salesman knows as much about the car as you do. If so, buy. If not, go to another dealer**

** The good thing about this plan is that you will never be able to find a salesman that knows as much about the vehicle as you do, so you will never buy, saving you plenty of money!

Fritz45

P.S. What I did was looked at an HHR in Florida, telling salesman that I was not a prospect, as did not live in the area (he lost interest in me quickly and for some unknown reason could not find a brochure). So I rented an HHR for one day at the airport to get a feel for it. My wife and I both liked it. Then I proceeded with the above plan, which worked exactly as outlined. I was able to locate an HHR brochure when I got home (Step 1) and I followed the instructions for Steps 2, 3 and 4. However, since I really wanted an HHR, skipped Step 5 (seeing if salesman knew as much about it as I did). I shopped 2 dealers and got trade-in prices on my HHR, then worked the best dealer up an extra $500 on the trade (he was already $500 below the first dealer) and bought the car. By luck the best price was from the best service dealership anywhere around here and also by luck, this dealer was closest to my home (about 4 miles).

:smile: The salesman at that dealership was very knowledgeable, but I asked no questions, as was very familiar with everything due to following the above plan. This saved a lot of time, so that we could concentrate on the pricing and trade-in. He also was not pushy and no pressure - no wonder he has been with that dealer for years and is their top selling salesman. I will go back to him for my next HHR or other product when the time comes.

Fritz45

Reply to SNOVA 031
 

Sound like a good closing experience. My sales guy owes me some mudd flaps. I rejected their first offer for my trade in and was doing the "thanks anyway, I guess it was not meant to be" thing, when he did the, "hold on, I'll be right back" thing.
They went up around a grand on the trade in. They should, the Vibe had a couple hundred LESS miles on it then the HHR and was in cosmetically perfect shape. Not so the HHR which has a lot of small paint chips from it 8500 miles of use. I get them to throw in some touch up paint as well.
We did this dance once more and I got them to throw in a round of four mud flaps to be installed when they get them in.

My sales guy told me to "stay on him " about the flaps too. So I guess I will. All in all, it was our first purchase from this dealer and if they play their card right, not the last. We'll see just how often the service dept tries to upsell us on things we do not need when we bring the HHR in for its "free oil changes for life" policy.

Hey as aside, Could I pick your brain as an audio installer?

We did go with the premium radio ( heck the car was a loaded one with a 25K original sticker price), and while the package is livable, I want to modify it. I do really like the head unit as it has the XM, six disc changer, aux in, etc. I'd like to keep the head unit and still be able to use the very handy redundant radio controls. My local installer wants to put an impedance ( I think) matching device in that would NOT allow me to use the head unit's volume control.
I'd rather just change things out and keep the controls. From what I understand a lot of other things can get channeled through these central radio/entertainment consoles these days. I know the turn signal audio is, for just one example.

I have read Captain Howdy's description of just changing all the speakers and that seems quite doable. But of course Id' like to change the amps and add TV's to the headrests down the line a bit.
Any ideas?