Doesn't Anyone Want to Sell Me a Minivan?

[kransden]

DH had a little fender bender over the weekend. So we decided to get a new car instead of fixing the old one. We had already decided on a minivan. We are not in any hurry to buy one, but the prices are right.

Toyota - didn't even offer me a test drive
Honda - He was the only good guy of the day, but kept focus on torque and things I could care less about.
Hyundai - had one van on the lot, and the guy never offered his name.
Kia - had crazy pricing and a nice yet worthless sales girl. She kept telling me the others were baiting and switching me. Honey, I'm 42 I know a snow job when I hear it. And no I don't want a used minivan!

Sigh - what happened to the oily car sales people that would fawn all over you? Do you want to sell me a car or not?! Sorry dd and I disturbed your afternoon nap.

[BillK]

Yep - given the current climate in the auto industry - I was expecting much more interested car sales people when we were looking for our Sienna as well. It was like a lot of them couldn't be bothered.

Finally I found one - in Ohio - we live in PA - but it was just barely an hour long drive to the dealership so it all worked out ok.

[lowrioh]

Try waiting until the end of the month. The sales people are generally a little more motivated to make their sales quotas then.
When I bought my Mazda, I did all the negotiation by email and phone. That way I had things in writting and it was far less stressful.
It won't help with the test drives though.

[KBecks]

Eh, buy it online when you do. I try to be very assertive when at a dealership. I usually say. I'm here to test drive X car. And I ask a lot of questions about what I am interested in and lead the conversation.

Then I shop competitive dealers for internet bids and use that for negotiating.

Sorry your shopping day wasn't much fun. I like Hondas. :)

It might also help if you say right away. I am going to buy a new van THIS WEEK. LOL. If you are. A sense of urgency may wake them up.

[ThreeofUs]

Finally I found one - in Ohio - we live in PA - but it was just barely an hour long drive to the dealership so it all worked out ok.

Ohh, ohhh, where? Do tell for us Ohio mamas!

[BillK]

Toyota of Boardman - pm me if you want the salesman's name.

[Emmas Mom]

When we bought our CRV we went to Honda Cars of Mesa (LOVED them!), we also went through Costco & dealt directly with one of the fleet managers....her name was Lisa & she was fabulous! I don't know if she's still there but I'd highly recommend her.

[icunurse]

Oh, come over by me and I can give you the name of a salesman who will back you into a corner to purchase. We went into the dealership fully stating "we are NOT buying tonight". This guy gave us the grand sales pitch, test drive, etc. And then cornered DH and I for 20 minutes asking "what price do you want for you to drive home with it tonight?" After getting tired of messing around with him (he wouldn't even give us an idea of what they were even asking for the minivan), I gave him an impossibly low number. We kept telling him, we will purchase within the month, but not tonight. The guy finally stormed off and we sat there thinking "should we go?" and then the manager came out to try and "smooth things over". Whatever. He lost whatever chance of a sale he had.

We basically went through Sam's Club online to get a starting price and then, after out in-person experience, did online haggling. Many dealerships have a person whose sole job is to handle that stuff. We went between two dealerships and then finally went with the one who really seemed to work for our business, even though it was a couple hundred dollars more. So, we walked into the dealership, all the papers were ready, we signed, and then picked up the minivan two days later. LOVE online car buying.

[kransden]

I think I'll have to try online buying. My issue was that I want a 6+ person vehicle that cools down great. I live in AZ. So I am out in 100+ degree heat. I have no idea what I want, I need to actually see the cars kwim? I'll check with Lisa at the Mesa dealership. Thanks for the tip!

[KBecks]

You can talk to the online sales folks and tell them you need a test drive. That should work fine. I think the online sales people are more savvy overall than the regular sales floor people.

Test drives are very important. Take the cars out for long test drives, ask lots of questions and have the sales person demo the various gadgets. In the end, I liked the Honda's handling/steering more than the Toyota, although I liked the Toyota cabin better. I'm very satisfied with our 07 Odyssey. They are both very good vans. I didn't even drive the Kia and while I liked the Chrysler/Dodge vans we had a strong preference and good track record owning Acuras so staying with the Honda group made sense. I felt the Honda drove the best and that was my #1.

Odyclub.com has good discussion boards and you can get more dealer recommendations there. The Sienna also has its own discussion boards. Just google like Odyssey and Sienna forums.

Have fun!!! Vans are awesome.

Good luck!