re: Are car salespeople actually getting better?

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My entire life, I have despised everything about the car buying experience. You walk in, and some dude runs up on you and starts with the "so what car are you buying today" line. They then want to ask you 67,000 pieces of information, get copies of your DL if you want to do a test drive, and not want to have prices displayed on the vehicles. All the while, asking me "what do you want your monthly to be" 600 times. This was true even 2 years ago. 

Well, recently, we started up the car shopping gig again. Did a lot of research and the wife (no pics) narrowed it down to three vehicles: GMC Acadia, Nissan Pathfinder, Dodge Grand Caravan. Went to probably 10 dealerships looking at cars, test driving etc. 

Most of them, we were on the lot for a few min before the salesman came up. All of the salesmen were dressed basically in polos and looked relatively normal. Most asked very few questions, none asked about "monthly" or budget. All of the prices were displayed. All but one of them let us do test drives without giving them our DL. 

Eventually we settled on one - she decided she wanted a 2019 Pathfinder with little mileage but not new. Kept checking websites and eventually found one she wanted in the right colors, trim, mileage, etc, and a price that seemed very good. 

Went and drove it. Easy experience. Went to negotiate. I'll spare all the gory details but we got it for about $1,000 less than the "internet price" and about $2,000 less than what websites were indicating the value was. 

The term "monthly" was never even used, period. When we get to the finance office, we give them our pre-qualification (which we had never mentioned before, nor had they asked). They are unable to beat those terms. They tell us about all the various packages, but there is absolutely no pressure. It's just, here it is, do you want it or not? 

From the time we stepped onto the lot, until we were driving off, was less than 3 hours. 

If anyone is wondering, Ross Downing GMC in Hammond was the dealership, and "Felo" was the salesman. Would highly recommend.

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Re the whole e-mailing dealers / getting a price thing... I guess I'm still the kind of person who wants to test drive and physically look at a car, before I commit to a price.

If I was buying new, then this might work, but I tend to buy slightly used.

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