A Tale of Two Dealerships

I'm starting to look at replacing my 2010 Nissan Cube.  Don't laugh unless you've driven one.  It's a ton of fun.  However, at this point it's also eight years old and over 150,000 miles, so it's time to start looking.

I started at Dealership 'A' which I'm not going to name for reasons that will soon become apparent.  I walked in and the receptionist (between bites of something) asked what brought me in.  After saying I was interested in a new car she found a salesman for me.  It turned out that this really wasn't that helpful as I knew as much about their cars as he did.

I said I was interested in a particular model.  There was a stare, and then 'well, have you considered this other car?'  Since the model I'd mentioned was a hybrid and the other car wasn't the answer was 'no, I had not'.  'Well, I think that would work for you.'  This, without having asked me what I was actually interested in.

It turns out there was a reason he didn't ask and that was because he didn't know anything about the model he was pushing.  'It's new and we just received some'.  Okay, but unless the company just dropped some off an hour previously without having let anyone know they existed shouldn't a salesperson have done a little research?

Anyway, out for a test drive.  It was just about the shortest test drive you could have that actually left the lot.  Here's the entire conversation:

'Does this have Apple Carplay?'

'I don't know; let me check.' (poking at radio).  'Yes, it looks like it does'.  (pause). 'So, what do you think?'

'It seems pretty nice.'

'So, what do you think?'

'It seems to be pretty responsive.'

'So, what do you think?'

You get the idea.

At dealership 'B' the salesman asked 'What are you looking for?'  I listed a few specifics.  'Well, here are some models that have what you're looking for.'  After reviewing the specs a bit, we decided on the one I'd test drive.

It took a little while for him to return with the key.  He explained that he had to put gas in it because it had only been driven off the carrier (it had 2 miles on it when I got in) and he'd run it through the wash because the last storm had made it look terrible.  He then handed me the key and said 'Tell me what you think when you get back'.

When I did get back I asked a few questions (and got reasonable answers) and then was offered the possibility of taking the car home for the night.

Guess which dealership might get my business?