With a rapidly growing little boy, Christine and I are finding that our Audi A4 is a bit space-constrained. Not only does a rear-facing car seat force the front passenger seat so far forward that it's not possible for an adult to sit there, a stroller and a shopping bag or two quickly consumes any available cargo room.

So we've been doing some casual car shopping. Some of the cars we've been looking at are the Toyota Highlander, Volvo XC90, Acura MDX, Lexus RX 350, and the Porsche Cayenne. I realize that's an eclectic bunch with a variety of price points, but the key selection criteria are legroom, available options (such as rear entertainment system) and five star safety ratings.

Over the past few weeks, Carson, Christine and I have visited a few car dealerships. I thought I'd share some of my experiences and observations. They're a bit eye opening regarding the target market, sales strategy, and customer service.

• Our best salesperson experience was probably Volvo, so far. No high pressure tactics, knowledgeable salesperson, and attentive service.
• Toyota was among the worst salesperson-wise. No service people anywhere, have to wait 5 minutes to even be approached, another 5 minutes to get a salesperson to come by, and another 5 minutes get the keys to any cars.
• The Toyota salesperson requested our info after a test drive by saying "would you mind giving me your info so I can show my boss I was busy?"
• She was unable to explain the difference between full time 4WD and AWD, which is a relatively minute difference in the Highlander since it doesn't have a 4WD Low setting as far as I can determine (I had to look it up after the fact)
• After the test drive, I told her that I wasn't looking to buy for a few months, just doing the research, and that I'd be in touch.
• A couple days later the salesperson's manager called me on my phone four times, and left one message. He told me that he could give me a quote on my trade-in (I made no such request), and that they'd have the Highlander Hybrid I was looking for in stock "real soon".
• Note that I'd done the math, and even at outrageously high gas prices, the time to recoup the extra cost of the hybrid was too high to make it worthwhile. I never uttered the word "hybrid" to my salesperson.
• The salesperson at Acura was a bit clingy. After showing us around the Acura, he kept on talking about how cool the nav system with voice recognition was.
• Unfortunately, Carson was tired, and we didn't have time to get the "full tour". After excusing ourselves, Christine began to put Carson in the car. "While you're waiting, let me show you something cool", he remarked. Uh, dude, I just told you we'd be back for a test drive. And my wife is putting my son in the car, I'm not going to let them sit there while I'm getting a voice recognition demo that mimics what my Mac could do back in 1997!
• Lexus was a mixed experience. In person, it was fine, but Yahoo Autos had a feature to get a quote online. I figured I'd try it out, and asked for a quote. I specifically asked for a configuration with the rear entertainment system. After 3 intro emails confirming that the various middlemen and lexus systems had gotten my quote, I got a fourth email with specific numbers.
• The specific numbers were all stock configurations, and all the prices quoted were MSRP.
• I wrote back saying "uh, I've been to your website, I know the stock configurations and MSRP"
• The response "our most aggressive pricing is reserved for in-person consultations"
• OK, so you've just demonstrated that the Internet is nothing more to you than an overpriced lead generation system. If I knew it was so worthless to me as a customer, I wouldn't have wasted my time.
• And, despite putting my "preferred contact method" as "email", I got no less than 5 calls, and 2 voice messages from this "Internet manager"
• In person, at the Lexus dealer, we were told that the rear entertainment system was a very rare configuration, if it was available at all, because Lexus had done some market research with the dealerships to find the most optimal configurations, and apparently rear entertainment systems didn't make the cut. Lexus/Toyota are renowned for their lean operational expertise so this wouldn't surprise me too much if it were true, but I still have to wonder if it's just not another excuse to sell something that's on the lot.
• Come to think of it, I thought it was chintzy for the Toyota person to show us an aftermarket Kenwood kiosk in the showroom when we started the conversation about a rear-entertainment system.
• Finally, the cash-for-clunkers situation had apparently wiped out the inventory at the Toyota dealership. There were a couple of Highlanders on the lot, and the one that we took for a test drive was out for a test drive right before us, and went out for a test drive right after us.
• The Porsche dealership was a bit interesting. We pulled up in our Audi, and a Cayenne was parked right out front. It was unlocked, so we sat inside testing the interior room for legroom comfort. In the five minutes we sat there alternating seating positions, we didn't see a single salesperson. I think I saw someone walking inside, but otherwise it was a literal ghost town. You'd think that if you have $50K+ to spend on a car, that somebody would be interested in talking to you when you drive on their lot, but i guess not.
• We also stopped by a Mazda lot to take a look at a CX-9. Too small for our needs, but while we were there, the salesperson first told us that he didn't have one on the lot. Christine said "what about that one?" pointing to a CX-9. "Oh yeah", the salesman remarked as he went inside to grab the key. When he returned, he told us "we're having a sale today". I suppose I was supposed to think "ooh, yippee, I'll be able to get a good deal today then!", but instead I thought, "Really? Does that technique actually work on anybody?"
• After we told the salesperson the car was too small for our needs, and started to head towards the car, he said thanks and began to walk away. He was about 5 paces ahead of me when Christine, who was wrangling Carson five paces behind me, said "you want the key?" The salesperson didn't hear her, so I had to shout after him, "uh, you want the key?"
• We briefly (like for two minutes) considered the Honda Pilot. Not only did nobody talk to us or even greet us at the Honda dealership, we walked directly into the showroom, opened the door of the (hideously ugly) Pilot and began to gauge interior legroom. After a few seconds we quickly eliminated the Pilot from the running and made a beeline for the exit. We weren't approached then either, which struck me as odd for an industry so rife with competition. Not that I was complaining, I appreciated the opportunity for the quick exit.
• The Mercedes Benz dealership is right next to the Volvo dealership so we decided to take a look at the GLK. The other Mercedes SUVs are a bit pricier than the competition with lackluster residual values (compared to the cheaper RX 450), so the GLK was the only one we wanted to look at. We took about the same amount of time in the GLK as we took in the Pilot to reject the GLK. There was another GL right next to it in the showroom, but it was locked... on the showroom floor(?!)... Oh well, they were more expensive (and I'd excluded the ML for some reason I now can't recall), so we began to look for a quick exit.
• Actually, now that I look at it, the ML350 BluTec has a pretty decent RV, so we'll probably be back to take a look at that configuration.
• Anyway, as we were walking out I thought I heard a "have you been helped" from the far distance. I ignored it and continued with the egress. As we reached sunlight, the saleslady caught up to us. "Did anybody help you? Are you leaving?" After explaining that we were just checking legroom and that the GLK hadn't made the cut, we excused ourselves and were on our way.

I'll keep writing about our car shopping experiences and observations over the upcoming weeks.Stay tuned.