Buying a car

Is one of the most time consuming, and tedious endeavors I will ever undertake. There is usually a lot of money at stake as well as a decision that you have to live with, literally, for 3-6 years. I have made some good and bad car buying decisions over the years, but for the most part, little has changed in this "stuck in the 70's" industry.

Today, I can walk into almost any dealership with all the information, Edmunds.com TMV pricing, invoice information, reviews, and I can even search online the dealership's inventory. This still hasn't changed the old school slimy sales approaches of 95% of the dealership/salespersons in this industry. They still push, shove, deflect, then try to rip you off.

I won't share the specifics of our recent experience but here are some highlights:

1) Toyota dealership had so few cars on the lot that we couldn't find one close to what we were looking for. This, we were told, was because they sold so many new cars in the last couple of weeks due to the cash for clunker government programs. The sales guy could care less that we wanted to buy a car. He never even offered his name, or card to follow up. Clearly this guy sold a lot of cars recently and had hit his quota. The reverse of commission sales incentives.
2) Visited a Lincoln dealership and I think we were the first people to visit in months. The old burn outs working there almost had a heart attack when we asked to test drive an expensive Navigator. After which the sales manager kept asking us if we wanted to lease or pay cash...
3) Visited a couple of BMW and MBZ dealerships, and although we liked the cars, they were so expensive that I really needed was to go home and do some serious financial calculations. With all the incentives, interest rates, lease deals, actual invoices, etc. They make it very hard to actually say yes or buy a car.
4) Visited a GMC dealer, and felt like we stepped back in a time warp. Just saying, the 70's want their hair dos and ties back...

Ugh. Is the car industry f*&ked because of their sales process and the dealership model?