The Car Buying Experience

My daughter is almost 17 and although I have resisted the temptation up until now, she really needs a car. It will just make all of our lives easier, including my own.

So we went shopping on Saturday, looking for the best option to suit our lives. Simple car, low monthly payment (she is footing the bill), safety features, and easy.

You would think that with this horrible economy and with the state of the auto industry, that they would have "gotten it by now." The entire car buying experience is dreadful. Makes you not even want to buy a car. We went to 6 different showrooms, and in every one it was the same.

I felt dirty, I felt taken advantage of, I felt confused. I felt everything except wanting to buy a car. It should be fun, adventurous, exciting. It's not.

C'Mon folks, don't you get it? Create an amazing brand experience for the car buyer and you'll sell more cars. You might even convince someone to buy a more expensive car. Who knows! But make it a positive, inviting experience.

Net, net. We didn't buy one yet. Not because we didn't see any options, because we saw a bunch (admittedly, all the cars are exactly the same, but that's a different topic). We didn't buy anything because we felt so insecure in making a decision that we put it off. Put it off to price compare online, to check references, to read consumer reports. To do our research and our homework because not one car salesman was able to make us feel confident in our decision.

That's a shame, and a missed opportunity, particularly for an industry in peril.

What's your experience? Jim