I got a car during the pandemic and the only difference is that I had to talk to a salesperson for a few minutes. I actually prefer to talk to a person for big purchases. You’re exaggerating this “process”.
I'm glad you had a good experience, but the one car I've bought from a dealer was the typical horrible sales experience -- long negotiation, then making me wait forever, then they put the wrong price on the contract and apologize for their "mistake" when I point it out.
Yes, this. And then they put their “paperwork” fee of $600 on it and I have to argue with them about that. And then they want to push their financing on me instead of accepting my pre-arranged financing.
I refuse to ever buy another vehicle the old way. The Tesla process sounds great and I’ll consider it if my old beaters die.
It could be that I got lucky. First time car purchase. My local dealership is actually a high volume dealership so they probably have the entire process as streamlined as possible. I was also surprised they willingly said yes when I asked for 10% off which was really good for this particular vehicle, and they immediately and moved to the next step. Car delivery was also very convenient.