Good to hear about positive experiences with dealerships. Usually it's bad!
I went with Merrick Chrysler Dodge Jeep out in Wantagh on Long Island. I dealt with the Fleet Manager, Ira Reiter. He was pleasant to deal with - their finance folks jumped the gun the next day and started running a credit report on me even though the vehicle was 16 weeks away and a loan approval is only valid for 60 days. That would have resulted in 2 pings against my credit file which is unacceptable. They claimed they needed a loan approval in order to secure the order, to which I said no, I gave you $1000 to secure the order, treat it as a cash purchase. The finance manager tried to insist that it needed approval and I said look, I'm using my credit union anyway, I was giving you the opportunity to do the paper work and submit it to them (they get a kickback) but if this is going to create a problem, consider it just a cash purchase, I'll deal with my credit union, and I'll bring a bank check when you have the vehicle for delivery. All of a sudden the response was ok don't worry, we'll order the vehicle and when we have word that it's coming in, we'll notify you and we'll be happy to handle the loan paperwork at that time.
If it wasn't for that bit of a disagreement with the finance manager (who I shouldn't have even had to have dealt with at this point), it would have been a perfectly smooth deal. I wouldn't have even known that they tried to get an approval so soon had I not had a credit inquiry lock on my file (due to that whole Home Depot jazz and then the Blue Cross Blue Shield data breach - I got paranoid).
In any case, I got my vehicle for $500 under invoice, or $1569 under MSRP.
