I’m looking to buy a new car. I’m a guy, so I really hate shopping. It’s a pain in the ass.

I’m buying a more family oriented car, which makes it kind of a boring drive. I’m coming from a car that puts down 500 horsepower to the wheels with 540lbs of torque. Family cars just don’t compare, and thus makes it boring to shop for.

Anyways, back to the moron dealers I’ve been in contact with. I put out a request for quote on the official sites of each manufacturer. This was for about 15 different dealerships. All but one have called me back with the following information: “Please call me at your earliest convience”. They also took the time to email the same message.

Wait a minute, didn’t I request something?! Oh Yea! A quote. Guess how many sent me an actual quote without being asked a second time? ONE! One dealer, a Honda dealer, sent me a quote the first time I asked for it. The rest ignored my request, ignored the fact that I requested it online at my convience (my preferred method) and that my preferred contact method was email.

This is annoying! I received countless phone calls during the day disrupting me during work. The very reason I requested online quotes was to avoid the disruption.

Some dealers were even more annoying. When I asked about the new Pontiac G8 GT from dealers, one dealer returned a phone call, and only one. Again, no quote. Just a message about the first shipment had been spoken for and call me.

Why are dealers so secretive about their pricing? If I called any other business that had concrete numbers about the products they are selling, they would have zero problem giving me a quote. Hell, the selling process of the auto insurance business has been turned upside down because of the instant gratification of that progressive pioneered. And that’s not even hard numbers, they have to run the calculation of stats based on questions dumbed down enough for the non-underwriter layman.

The one place to offer me a quote will probably be the place I buy from. I say probably because I’m still debating the make/model of the car. I plan on posting all of the emails from the dealers that I have received and the names of the dealerships.