So some of what I'm about to get into is a knock o...

So some of what I'm about to get into is a knock on just about the whole car selling industry but none the less I feel I should share. As others have stated in their reviews the approach used at Stew Hansen's is fairly laid back, not the pushy why don't you like this car, what can we do to make you drive off the lot in any car today stuff you get some places, hence my two stars. I test drove a Ram pickup with a sales associate and felt as though I was treated with respect, when we got inside and we started talking deal he did the classic lets see what the man behind the curtain has to say (this is the same junk that happens most everywhere, it is designed to make you feel like the sales associate is on your side and is trying to get the best deal they can for you). When he returned with the offer it was full MSRP, no discount. I have bought two new cars from Honda, one from Toyota and one from GMC and never had I gotten a full MSRP starting point, what a slap in the face. When I registered my disgust the mystery man from behind the curtain came right over and long story short let me know that what I was after was a very popular vehicle and hence had no real wiggle room on the price and that if I didn't take it someone else would.

So my response was to go home and do something I've never done, buy a car over the phone out of state. I found a little dealer that had two pickups very similar to what I was looking at at Stew Hansens and when I asked about the price they quoted me a starting point that represented the invoice cost of the vehicle not MSRP. The price difference was nearly $5,000, so Stew Hansens just couldn't budge on the $5,000 profit margin they were after... In the end I got a 2015 Ram eco diesel in a Larime package for $5,000 less than the Outdoorsman package they were showing me, and I did it over the phone, talked to one person and never felt like I was being taken advantage of. We all know dealerships can't sell cars for free but they don't have to play a numbers game with us and make us sit through hours of mind numbing back and forth, this just makes it so that some people with less patience end up getting taken for a ride and those with the will power to run through the negotiation process might end up with a good deal, but a fair amount of animosity towards the people they are doing business with. Do yourself a favor and check around with the small independently owned dealers they just might have a different way of doing business.