I'll have to agree with you there. I live in a small town on the edge of a medium-sized city and the best dealerships that I've encountered are the family owned ones. I've met some really dishonest car salesmen but I've dealt with some real good ones too. One guy sold me two of the best cars I've ever owned and he did it from two different dealerships. =
But, I have dealt with numerous independent garages and even bought a couple of cars from one; I have no complaints about any of them. I currently have one dealer and two independent garages that I deal with and none of them have ever done anything to make me stop dealing with them.
My idea of buying a new car is making a list of what I want and a price. I hand it to the salesman and ask him if he can do it. If he can I buy and if he can't, I walk. When I bought my truck, I had it for a long weekend and drove it over 1,200 miles on a test drive (with the dealer's permission). I knew the dealer real well and he told me to drive it for a week but after that weekend, I bought it. I no longer deal with this guy because he sold the business and retired.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% "Sometimes, when you're up to your butt in alligators, it's hard to remember that the intial objective was to drain the swamp." ~ Unknown ~