We are in the market for a new Toyota. The last car I bought was about
10 years ago and I am still going about it in the old fashioned and painful way: visiting dealerships in person. Besides time and trouble of getting there, one has to deal with salesmen.I am in Chicago area. One dealership (Grossinger) was a mad-house and the sales guy made you feel like running away. Another one (Bredemann in Park Ridge) was better. Encouraged by that we tried "nice suburbs". At Schaumburg Toyota 5-6 salesmen hanging around at the door like touts in 3rd world countries and all they wanted to know was "are you buying today?"
So I was thinking, why not shop online? But I don't know how. In particular I don't know how to zero in on the features we want:
Manual transmission A specific color (magnetic grey with ash interior) Power steering, locks etc. ABS (Is extra option of "stability control" useful?) Sunroof
6-CD changerI don't know how to look for this specific combination online!
Sites that ask you to "build your car" confuse me because they begin by asking me to choose a "trim" and I don't care about that and don't know which options are available with which trim.
Ideally I would like to zero in on cars with these precise features, have dealers email me their quotes, and then deal with 1-2 that seem best. But I don't know how to do that. If you have experience, all advice will be appreciated.