Most people who have purchased a car don't speak fondly about the experience.

My wife and I have purchased a new car and a used one in the past few months. For the new car we visited a dealer to test-drive the vehicle we wanted (a Kia Soul) and placed an order for the color, fit and trim.

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The dealer did not ask for a deposit, nor even ask us to start the financing process. We did that anyway and in a week we had a completed application.

That didn't help: Even as we received a quick approval from the finance team, actually buying the car took more than three hours. The dealer kept us waiting and required us to meet with a finance person, who was trying to sell us all sorts of dubious products and generally trying to break

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