Car Shopping

I know it sounds fun to most people, but I am not one of them.  I do not like it and that is putting it mildly.  We are in the market for a car...sort of.  It isn't an urgent thing, so we CAN put it off for a while, but in the meantime our van will continue to depreciate...and we would like to trade it in.
Last week, we drove to a couple of car dealerships to check out an SUV...a smaller, less gas guzzling vehicle.  I was amazed at the ability of the salesman to bond with his potential clients...that being us.
Within minutes, we knew:
Where he graduated high school.
Where his mom graduated high school.
How many children he had.
What branch of the service he was in and where he was stationed.
How old he was when his first child was born.
All of the cities he had lived in.
What his wife did for a living and where she went to school.
Tommy made sure he knew that we were not there to haggle and that the first offer should be the best one.  He left to talk to his boss (the big cheese) and returned with a number that did not match our budget, and so before he could make another offer, we left.
I felt like I was leaving a long time friend...that we most likely would never see again.  We were not in the car two minutes when Tommy's cell phone rang and the big cheese was calling to negotiate.  Too late.
All of that to say, I do NOT like wheelers and dealers and car shopping.  So I told him - as I have in the past - just go buy one.  I have very few conditions, so go with my blessing.
I might add that he has done this before with great success.  He did, however, buy a house once when I was out of town.  I was less than pleased - though it turned out to be a great neighborhood and we made many friends there.  So, yes, he is reluctant to make big purchases without me.
We will find the right car together...and I will wait in the lounge area while he plays "Let's Make A Deal" with our next best friend.