One of the guilty parties was the Toyota dealership. We went to test drive the Highlander as it is the highest rated SUV and my Prius has already made me a bit of a fan of Toyota. Unfortunately, the Highlander was not a good fit for us, in a literal sense. The back row of seating was only slightly less cramped leg-wise than the Kia Sorento, but the headroom was nonexistent. Even with the seat tilted back as far as it could go (which seriously cut into the storage area), my head was still touching the ceiling if I was in any of the side spots. This was a disappointment to me as I wanted to like the vehicle and the salesperson was quite helpful and friendly. Unfortunately, the process to pick a vehicle, test drive, and get some basic pricing took a painfully long time, as in hours.
The Honda dealership was much quicker when it came to the test drive and the pricing, but as we decided to buy the Pilot from them, the process of actually getting the car took hours more. I will say that the sales team was a little less ... professional ... than the Toyota team, but they were also much friendlier. It felt more like I had come to a family establishment than a corporate business. It probably helped our experience that we were already set on the Pilot as it is the most spacious overall and a bit less expensive than the Highlander (although I like the name Highlander better, but I suppose there should be only one).
By the way, Janelle is now a bit overprotective about the Pilot. She was even expressing reluctance about taking it to Freddy's because of the craziness in the parking lot at this time of year. You should have seen her face when I suggested that I use the Pilot to take the trash to the dump.
Anyway, we only had about fifteen minutes to shop at Costco before they closed by the time we got there. It was almost literally a Costco run, only to wait in some of the longest checkout lines that I have yet seen there. We then met up with friends at the amazing Suite 100 for a LATE dinner. After the aforementioned construction-filled drive home, we ended up not getting home in our new Honda Pilot until about 1 am (and we still had to unload from our quick Costco trip).
Like I said, it was a full day.