Buying services for new vehicles?

[powayroger]

I’m thinking about buying a new vehicle. In the past, I did the research and contacted the various dealers and gave them an offer and if someone accepted it, I would buy from them. I’m thinking about using a service, such as Costco, this time. How good are these services and how good of a deal can you get thru them? What do you do about your vehicles that you had planned on trading them in for the purchase? I’m not a fan of trying to sell them myself. Any guidance with that?


Thanks!

 

[Astro14]

I used USAA to help my MIL buy her 2013 Avalon. Very simple. Worked. Out well.

Fill out the form on line. 15 minutes later I was contacted by three local dealers with the car in stock at the pre-negotiated price. The car MSRP was roughly $34,200 and the negotiated price was roughly $31,800. $2,400 off for 30 seconds of work seems to be the easy way to go. You might get mor if you enjoy all the hassle of negotiating...and the back and forth. I don't. And will likely use USAA again.

 

[Nate1979]

Costco is a nice service. You can always try for a better deal on your own. Sometimes Costco has a special deal going on with certain manufacturers. When I bought my GMC thru Costco program I got a $750 cash card after the purchase.

 

[bdcardinal]

They are great if you are not eligible for a discount plan or you hate the haggling. With Costco you usually get a gift card you can use for accessories post sale.

 

[wallyuwl]

It depends. You'll see all of these "save an average of $3211 off MSRP" but that includes rebates and factory incentives. Further, if you qualify for Conquest, or a student discount, or some other less common ones then you might be leaving those on the table going with a negotiating service.

In April when we bought our Edge I easily researched all the rebates on Ford's web site. Then I emailed a dozen dealers or so within 75 miles asking for their best pre-incentives price (including their "doc fee"). I told them the exact car I wanted (I didn't care if they had it in stock or if they would have had to do a dealer trade).

If they called me saying come down to talk they were off my list. If they did what I asked they were still in the running. I got about $2000 off sticker before incentives then another $5250 in incentives. No haggling. No buying service would have done that well.

 

[HTSS_TR]

If you're not good at negotiating or hate haggling with car saleman you can either using Costco or email your local dealers with 1 email to get them compete themselves.

 

[Eddie]

What about TRUECAR?

 

[WiskyBadger]

How much do you have to pay for these services?

 

[spk2000]

Truecar is not what it used to be.

 

[Donald]

I think many places like employee purchase and Credit Unions use TrueCar.

 

[Nate1979]

Originally Posted By: ChevyBadger
How much do you have to pay for these services?

Costco service is free for members.

 

[hattaresguy]

I'm going to try Costco next time.

To be honest I don't buy that many vehicles and find the experience to be on the same level as the dentist. As long as I save a few bucks I'm happy, but I have no desire to spend hours in a dealer trying to beat them down, or driving all over creation to find a vehicle.

So something like what Costco offers has a lot of appeal to me.

 

[SatinSilver]

My neighbor used Costco to buy his Civic and was happy with them. There was only one or two in the state like it. A top of the line EX-L(leather) navi manual sedan. His prior car was an Audi A3.

Plus the Honda dealers around here are horrible to deal with. As are most dealers. A Toyota dealer here that's been around a long time is actually pleasant to work with. Gives a price right off the bat, doesn't make you sit around, and works with you on the price. Where another Toyo dealer I had to sit around for 45 mins and walked out without a price.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Spend $12 or so dollars and purchase CU's print out for the vehicle you are interested in. Offer the dealer $500 over what CU says is the dealer's real cost. Worked for me but that was twelve years ago.

 

[spk2000]

I know the feeling of car dealers being rude. I went to buy a Toyota Corolla back in 99 and Toyota dealer gave me a quote. I made them a lower offer and they said price was fixed no room to move. They were giving me $6500 trade on my Taurus. I went to Chevy dealer to check out a Metro. I was wanting a fuel miser as a single traveling guy. The gave me incentives and $7,000 for my trade. Got the Metro $4,500 cheaper than the Corolla would have been and was treated with respect. I told the Toyota guy I was going to look at some other vehicles and compare. He said the offer was only good for one hour and then would go up an extra $1,000. He said time is money and really acted like he had something no one else could offer and I needed it. No way I was going to buy that under those conditions.