Costco Car Buying

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I have seen conflicting info about saving money at Costco when buying a new car. Could I get some opinions? Thank you
 
It's good if you're not that good at negotiating. I think the dealers have to pay a few hundred to Costco when you use their programs so in theory you could negotiate directly with them and eliminate Costco, it would be a few hundred lower. I guess you could see what the best price you could get with Costco and then go to another dealer that's not with Costco and try for a few hundred extra off. Might not work if there are a limited number of dealerships or the one you negotiate with is further away. Although it shouldn't matter where you buy the car from, the service department of the closest dealer is happy to get any business they can.
 
i only have one experience with it. i went with my cousin to buy a new subaru. The dealer we went to was listed as a member of the service. So we went looking at the cars and found one. A crosstrek limited. So we told them we were with costco. they brought out some paperwork showing what the discount was . i remember it was about 1900 off of invoice. the car was 29400 msrp and invoice was 28300 was what it said.

So here is where it became interesting. we thought that costco price was set in stone and not negotiatable. So now we are at 26400. Just to see what would happen we continued to negotiate off of the Costco price. After a few minutes of back and forth we got it for 26k . 3400 off msrp which i thought was a pretty good deal seeing how well Subarus sell in the PNW.

I bought 2 hyundais from the same dealer within 6 months of each other. this dealer does not participate in the costco program. when i ask the sales guy why not, he said" we beat it everyday without it". and he was right. i went to a couple of hyundai dealers that are costco members and they could not beat the deals i got from the non member.

I really hate car negotiation. i think costco would do well for people that don't like to negotiate on vehicles. i always say to people " when buying a car someone pay more than you and someone paid less than you and you never really know if you got the best deal or not
 
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On our most recent vehicle purchase, we did much better not using the Costco program. Of course it's important to educate yourself about the car buying business, or you're likely to leave money on the table.
 
Every 'car buying experience' that I tried in late 2014 had TrueCar in the backend.
The dealerships that participate with Costco are fewer compared to TrueCar itself and the prices are actually higher than TrueCar (Costco's profit?). For our Subaru, TrueCar prices were not good at all. I got almost $2000 less than what TrueCar was offering by finding the right salesman in the right dealership without any haggling. In fact, I have not seen the face of the dealership or the salesman in 5 years that I have this Subaru (The car was delivered to me).

The bottom line, go to the forum of the vehicle you are interested in. Ask them if there is any specific dealership that offers deals for the forum members and go from there. If you are willing to go beyond your neighborhood, you should find something. I live near NYC and got vehicle from NH.

(All Subaru dealerships in and around NYC are PITA to work with..)
 
Got my son 2019 Honda Civic hatchback sport last May using costco car buying program.Experience wise good.I checked KKB,Edmunds pricing before putting information on Costco program.The assigned dealership had lower price,not pushing those extra's(extended warranty,maintainnance packages,accesories,etc,etc) I dont mind using the program again in the future.
 
I checked various discussion forums on the vehicles I was considering and they all had threads on how much participants paid. Disregard the outliers and you can come up with a pretty good idea of what is a good price.
 
Check the websites like cargurus.com first . Last 3 cars we have purchases , we traced them down on the internet ( 1 new & 2 used ) .
 
The Costco program is very useful for cars that may carry a market premium at a specific time. An example may be 13 years ago, when fuel prices were skyrocketing and Diesels/Hybrids were at a premium.

However,,,,, recently I tried to purchase a Ford Raptor on the Costco program and the dealership was perfectly thrilled to offer the truck to me at $3000 over MSRP. Not going to do that, especially when dealers on the West Coast of FL are discounting Raptors. I probably should have reported the dealership to Costco.
 
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Do you like to negotiate?
It all depends on whether you are comfortable negotiating.

It can be an Ok experience of you want no negotiation but it certainly won't be the absolute cheapest price.
For some people, this is a reasonable middle ground.

My experience was that I got a Costco quote and then started negotiating from there. I was able to get an additional $1500 knocked off the Costco price on a Toyota Corolla for a family member.

BTW, we ended up at $19,250 out the door for a 2020 Corolla LE including tax title and licence. I could have gotten it down to $19,000 but the family member got too impatient and wanted to complete the sale.
 
The Costco auto purchase program offeres simplicity and no haggling; generally not the lowest price.
There is almost no such thing as "the lowest price"; it depends on timing, location and a whole bunch of other factors.
I try and figure out which car, including color, I want, do some research, and then play the dealers off against each other.
Call and ask for fleet or use the email contact.
And take your time; they will call you back.

Good luck.
 
Currently in the market for a 2020, and the Costco price has been the lowest quote so far. I've shopped it around to other dealers, but you know you have a good quote when the other dealer says "we'll beat any deal" and then doesn't respond after you send them the actual dealer-signed offer
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I'd get the Costco price, then shop it around to others and see if they can beat it.
 
Originally Posted by spavel6
Currently in the market for a 2020, and the Costco price has been the lowest quote so far. I've shopped it around to other dealers, but you know you have a good quote when the other dealer says "we'll beat any deal" and then doesn't respond after you send them the actual dealer-signed offer
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I'd get the Costco price, then shop it around to others and see if they can beat it.

What are you shopping for?
 
Through the program CostCo is (indirectly) one of the biggest sellers of vehicles in the country. So that in of itself speaks volumes about how people wish to buy vehicles-and how satisfied others are with the program.

The dealer who says "I will beat any price" are those that attack you in the finance office for "shine and glow" packages, extended warranty, etc.
 
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I've used it and it's a great place to start. You MUST talk to the designated sales person. Other sales people will tell you they can handle it etc. but insist on talking to the rep specified by Costco. Discounts are different depending on the car. Honda would only give us $500 off a new loaded Accord. We went to Hyundai when the new Sonatas made in Alabama first came out and they gave us $3k off a loaded Sonata.(Costco). My girlfriend wanted to look at other cars and think about. They offered us another $500 to make the deal. She looked at me and I said go for it. She put 80k on it and never had a problem. This was the first redesign from the old crap Sonatas and they were pushing the heck out of them to get some on the road. 6 months later we started seeing them everywhere.
 
I don't really care to negotiate, but it is a fact of life I can live with. I never pay more than 80% of MSRP. Last 3 vehicles have been a little lower than that. I don't worry about rebates, incentives, and other smoke and mirrors to draw the customer in. That is for the dealer to play with. I just target what I want and what I will pay. I can always find a dealer willing to do it. Even 80% of MSRP, a dealer is making a very reasonable profit. I rarely have to go back and forth more than than 3 times with a dealer. Any stalling and playing games, I leave. There are thousands of dealers to buy from. A dealer can get any vehicle from any other dealer. My 2015 Chevy 2500 I did it online with a dealer 60 miles from me and went and picked it up. $49K sticker and drove off the lot for $38K. Mid model year buy. No special sales events going on. My wife's Chevy Equinox, we went thru about 6 dealers before settling on one who actually wanted to sell one and not be goofy. I have no problem walking away from any dealer. Actually, I view it as a pleasure sometimes. No one is making any vehicle that I actually am swooning over. So they have to convince me that the one I am looking at is a good buy. And to do that, they have to come in at a reasonable price. Nice and simple and no frustration.
 
i'm kinda in the market to replace my passat, nothing wrong with it but thinking of something taller. want only an unloaded base model but can pay cash for, and fly to anyplace to get, literally anything i want. so, what keeps me from buying? i absolutely loath the car buying experience: silly back and forth, figuring out incentives, meeting the sales manager, haggling over getting dealer to remove its decals and add-ons, the outrageous processing fees, being bombarded with offers from the finance guy in the midst of endless signatures... sorry for the rant, but don't car dealers know that they can be their own worst enemies? i have even tried usaa's car buying service but found that, once at the dealership, all bets are off.
 
Costco and TrueCar are for those who don't do their homework and can't look someone in the eye and say this is what I'll pay.
You can easily beat either by checking pricing via email with every dealer anywhere near you and then getting a good price.
Go somewhere, test drive the car and then ask for a grand or so off the prices you already have.
You'll go back and forth a bit, but you'll end up with the deal you want on any new car.
There are many who won't do this, though.
 
TiredTrucker,

I agree, it's just a vehicle and dealer is not doing you a favor selling it to you. Online you can find the same vehicle at 5 different dealers in your area.

You have an ‘out the door' price in your head and that's all you're willing to pay (even used vehicle).

I don't know how places like CarMax stays in business with non negotiable prices.
 
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