Sam’s Club/Costco purchasing programs?

[Elkins45]

I saw somewhere on the Internet that Costco and Sam’s Club have preferred auto purchasing programs for members. From what I understand they have relationships with dealers to buy new cars at some degree of discount with no need for negotiation. Has anyone used one of these programs recently? If so, did dealers honor the discounts when they were selling at MSRP or above?

I joined Costco once in order to get a great deal on a large gun safe, but I let it lapse. I live too far away from a store to really make continued membership worthwhile except for something similar like a major purchase. Is it worth joining to save money on a new car or can an average Joe get just as good a deal?

 

[JeffKeryk]

I saw somewhere on the Internet that Costco and Sam’s Club have preferred auto purchasing programs for members. From what I understand they have relationships with dealers to buy new cars at some degree of discount with no need for negotiation. Has anyone used one of these programs recently? If so, did dealers honor the discounts when they were selling at MSRP or above?

I joined Costco once in order to get a great deal on a large gun safe, but I let it lapse. I live too far away from a store to really make continued membership worthwhile except for something similar like a major purchase. Is it worth joining to save money on a new car or can an average Joe get just as good a deal?

It can't hurt to try. You do not have to take the Costco deal. I helped a neighbor get a CR-V. The Costco deal seemed pretty good to me; then we brought the deal to another Honda dealership and they beat it. That was 2020 I think.
I believe if you use Costco, that dealership cannot go lower than the Costco price. Not sure...

Good luck.

 

[JustN89]

Nearly all of these purchasing programs work the same.

The first thing to understand is that dealerships are individually owned, meaning that where own dealer might honor the Costco/Sam's Club pricing, others may not. They are not being forcibly held to anything. It all comes down to how badly the dealership wants to sell a car. You won't know until you go to the dealer and ask them to honor the price. I will say, from 2021 until just recently, pretty much all dealers in my neck of the woods would refuse to honor those program's pricing, as they were charging MSRP+.

The second thing is that, while it's often a better deal than what's shown on the window sticker, it's not the best/lowest price the dealer would necessarily take. It guarantees a good price when you find a dealer who will honor it, but it's not the lowest price you could find.

If you're considering a Costco membership just for this one purchase, I'd save yourself the $60 or whatever a membership costs these days. You can get yourself, potentially, an even better deal if you're willing to put in a little bit of elbow grease and work the negotiation.

 

[JustN89]

The first thing to understand is that dealerships are individually owned, meaning that where own ONE dealer might honor the Costco/Sam's Club pricing, others may not.

English is hard.

 

[Elkins45]

I will say, from 2021 until just recently, pretty much all dealers in my neck of the woods would refuse to honor those program's pricing, as they were charging MSRP+.

That’s my primary concern. I suspected that might be the case.

I would hope Costco punishes them for not holding up their end of the deal because if not they are advertising a service they can’t actually provide. But I have little doubt they won’t.

 

[benjy]

one thing for sure smaller local dealers are costlier + driving up to a 100 miles can save $$$$. girlfriends new currant model was 2G's less than a local leftover + dealers MUST service you wherever you buy

 

[Danh]

English is hard.

You’ve never been sabotaged by spell-check?

 

[TheLastWord]

one thing for sure smaller local dealers are costlier + driving up to a 100 miles can save $$$$. girlfriends new currant model was 2G's less than a local leftover + dealers MUST service you wherever you buy

Not necessarily. Some of my best new car buys were at very small dealerships that don't have the overhead of larger dealers. At least pre covid deals.

Back to the subject. I've been a Price Club/Costco member since 1984. Never had a successful transaction on their auto buying program despite several attempts. I always negotiated a better deal elsewhere - again pre covid. Dealers are not bound to a Costco deal. But enough unsuccessful attempts will get them off the program. Actually very few are on the program, at least in my area.

 

[JustN89]

You’ve never been sabotaged by spell-check?

Oh I have, but I have to own that one.

 

[fdcg27]

I beat the Costco price pretty handily when I bought the HAH, but that was in 2018 and did require some bargaining, although nothing too extreme.
The Costco program might be good for those afraid to bargain or lacking the skill, although one could probably do as well or better simply emailing dealers for their best pricing while letting them know they aren't the only horse in the shed.

 

[raaizin]

Here is a copy of an article on the Costco auto purchase

 

[Elijah1]

I just purchased an Outback from a dealer in our State Capital. I had three dealers vying for my business. Went with the lowest one. Everything was done over email. I just went in, test drove the vehicle I was planning on purchasing, signed papers and left. Spent less than an hour in the dealership in total. Super easy process. I have a Costco membership, but I didn’t bother. A friend played heck trying to find a dealership that would honor the Costco price.

 

[MSCH]

I saw somewhere on the Internet that Costco and Sam’s Club have preferred auto purchasing programs for members. From what I understand they have relationships with dealers to buy new cars at some degree of discount with no need for negotiation. Has anyone used one of these programs recently? If so, did dealers honor the discounts when they were selling at MSRP or above?

I joined Costco once in order to get a great deal on a large gun safe, but I let it lapse. I live too far away from a store to really make continued membership worthwhile except for something similar like a major purchase. Is it worth joining to save money on a new car or can an average Joe get just as good a deal?

I bought my current 2016 Ram 3500 thru the Car Buyers program, for either Sams or Costco..( I belong to both used both, dont remember which one actually came thru in this case)) it was a pretty EZ experience, literally called the offering dealer on the phone and told them I would take it, showed up with a voucher from the credit union and walked away an hour later with the vehicle and it was a pretty good deal. The beauty of it was I used different stores and different zip codes to get more offers, and I was receiving emails from a variety of dealers with prices.. so I thought it was a good deal. What I dont know is if they have changed the format in the last 7 years, but the way they were doing it was fine.

 

[wag123]

Let look at some facts regarding Auto Purchase Programs.
These types of auto purchase programs are not administered or run by companies like Costco, Sams, Truecar, AAA, AARP, AMEX, your bank or credit union, etc. They are all administered by an outside company like, in Costco's case, Affinity Auto Programs Inc. who charges them for the service. On the other side of the coin, the dealers PAY to be members of this purchasing service scam, they must agree not to beat the customers up in the F&I office, and in return the company (Affinity) gives them an exclusive territory for their make and provides the dealer with prospects. The buyer does not get any better "deal" from the dealer than they could get for themselves without any help, in fact, the protected dealer is likely to charge the prospect more money to cover the fees he has to pay the administrator and lost profit in the F&I office, and a buyer would probably be able to get a better deal from one of the member dealer's competitors. This is all really just a scam to pray on people who are scared to death of going to dealers and negotiating.

 

[CKN]

Let look at some facts regarding Auto Purchase Programs.
These types of auto purchase programs are not administered or run by companies like Costco, Sams, Truecar, AAA, AARP, AMEX, your bank or credit union, etc. They are all administered by an outside company like, in Costco's case, Affinity Auto Programs Inc. who charges them for the service. On the other side of the coin, the dealers PAY to be members of this purchasing service scam, they must agree not to beat the customers up in the F&I office, and in return the company (Affinity) gives them an exclusive territory for their make and provides the dealer with prospects. The buyer does not get any better "deal" from the dealer than they could get for themselves without any help, in fact, the protected dealer is likely to charge the prospect more money to cover the fees he has to pay the administrator and lost profit in the F&I office, and a buyer would probably be able to get a better deal from one of the member dealer's competitors. This is all really just a scam to pray on people who are scared to death of going to dealers and negotiating.

In which case it is indeed a benefit. They will get a better price through this program (under a normal market) than otherwise if they don't have any negotiating skills at all. It is not a scam-it is a pre-set price. You can either buy it or walk away. Again the word "scam" get thrown around on this forum-and it is again used undeservedly in this case.

 

[wag123]

In which case it is indeed a benefit. They will get a better price through this program (under a normal market) than otherwise if they don't have any negotiating skills at all. It is not a scam-it is a pre-set price. You can either buy it or walk away. Again the word "scam" get thrown around on this forum-and it is again used undeservedly in this case.

IMO it is a scam when a business promotes something that it is not. In this case customers are paying for the privilege of not having to negotiate. Anyone can beat one of these non-negotiable "deal" prices with very little effort and no real negotiating skills. What most people fail to understand is that THEY hold the purse strings and THEY are in control.

 

[CKN]

IMO it is a scam when a business promotes something that it is not. In this case customers are paying for the privilege of not having to negotiate. Anyone can beat one of these non-negotiable "deal" prices with very little effort and no real negotiating skills. What most people fail to understand is that THEY hold the purse strings and THEY are in control.

Some don't want to put forth the effort or create the adversarial relationship. What's so hard to understand here?

 

[wag123]

Some don't want to put forth the effort or create the adversarial relationship. What's so hard to understand here?

Nothing hard to understand here. I'm just making sure that the people using these services understand what the service REALLY is. This is not just some kind of "benevolent" service that Costco (and others) are offering. This is a "for profit" venture between the administrator and the member dealers.

 

[97prizm]

I saw somewhere on the Internet that Costco and Sam’s Club have preferred auto purchasing programs for members. From what I understand they have relationships with dealers to buy new cars at some degree of discount with no need for negotiation. Has anyone used one of these programs recently? If so, did dealers honor the discounts when they were selling at MSRP or above?

I joined Costco once in order to get a great deal on a large gun safe, but I let it lapse. I live too far away from a store to really make continued membership worthwhile except for something similar like a major purchase. Is it worth joining to save money on a new car or can an average Joe get just as good a deal?

I know of a couple of people who have used Costco to purchase a vehicle. From my understanding they act like one of the no haggle dealerships as far as price. The vehicle has a certain price and Costco negotiates an "out the door price".

 

[philipp10]

I just bought a Subaru Forester. I had one dealer offer the Costco program, would be at MSRP. I ended up getting the car from another dealer for $2000 UNDER MSRP. Waste of time.