Costco

[Anonymous]

Anyone use the Costco program to buy a new car? Does it actually save money or is it a waste of time? Thinking of buying a VW Atlas.

[Anonymous]

It’s for people that don’t like to negotiate and don’t want to feel like they got ripped off. Since you know what you wanf, you’re better off playing a couple dealerships off each other.

[Anonymous]

They won’t help with a lot of popular models, but the website won’t tell you which ones until you submit all your info. It’s annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s for people that don’t like to negotiate and don’t want to feel like they got ripped off. Since you know what you wanf, you’re better off playing a couple dealerships off each other.

Also, the finance guy will know you don't like to negotiate and will give you an even harder sell. I used to use USAA when they have the service and had to get up and leave when the finance guy wouldn't shut up.

[Anonymous]

VW gives huge discounts, I wouldn't use costco for this. Always buy at the end of the month. Email all of the local dealers with the car you want including all options and ask for the out the door price. Then email the lowest one and say x dealer will do it for $500 less, can they match it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VW gives huge discounts, I wouldn't use costco for this. Always buy at the end of the month. Email all of the local dealers with the car you want including all options and ask for the out the door price. Then email the lowest one and say x dealer will do it for $500 less, can they match it?

They won’t match unless they see a written quote. I’ve had some dealers get upset if I try to take quote with me, and one make you come into dealership to get a quote. Just saying “I can get it cheaper” only works on cars no one wants or already have huge markups

I like the services because they give me a list of dealerships that should be willing to negotiated over email (though I did have some duds that kept pretending they would match the quote but would never send actual out the door price quote on paper). But when I cold call or email dealerships, they just say you need to come in half the time so this saves some of that step.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s for people that don’t like to negotiate and don’t want to feel like they got ripped off. Since you know what you wanf, you’re better off playing a couple dealerships off each other.

Also, the finance guy will know you don't like to negotiate and will give you an even harder sell. I used to use USAA when they have the service and had to get up and leave when the finance guy wouldn't shut up.

That’s so interesting , I used a service and the finance guy went through his whole spiel about warranties and prepaid this or that, I said no thanks, and it was no big deal. Would they have preferred I save time and just tell them there is nothing they will say that would make me buy an extended warranty or what not, or do they get in trouble if they don’t at least run the script completely?

We were financing with a interest rate promotion from manufacturer— was there a chance to negotiate further down from there (I didn’t have any other financing l could find that was cheaper, so it would have been just saying I’ll pay cash which I’m reluctant to do because then they think you are loaded).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s for people that don’t like to negotiate and don’t want to feel like they got ripped off. Since you know what you wanf, you’re better off playing a couple dealerships off each other.

Also, the finance guy will know you don't like to negotiate and will give you an even harder sell. I used to use USAA when they have the service and had to get up and leave when the finance guy wouldn't shut up.

That’s so interesting , I used a service and the finance guy went through his whole spiel about warranties and prepaid this or that, I said no thanks, and it was no big deal. Would they have preferred I save time and just tell them there is nothing they will say that would make me buy an extended warranty or what not, or do they get in trouble if they don’t at least run the script completely?

We were financing with a interest rate promotion from manufacturer— was there a chance to negotiate further down from there (I didn’t have any other financing l could find that was cheaper, so it would have been just saying I’ll pay cash which I’m reluctant to do because then they think you are loaded).

They went through the pitch, we said no, they kept pressing try to come up with examples of how we'd be ruined forever without their over priced warranty. We even asked why they were so set on telling us how unreliable and expensive the car was to repair, it didn't work, he kept going just pricing out other extended warranties. After about a half hour of warranty pitch we just got up and left.

[Anonymous]

We looked into it but the prices didn't seem to be competitive (particularly for the Honda we wanted)--we bought from the dealer (and gave up our Costco membership recently because we couldn't stomach the crowds in the store and their online delivery service is terrible.

[Anonymous]

I happily and easily used the USAA one a decade ago. If you do your research, and know you won't spend more than $____ for the car, you have nothing to lose - see if they can beat your price (USAA did, by thousands of dollars). I walked in, gave the dealer a check, waited for them to verify with the bank that it would clear, and went on my way - with my new car.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it seems to offer only limited models. I tried when buying a Toyota Sienna minivan last year, when it was very difficult to find, and there were no offers through Costco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seems to offer only limited models. I tried when buying a Toyota Sienna minivan last year, when it was very difficult to find, and there were no offers through Costco.

Just looked for a Kia, same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VW gives huge discounts, I wouldn't use costco for this. Always buy at the end of the month. Email all of the local dealers with the car you want including all options and ask for the out the door price. Then email the lowest one and say x dealer will do it for $500 less, can they match it?

Any extra savings if I want to buy late December?

[Anonymous]

We just got a Toyota through the Costco program. Super happy with everything, basically paid MSRP +taxes and fees for a very high in demand model. The dealer also threw in some extras for "free". There was zero haggling and ended up being much cheaper than what other dealers were quoting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VW gives huge discounts, I wouldn't use costco for this. Always buy at the end of the month. Email all of the local dealers with the car you want including all options and ask for the out the door price. Then email the lowest one and say x dealer will do it for $500 less, can they match it?

They won’t match unless they see a written quote. I’ve had some dealers get upset if I try to take quote with me, and one make you come into dealership to get a quote. Just saying “I can get it cheaper” only works on cars no one wants or already have huge markups

I like the services because they give me a list of dealerships that should be willing to negotiated over email (though I did have some duds that kept pretending they would match the quote but would never send actual out the door price quote on paper). But when I cold call or email dealerships, they just say you need to come in half the time so this saves some of that step.

I think the advice about emailing all the dealers and then trying to get a price match is no longer as helpful as it once was. This advice from 2010 and probably earlier when people were still going into dealers and less likely to try and negotiate through email. It was also a time when they didn't want to lose a single sale. Now I think they know that if you don't buy there will be someone else and people are now used to pay MSRP or close to it so there is less room for negotiation.