Costco Auto Program

[Anonymous]

Has anyone used this to buy a car? Do you really get a good deal? How did it work out for you?

[jsteele]

I signed up for it because I wanted to get the discount on Equinox EVs that Costco had at the time. Even though I did not indicate that I wanted a sales person to contact me, one did. He was not high pressure or anything and just said that he saw that I had joined the auto program and he was the Costco contact at that dealership and wanted to see if he could help me. I had already been searching the online inventories and told him that I didn't think his dealership had the car that I wanted in inventory. He confirmed that was the case. I went on to ask him how the program works and he said that it is a pre-negotiated discount off of MSRP.

I would think that this might be a good option for people who don't like to negotiate. I actually enjoy doing that so I would prefer to make my own deal.

[Anonymous]

I bought a car for my college-age daughter through the Costco program. I thought it was great and the price was really good - comparable to what all of the online-pricing models say you should be able to negotiate down to. They also gave you a 50% coupon to buy any after market accessories, so I save $200 on a roof rack. The only real downside was that I had to go to a dealer out in Chantilly rather than one closer to Arlington - I guess they only have one dealer per market or something like that. Overall, the process was great.

[Anonymous]

Depends on what you are getting, it's just a fleet program so similar to many other similar types of programs... also, many dealerships will just match the discount/negotiated price and work outside the program. My parents used it a few times and saved money, I tried and it didn't do much for me

[Anonymous]

We just did this for a new car. Also have USAA and bought cars through their car buying program previously, but they discontinued it.

2 werks ago, spouse negotiated with dealership and negotiated xx price. Entered the info into the online Costco car buying program, and it saved us $3k for the SAME CAR.

Super simple, people were great to work with, and that's $3k that can go towards to 2 college payments this fall

[Anonymous]

Are you buying or leasing? If you are leasing, I'd look for a lease broker that specializes in your model - look on Leasehackr. Some amazing deals can be had this way for minimum cost of a broker.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if it’s the same thing, but I got $1000 or $1500 off my used Volvo (can’t recall exact amount). I just signed up to get the deal, but they said I had to be a member sooner, but they said they’d use anyone who had my same last name. So they worked with me to use my dad’s wife’s account, since I had my maiden name. It took 15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

We used it recently when there was a run up on cars before tariffs went into place. Because of the unknown, dealers were not really in a place to negotiate as much on popular models (we were buying a hybrid CRV). We overall thought it was great in our situation. I reviewed lots of Reddit for OTD price over the year and what we paid was similar and often slightly less than what folks were negotiating. And it took the high pressure sales tactics out completely since we already had a specific quote when we entered. Our salesperson was great and really showed us features of the car, seemed pretty honest about whether certain upgraded trims were worth it. I’d consider doing it again in the future.

[Anonymous]

Did this with my new Honda recently and got 2k off sticker. I hate haggling so this was perfect for me.