How do car buying services compare to going in on your own? USAA car buying service, anyone?

[Anonymous]

Like most people, the thought of playing the dealer games is enough to keep me from buying a car at all. But, eventually, I will need/want to move on from my 13 yr old Camry. Not in a rush right now. I saw that USAA has a car-buying service on their website. It made me wonder if that's the way to go. Anyone have experience with these services?

[Anonymous]

I've bought two cars through Costco and highly recommend their program.

[Anonymous]

We used USAA when buying a used car. The dealer was asking $16k for my husband's slightly used Civic, but USAA had a quoted price of $12k. The dealer gave it to us no questions asked. No haggling, no games, it was easy.

[Anonymous]

Got a new jeep for my DD using USAA. Great price, called dealer and set up appointment, walked in and placed order for specific items instead of picking out a car already built. No problem with price, but guy kept trying to get us to fill out financial application even though USAA had provided a check. We refused and they ordered the car. Jeep comes in a month later and they try the credit application again. We told them we would walk out the door without the car if they brought it up again. Had discussed this prior with USAA and they assured us they would cancel check if asked. So the USAA part was fabulous, but the dealer still tried very hard to fool us into giving them our credit info. Don't fall for it.

[Anonymous]

We used USAA (truecar) and Costco as starting points for negotiating. Took their initial numbers and shopped them around other dealerships via email until we got an offer low enough that no one would match/beat it any more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got a new jeep for my DD using USAA. Great price, called dealer and set up appointment, walked in and placed order for specific items instead of picking out a car already built. No problem with price, but guy kept trying to get us to fill out financial application even though USAA had provided a check. We refused and they ordered the car. Jeep comes in a month later and they try the credit application again. We told them we would walk out the door without the car if they brought it up again. Had discussed this prior with USAA and they assured us they would cancel check if asked. So the USAA part was fabulous, but the dealer still tried very hard to fool us into giving them our credit info. Don't fall for it.

Why do they want credit info?

[Anonymous]

I liked USAA. Within an hour of submitting my info on USAA, I got quotes on the cars I was interested in and contacts from a number of dealerships in the area. It was a lot easier than calling around or visiting lots of dealerships to find out what the prices were.

[Anonymous]

I would compare the USAA or Costco price against Truecar. If your price is in the bottom 20% of the prices paid on Truecar then you're getting a fair deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used USAA (truecar) and Costco as starting points for negotiating. Took their initial numbers and shopped them around other dealerships via email until we got an offer low enough that no one would match/beat it any more.

Thats what we have done. USAA had a good price, but we always were able to use it as a starting point.

If you aren't willing to haggle, then using USAA or Costco's offer is probably far better than doing it on your own.