Car buying services- which one?

[Anonymous]

We know what car we want (popular model). We have access to several car buying services. Not sure if it’s better to email several dealers ourselves or use a car buying service.
Anyone have experiences with:

1) Costco
2) Consumer Reports/TruCar
3) Navy Federal Credit Union
4) USAA

[Anonymous]

It's always better to negotiate yourself. If you can give me the brand/model you are looking for, I'll quickly tell you what other people are paying for it currently.

This is not hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's always better to negotiate yourself. If you can give me the brand/model you are looking for, I'll quickly tell you what other people are paying for it currently.

This is not hard.

2020 Toyota Corolla LE or LE Hybrid

[Anonymous]

Love USAA!

It was 2000, and I wanted a certain bramd new mini-van, and did my research. I was willing to pay $xx. The USAA car buying service was $xx - $2,000 AND, I wouldn't have to do any negotiating or haggling, or even dealing with the car dealer staff. I walked in with my printed piece of paper from USAA and walked out a little bit later with the car. They still tried to get me with financing, but I was paying all cash so it was a non--issue.

[Anonymous]

None, tried USAA and Costco and I got a better price negotiating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None, tried USAA and Costco and I got a better price negotiating.

Same. Tried TruCar, but got better price negotiating directly and pitting dealerships against each other. Bought a Toyota this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None, tried USAA and Costco and I got a better price negotiating.

Same. Tried TruCar, but got better price negotiating directly and pitting dealerships against each other. Bought a Toyota this year.

Same. Bought a Subaru last summer. Tried USAA and the price was $100 off MSRP. Uh, no. We ended up paying $3500 off MSRP negotiating ourselves. We probably could’ve done even better if we were actually good at negotiating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None, tried USAA and Costco and I got a better price negotiating.

Same. Tried TruCar, but got better price negotiating directly and pitting dealerships against each other. Bought a Toyota this year.

Please share best ways to pit dealerships against each other? Do you do this in-person or via email?

[Anonymous]

via email

[Anonymous]

Just find a few dealerships that have the exact car that you want in stock. Determine the price you want to pay (this is easy using trucar/edmunds etc.). Email each of them to see if they are willing to sell at your price. car buying services are for suckers and lazy people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know what car we want (popular model). We have access to several car buying services. Not sure if it’s better to email several dealers ourselves or use a car buying service.
Anyone have experiences with:

1) Costco
2) Consumer Reports/TruCar
3) Navy Federal Credit Union
4) USAA

I think they're all powered by TrueCar (badge engineering) so you'll see the same price. You can do better going outside of TrueCar. Run a quite via TrueCar, but don't show it to the dealer just yet. Remember, dealers get a $300 kickback from TrueCar upon selling a car so if you've already shown them the truecar-price you'll almost always pay $300 more than you could have negotiated without it.

Car negotiations are fun, here's a simple approach. 1) Get best prices via internet from multiple dealers, 2) go to dealer with the lowest price and offer $2k less than they offered 3) if they a) say no and don't want to sit down with that means you're price is too low, go to next dealer b) if they sit down with you that means you're close. 4) spend some time at the negotiation table, do not budge, if they sit with you for 1-2 hours that means they can probably do the price you offered. 5) after 1-2 hours, say you have to go and you'll be back tomorrow, start walking (literally) and they'll most likely match your price.

best of luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's always better to negotiate yourself. If you can give me the brand/model you are looking for, I'll quickly tell you what other people are paying for it currently.

This is not hard.

Can you help me still? Honda Odyssey 2018/19 trim/pkg don’t matter. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

USAA canceled that program some time ago.

[Anonymous]

what are some good websites to start searching for used cars?