Anyone buy a car through Costco?

[geist1223]

Normally COSTCO will only refer you to the nearest Dealership that participates in the COSTCO Program.

 

[Bucky]

So I am looking at buying a RAV4 hybrid in the Washington DC metro area now. There is one Toyota dealership in the whole metro (30 minutes away) and per the sheet Costco will get me $700 off MSRP (not invoice).

Is that a deal???? Should I look at other Costco dealerships further out. Or just haggle with closer ones the old fashioned way? Have not bought a new car in a while … and not 100% sure I will this time.

@RX8

Costco will refer you to their dealer rep closest to the zip code you entered on their site. I believe it’s a max of 2 a day. $700 is not much of a discount but like non Costco dealers, that price is just a starting point and is still negotiable. About a $2000 discount can normally be had depending a lot on timing. Try negotiating as close to the end of the month as you can. I bought a 2022 Toy Camry XSE V6 new from these people during covid and got a decent deal on a very hard to find vehicle https://www.ourismantoyota40.com/new-inventory/index.htm?compositeType=new&model=RAV4 Hybrid. I did everything over the internet including arranging pick up and delivery through UShip.

 

[Icc5]

I can't say how it might work today. We bought both our 1999 Honda Accord and 2005 Honda CRV this way. They had us go to one dealership,found the cars there and felt like we got a good savings and it was easy. We had checked out these cars ahead of time so it felt great. Definitely would do it same way again.

 

[Elan]

IMO, the problem with threads like this is that everyone's idea of a "good deal" when car shopping is vastly different. At the end of the day, all one can really do is cross shop as many dealerships as practical and then decide. The last 2 new vehicles I purchased (and likely the last new I'll ever buy) were purchased outside my metro area because I found much better deals elsewhere.

 

[RX8]

So I am looking at buying a RAV4 hybrid in the Washington DC metro area now. There is one Toyota dealership in the whole metro (30 minutes away) and per the sheet Costco will get me $700 off MSRP (not invoice).

Is that a deal???? Should I look at other Costco dealerships further out. Or just haggle with closer ones the old fashioned way? Have not bought a new car in a while … and not 100% sure I will this time.

@RX8

A “good deal” is dependent on supply/demand and other factors. If the RAV4 is limited in supply in your area then $700 off MSRP may be a good deal on that model. If dealers have a bunch of new 2023 Camrys leftover on their lot then $700 off MSRP on the Camry is not a deal.

Sounds like your dealer has no local Toyota competition and they know it. My suggestion is shop around by phone. Tell other dealers what quote you have ($700 off MSRP) and see if they will beat that price. Be sure to compare the “out the door” prices. Some dealers will give you a price and when you get there you find that they jack up the doc fee and include an over priced dealer package of cheap or worthless add-ones. Call dealers up to 100 miles away (or more if you want). If any of those dealers offer a better deal, take it back to your local dealer and ask that they match it. If the local dealer won’t match, you will need to decide if that additional discount is worth the drive. If no one will beat the deal then you know that is the best you can do on that model.

I once bought a used car I found on the internet that was at a dealership 70 miles away. I looked at one locally but the further dealer had the same model that had a higher trim, lower mileage, year newer, was a certified used, and a cheaper price. Never even drove it beforehand (knew that I wanted that model). They delivered the vehicle to me and did the paperwork locally.

 

[Elan]

A “good deal” is dependent on supply/demand and other factors. If the RAV4 is limited in supply in your area then $700 off MSRP may be a good deal on that model. If dealers have a bunch of new 2023 Camrys leftover on their lot then $700 off MSRP on the Camry is not a deal.

Sounds like your dealer has no local Toyota competition and they know it. My suggestion is shop around by phone. Tell other dealers what quote you have ($700 off MSRP) and see if they will beat that price. Call dealers up to 100 miles away. If any of those dealers offer a better deal, take it back to your local dealer and ask that they match it. If the local dealer won’t match, you will need to decide if that additional discount is worth the drive. If no one will beat the deal then you know that is the best you can do on that model.

I once bought a used car I found on the internet that was at a dealership 70 miles away. I looked at one locally but the further dealer had a higher trim, lower mileage, year newer, and a cheaper price). Never even drove it (knew that I wanted that model). They delivered the vehicle to me and did the paperwork locally.

Eons ago, when I bought our new Honda Pilot, I flew to Portland, stayed the night with my sister, purchased the Pilot the next morning and drove the 350 miles home. I had a cashier's check cut for the total before I ever left home and saved roughly $3000 (minus the ~$200 trip expense) from what my local dealers were offering.

 

[DaveNV]

And while you're shopping around, don't forget to mention you have a deal from Costco. See if that dealership will beat it.

Dave

 

[pedro47]

And while you're shopping around, don't forget to mention you have a deal from Costco. See if that dealership will beat it.

Dave

Great suggestion.

 

[Luanne]

If you don't like the car will Costco let you return it?

 

[pedro47]

Costco do not own any auto dealer ship.

 

[billymach4]

The Costco Program is a lead generation program that the dealers have to subscribe and pay a fee to participate.
While I have used this program including most recently last month to price around....

Just purchased a 2024 Subaru Outback. Went to the Costco site and they sent me to a local dealer. Price was competitive.

Then I emailed a sales manager at a Dealer 30 miles away where I had purchased 2 prior vehicles (Stamford Subaru). The Sales Manager replied with a quote that was below the local dealer Costco Sponsored Price.
The local dealer did reply with a lower price about $400 lower than the Stamford Price.

The local dealer did not leave me feeling good regardless of the $400 lower price.

In the end I went back to Stamford and came back home with the '24 Outback. It was a pleasure to work with a no nonsense sales experience regardless of the $400 price difference. I felt a level of dedication to return to a dealer further away and a few hundred $$ more.

Even the Finance Guy that is usually akin to a Time Share sales weasel was a breeze to deal with at the Stamford Subaru.

And no you can't return the vehicle if you used the Costco Program. Although the Costco program is a good place to start and use as negotiation tool... It is not always necessary.

I might also add that this is my 4th Subaru vehicle within the last 10 years. People either love or hate Subaru's. No brand is perfect. But we are devout Subaru customers.

 

[pedro47]

The Costco Program is a lead generation program that the dealers have to subscribe and pay a fee to participate.
While I have used this program including most recently last month to price around....

Just purchased a 2024 Subaru Outback. Went to the Costco site and they sent me to a local dealer. Price was competitive.

Then I emailed a sales manager at a Dealer 30 miles away where I had purchased 2 prior vehicles (Stamford Subaru). The Sales Manager replied with a quote that was below the local dealer Costco Sponsored Price.
The local dealer did reply with a lower price about $400 lower than the Stamford Price.

The local dealer did not leave me feeling good regardless of the $400 lower price.

In the end I went back to Stamford and came back home with the '24 Outback. It was a pleasure to work with a no nonsense sales experience regardless of the $400 price difference. I felt a level of dedication to return to a dealer further away and a few hundred $$ more.

Even the Finance Guy that is usually akin to a Time Share sales weasel was a breeze to deal with at the Stamford Subaru.

View attachment 88738


And no you can't return the vehicle if you used the Costco Program. Although the Costco program is a good place to start and use as negotiation tool... It is not always necessary.

I might also add that this is my 4th Subaru vehicle within the last 10 years. People either love or hate Subaru's. No brand is perfect. But we are devout Subaru customers.

Can you receive the new car warranty at your local dealership?
Price and excellent service are very important.IMO

 

[WorldT]

So I am looking at buying a RAV4 hybrid in the Washington DC metro area now. There is one Toyota dealership in the whole metro (30 minutes away) and per the sheet Costco will get me $700 off MSRP (not invoice).

Is that a deal???? Should I look at other Costco dealerships further out. Or just haggle with closer ones the old fashioned way? Have not bought a new car in a while … and not 100% sure I will this time.

@RX8

I just got a RAV4 (in Texas). I got the Costco price straight up when I got there which was lower than their market price but higher than MSRP. But I shopped around and got a lower price without using Costco. The dealership with the Costco pricing called and wanted to match the offer from the new dealership but I didn't feel going back.

 

[RX8]

Can you receive the new car warranty at your local dealership?
Price and excellent service are very important.IMO

Yes. The manufacturer warranty is good at any franchised car dealership of that manufacturer.

 

[billymach4]

Can you receive the new car warranty at your local dealership?
Price and excellent service are very important.IMO

Are you asking if I can take it back to the local dealer for any warranty work?
Yes. Any Subaru dealer will honor the manufacturer warranty.
I avoid extended service Warranty Contracts as well .. Stay away. Waste of money on Extended warranty service Contracts. Even from Subaru. My last car 2017 Legacy we had 41k on the odometer.

As a general rule of thumb I perform basic oil changes, cabin and air filter changes.
I can handle most routine items like belt changes, battery changes.

As far as tire rotations I go to Costco for tire balance and rotations. I pay the basic charge since the original tires came with the car. We generally don't put much mileage on the car.

As far as recall items I went back to the local dealer despite the fact that I did not purchase from them. They even gave me a loaner car on a recall item.

I purchase oem parts from the local Subaru dealer.

Other than that.. I avoid Dealer Service as if it is the Bubonic Plague. You will pay top dollar at the dealer and upsells that I find unnecessary.

 

[VacationForever]

We always buy extended warranty on our cars even though we never keep them for more than 3 years. Go figure! When we buy a new car, we always intend to keep it for 6 to 7 years, but typically after 3 years, we want a newer model. The nice thing about Subaru extended warranty is that you can get a check back from the warranty program when you sell the car before the warranty period is up. The time that we made out out bandits was when our 1-year old car got totalled in an accident. Great low sales price + extended warranty = insurance payout + extended warranty refund. We didn't lose any money on the car after driving for a year, essentially giving us a year of free use.

 

[VacationForever]

The Costco Program is a lead generation program that the dealers have to subscribe and pay a fee to participate.
While I have used this program including most recently last month to price around....

Just purchased a 2024 Subaru Outback. Went to the Costco site and they sent me to a local dealer. Price was competitive.

Then I emailed a sales manager at a Dealer 30 miles away where I had purchased 2 prior vehicles (Stamford Subaru). The Sales Manager replied with a quote that was below the local dealer Costco Sponsored Price.
The local dealer did reply with a lower price about $400 lower than the Stamford Price.

The local dealer did not leave me feeling good regardless of the $400 lower price.

In the end I went back to Stamford and came back home with the '24 Outback. It was a pleasure to work with a no nonsense sales experience regardless of the $400 price difference. I felt a level of dedication to return to a dealer further away and a few hundred $$ more.

Even the Finance Guy that is usually akin to a Time Share sales weasel was a breeze to deal with at the Stamford Subaru.

View attachment 88738


And no you can't return the vehicle if you used the Costco Program. Although the Costco program is a good place to start and use as negotiation tool... It is not always necessary.

I might also add that this is my 4th Subaru vehicle within the last 10 years. People either love or hate Subaru's. No brand is perfect. But we are devout Subaru customers.

We are also on our 4th Subaru - 2011 Subaru Legacy, 2012 Subaru Outback, 2015 Subaru Outback, bought a worthless new Lexus 350 in 2018, got rid of it in 2019, and bought a 2020 Subaru Ascent. We are planning to repace the 2020 Ascent with either a 2025 Ascent or a BMW. We owned 3 BMWs before Subaru. We hated the lack of reliability of the BMWs but they sure drive nice.

 

[billymach4]

We are also on our 4th Subaru - 2011 Subaru Legacy, 2012 Subaru Outback, 2015 Subaru Outback, bought a worthless new Lexus 350 in 2018, got rid of it in 2019, and bought a 2020 Subaru Ascent. We are planning to repace the 2020 Ascent with either a 2025 Ascent or a BMW. We owned 3 BMWs before Subaru. We hated the lack of reliability of the BMWs but they sure drive nice.

Go back with a Subaru. I hear nothing but headaches about BMW's and their maintenance headache's.
@VacationForever How do you like the Ascent? I would have considered the Ascent but a coworker of mine has not had a good time maintenance wise? Transmission issues?

What has been your experience?

 

[dioxide45]

I avoid extended service Warranty Contracts as well .. Stay away. Waste of money on Extended warranty service Contracts. Even from Subaru. My last car 2017 Legacy we had 41k on the odometer.

To be honest, many people would consider turning in a 2017 car with 47K miles for a new 2024 a waste of money also...

 

[VacationForever]

Go back with a Subaru. I hear nothing but headaches about BMW's and their maintenance headache's.
@VacationForever How do you like the Ascent? I would have considered the Ascent but a coworker of mine has not had a good time maintenance wise? Transmission issues?

What has been your experience?

The Ascent is wonderful to drive. It is very comfortable, much more so than the Outback. There was the !@#$ recall on the transmission issue but that is now behind us. It was supposed to be a software issue but they took a year to get the software update done. We only had 10K miles on our Ascent then and took it in for a "visual" inspection since the software update was not yet available. They had to replace the entire transmission because they found that it had to be replaced because of the issue and had wear and tear. It took another 6 to 9 months before they had the software update and they took our car in but they said the software update was no longer needed on our car because it had a new transmission. Whatever! But other than that, we love the car. I have always had NAV in my cars since 2000, but we made the mistake of electing the Ascent Limited which does not come with NAV. Android Auto is clunky, buggy and annoying. So we are wanting to buy the next car with NAV again.

 

[Luanne]

Costco do not own any auto dealer ship.

Pedro, I was kidding.

 

[billymach4]

To be honest, many people would consider turning in a 2017 car with 47K miles for a new 2024 a waste of money also...

I did not trade in to the dealer. Dealer offered 10.5K
Carvana wrote me a check for 14K

Yes I could have done the Brakes on the 17 Subaru for about $400 -$500.
Tires in about a year or two for about $600.

Other ongoing routine Maint at about $1,000.

I upgraded to a new modern car with the latest tech. Camera Sensing, Lane Avoidance, touch screen tech, auto brake hold. The small things in life that we splurge on...

Heck how many people think we all are wasting our money on timeshare's. Maint and Special Assessments?

We are not getting younger and I can't take my money to the grave. So we splurged.

 

[VacationForever]

I did not trade in to the dealer. Dealer offered 10.5K
Carvana wrote me a check for 14K

Yes I could have done the Brakes on the 17 Subaru for about $400 -$500.
Tires in about a year or two for about $600.

Other ongoing routine Maint at about $1,000.

I upgraded to a new modern car with the latest tech. Camera Sensing, Lane Avoidance, touch screen tech, auto brake hold. The small things in life that we splurge on...

Heck how many people think we all are wasting our money on timeshare's. Maint and Special Assessments?

We are not getting younger and I can't take my money to the grave. So we splurged.

+1. We ditched the 2012 Outback for 2015 Outback to get Eyesight technology. It is far superior to other manufacturers' versions of adaptive cruise control. When we bought the 2018 Lexus, the salesperson said it also had adaptive cruise control. Unfortunately we didn't test it out before we paid for it. Then it was horrible. It would not stop below 30 miles per hour. We ditched it after a year. The 2020 Ascent is great, and we are looking forward to the next Ascent.

 

[billymach4]

My 14 Outback was shipped to Idaho due to Job Relo. I was bi-coastal for a few years so to speak( Idaho -> East Coast) until Covid . In Feb 19 the 14 got into a fender bender and USAA bought me a new 19 Outback with eyesight. In 21 I consolidated back to the east Covid and sold the 19 outback.

The east coast 17 Legacy did not have eyesight. Eyesight became standard in all Subaru's as of 19.
Yes Subaru Eyesight is fantastic. DW is on the fence about it. I use all the time around town and the highway now!

 

[VacationForever]

My 14 Outback was shipped to Idaho due to Job Relo. I was bi-coastal for a few years so to speak( Idaho -> East Coast) until Covid . In Feb 19 the 14 got into a fender bender and USAA bought me a new 19 Outback with eyesight. In 21 I consolidated back to the east Covid and sold the 19 outback.

The east coast 17 Legacy did not have eyesight. Eyesight became standard in all Subaru's as of 19.
Yes Subaru Eyesight is fantastic. DW is on the fence about it. I use all the time around town and the highway now!

Me too!