Anyone buy a car through Costco?

[Ladyskir]

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 literally "worked over" the CA & OR dealerships (3 pages of dealership contacts), fleet sales Mgrs for over 6 months on getting a new Rav4 Prime Limited last year. I had a whole spreadsheet with evey dealerships pricing structure & what they would & wouldn't do, how long their wait list was, what their "over MSRP" starting price was, if they were selling to those out of their marketing territory, etc. Last year that car was SO IN DEMAND no dealership on the west coast even cared about the Costco Program for that particular model. But if they do, you still need to shop around. Do your shopping via phone & internet with the internet/fleet sales person, preferably doing everything via email, that way you can use it as leverage to get the car you want at the dealership closest to you AND with the best service department reviews. Most important is to be sure your number is your "OUT THE DOOR" final price, including Tax & License, etc. They often try to hide several things in the paperwork if you don't know what your looking for. Also don't tell them how your paying for the car (cash or finance) until you've got a firm price agreement. They want to factor in extra profit (padding) if they know your not going to finance. Or at least, be sure that there's not prepayment penalty and no upfront cost for the financing & just pay it off with the first payment. So, so many things to do, but it saved my bestie several thousand dollars AND she got the exact car she wanted, while others were paying as much as $15k over MSRP or on 8-12 month waitlists.

 

[Ken555]

We need more transparency and trust in the price in regards to car sales. I learned long ago never to talk with any dealer until I was ready to buy, and only communicate via non phone methods. In the early 2000s there was a service that did this (and I’m sure I wrote about it in more detail on TUG long ago) where you could select which dealers would be invited to bid on your car, and they would each see the others bids so they could compete for your business.

It’s just crazy that we could purchase the same vehicle for hundreds or thousands less when comparing different dealers, yet that’s the way the industry is structured. Too bad Saturn is no longer around… at least GM tried. And say what you will about Tesla, but at least they and others simplify the process by offering a non negotiable purchase price.


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[Talent312]

I literally "worked over" the CA & OR dealerships (3 pages of dealership contacts), fleet sales Mgrs for over 6 months on getting a new Rav4 Prime Limited last year....

I realize that some of us like to get the very best deal to be had. But I have to wonder: If you're gonna spend about $35K-$45K on a new, decently equipped car, how much work is it worth to sweat over saving a few hundred more than what a local dealer is willing to do?

At a time when the value of someone's investments can increase or decrease by a similar amount in a day, a few years down the road (note what I said there), I doubt that you'll notice the difference.
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[Ken555]

I realize that some of us like to get the very best deal to be had. But I have to wonder: If you're gonna spend about $35K-$45K on a new, decently equipped car, how much work is it worth to sweat over saving a few hundred more than what a local dealer is willing to do?

At a time when the value of someone's investments can increase or decrease by a similar amount in a day, a few years down the road (note what I said there), I doubt that you'll notice the difference.
.

Apparently the average new car sales price in the US is now ~$48,000.


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[northwoodsgal]

We bought a Subaru Outback and Subaru Forester in 2021 and 2023, respectively, through a dealership and were given the Costco discount. Not every Subaru dealer was willing to do this, though.

In COVID times, it just made more sense to purchase a new vehicle rather than spending a few thousand less for an older model with mileage on it. The 2023 purchase was because I use it for work, often travelling in rural areas. I wanted a dependable vehicle and my mileage reimbursement pays a significant portion of the monthly payment.

 

[pittle]

I have bought all of our vehicles since 1999 and buying now, is certainly different. Not much wiggle room for negotiating, it was kind of like, we are giving you $XXXX off and that is it. They would not even have followed me out the door with "let me talk to my manager" if I had said no.

I had planned to keep my 2015 Acadia as my last vehicle. After my husband passed away in July, I thought that maybe I did not need to be driving a now 8 year-old car for 5-10 more years - even just to the grocery that is 2 miles away. We had sold his GMC XL Yukon in January 2023 for quite a bit. In May, he said that if I wanted a new vehicle the money in the savings account from his Yukon would be for me to use for a new vehicle. Once I started looking at new vechiles in September, I sold my 2015 GMC Acaida SLT to a friend for $2000 over KBB price (his suggestion because it was in great shape and just had 36,000 miles + 5 more years of an extended warranty that was transferable.)

So, in September, with what I got for selling two 2015 GMC vehicles, I now have a brand new 2023 Acadia. My total price including the extended warranties was just over the $48,000 Ken555 said was average (including tax and warranties).

I bought a new volcanic red GMC 2023 Acadia SLT with all the bells and whistles and light gray interior. The dealership was having a great sale and I was not trading in so did not have to do that haggling. When I was talking to the sales manager about extended warranties, he asked if I had a Costco Membership and I said yes. I got a much better price on the extended warranties - with all the electronics on cars, you need the warranty just for those to go much longer than 3 years!

 

[4TimeAway]

How to Buy a New or Used Car and Get the Best Deal Every Time - RealCarTips.com

I tend to like this site. For purchase Local Credit Union has a buying service. They tend to be SUPER easy to deal with and about $1,000 less than the best deal I can find.

Note: Last couple of years were INSANE, but things are getting back to "normal."

 

[joestein]

From my experience, the best way is to go to Edmunds. Go through the TMV pricing - you pick the car, color, options, etc. They will give you the invoice price and what people are paying for that car in your zip code. They will also give you an incentive information (not sure if this has to be looked up separately). Then they have an option to send what you are looking for to many of the dealers in your area.

Then they get back to you by email or by phone. Let them compete against each other. The last time I did this was in 2019. I ended getting a MDX for $39,000, which was about $5K under invoice. The sticker was about $48K - maybe $47K?

So, at the time, the 2021 was about to come out in less than 6 months and wanted to clear out the 2020 models. Acura had a $5K dealer incentive. I got the car for close to invoice price, less the $5K. I also got $400 or $500 dollars off from the dealership in reward money I had accumulated for servicing previous MDX there since buying it in 2010. The caveat was that I had to finance the car through a 5.95% loan (which was high at the time) - as they were making money on selling the points. I agreed not to pay off the loan in full for at least 3 months. I paid down 75% of the loan with my first payment and then maybe 1/2 of the remaining balance with each additional payment - leaving $1K which I paid off the 4th month.

 

[joestein]

Apparently the average new car sales price in the US is now ~$48,000.


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I think the best way to buy a car now is to buy a low mileage recent model used car. I purchased a Certified Pre-owned 2020 Lexus ES350 top of the line Luxury model with 2500 miles for around $39K before tax. The 2023 model new was close to $60K. That is a 33% discount. If I got a base model - which most used cars are - the new price would have been low 50s - so not as much savings - but the price might have been cheaper as well.

The car still had 1.5 years of the original warranty and I received 2 years additional warrant under the CPO program for a total of 3.5 years. I still got the 2 years free maintenance like a new car and all the other benefits of new car ownership. I do feel that I got lucky finding this car, but if you take your time, I am sure that anyone can find a similar deal that makes sense.

 

[aandmrun]

We have done both, sold a Toyota Truck and bought a Toyota Highlander through Costco. Both deals went very smoothly. Costco connects you with a dealer that has what you want and they even delivered our brand new Highlander to our home. During the sale of the truck, they referred several dealers to put in bids and we got a very good price. No haggling with dealers, just straight forward contracts.