Costco auto purchase program?

[Nocaster]

I sell cars for a living. This program is good October through end of the year, because you get a Costco gift card ($300 or $700 depending on which type of membership you have.) The rest of the year, I see no benefit

ETA: at the dealership I work at. Apparently, its not the same everywhere as per some other responses above.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Some good options here. Using a broker makes the process easy. I've personally been able to negotiate upwards of 10k off MSRP. First time was an '08 Toyota Sienna XLE, MSRP was $38Kish, paid $27,500 out the door.
Second was a '17 GMC Arcadia, stickered at $47,350, walked away at $36,500 out the door.

Find the vehicle you want, locate the unit in local dealers inventories, or ones that are close in options. Pit a few of the dealers against each other, deal only with the fleet/internet manager, contact them directly via email, be authentic about your intentions, let them know they're competing and give them but one chance to get the bottom line right.

Takes homework to accomplish, need to know incentives, holdbacks and other factory incentives, all can be found with diligent internet research. Get your financing in order before starting if your financing, so it's a 60 minute visit with the dealer to exchange paperwork and get your keys...

YMMV

Was that Toyota new? If so, that's pretty amazing. Getting a Toyota dealer to take off that much is pretty much unheard of.....

 

[NCW_Robert]

Hahahaha
Just think If we tried that with a HVAC guy when it's 110 outside.

Did exactly that 5 yrs ago. HVAC broke down around 1st of july. I got a good deal, just called all the dealers and had them come out, one local dealer was the least full of crap and the most straight forward. Still had to wait 2 weeks for the install slot. It was h-e-l-l, house was 110 inside.

 

[awshoot]

...
We told him what happened and he said "as soon as you mention Costco pricing or memebership, all negotiations cease and you are directed to me".

.

So this is what you need to say to just walk around the lot window shopping unharassed.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Did exactly that 5 yrs ago. HVAC broke down around 1st of july. I got a good deal, just called all the dealers and had them come out, one local dealer was the least full of crap and the most straight forward. Still had to wait 2 weeks for the install slot. It was h-e-l-l, house was 110 inside.

What if you would of given someone $1,000 more, would the job have been done in 48 hours?

 

[nammac]

Was that Toyota new? If so, that's pretty amazing. Getting a Toyota dealer to take off that much is pretty much unheard of.....

That was new, pitted two dealers against each other, they cut to the bone trying to get my business. Did a similar deal for a coworker, on a Hyundai Sonata, $5,500 off the sticker. There's more built into the cost that the average buyer doesn't understand, including volume kickbacks. Dealers make more than many consumers realize, it's how they build this elaborate dealerships.

When we bought the Arcadia a couple of years ago, I walked into the dealership, gave the fleet manager the stock number and said I wanted to take it for a test drive. Came back from the test drive and the pressure started. I wrote my offer on a piece of paper, handed it to him, he laughed. I said fine, I've already got the deal on paper with a Gresham dealer, you've serviced my vehicles for the past decade, if you want me to walk, that's ok with me... An hour later we drove off the lot with the wife's new SUV. I figure they still made a few thousand in the deal.

Buying vehicles has to be a cold, non-emotional exchange. Once they see the emotions, your cooked. They don't want to do the deal, someone else will be hungry for the volume. Always buy after the 20th of the month, they're trying to make their numbers...

My late uncle was a Cadillac salesman for over 40 years, some things haven't changed, he imparted valuable knowledge from the inside...

 

[NCW_Robert]

If you are a manly man and got balls and uh, they are not in your wife's purse for safe keeping you can do just as well or better on your own if you dont mind the negotiation game.

If the dealer/sales/finance guys are smiling and happy at the end I figure I got screwed and should have went for a lower price.

I only buy cars every 10 to 15 yrs and just start out low and stay there until they come around. If they dig in, just stand up and say well it has been fun but I'm going across the street to talk with your competitors and we will see what they can do for me.

One thing for sure, if they got time invested in you, say you been at it with them for 2 hrs, it is hard for them to let you walk away, any sales or finance guys who are involved are in for a HUGE a-s-s chewing if they "let" you walk without buying a car. That is exactly what the sales manager is going to ask them, why did you let those people walk away without buying a car, see it is your fault they left you the sales guy failed and now your gonna pay by getting screamed and yelled at for 10 minutes.

Now if your a girl this Costco thing is golden for you. Girls and some girly men dont like conflict so they get taken advantage of because the sales "crew" gets them emotionally upset and then goes in for the kill/sale. It works because these types of people forget and I mean TOTALLY FORGET they got the power of NO. JUST SAY NO. People forget all about this and won't walk away, they just set there and let themselves be pressured.

Do your home work before you walk in. Know what a good deal is then simply get up and tell them the deal is simply not good enough and when they fire the excuses and BS at you on FULL AUTO just be calm, stand up and walk towards the door. They will stop you any way they can. You will get your deal or just keep walking.

Bought quite a few cars over the years, and even worked for a local Toyota/Nissan dealership group for 6 weeks, this is how I know some of this crap.

There biggest scam was to screw you over as hard ad they could then 24 hrs later call you back in and tell you the financing fell through and you need to come back in [to renegotiate]. Then they put on the FULL CORT PRESS, up the price and make you come up with another few thousand $$ for the down and pump up the interest rate.

I sold an "off lease" 4 runner to a nice lady to was retired from being a nurse. 2 days later I met her at the door she was leaving and I was just getting back from lunch. She was crying softly, I asked what was wrong and she laid it all out what they just did to her. They were BRUTAL with her. I had enough after that, left a week later after seeing them do it again and again to other people. When I asked about it they told me all about it and how great a tactic it was while smiling and joking about it. The disrespect most car dealers have for the customer is unreal, been the victim of it and seen it from "the inside".

 

[Nocaster]

If you are a manly man and got balls and uh, they are not in your wife's purse for safe keeping you can do just as well or better on your own if you dont mind the negotiation game.

If the dealer/sales/finance guys are smiling and happy at the end I figure I got screwed and should have went for a lower price.

I only buy cars every 10 to 15 yrs and just start out low and stay there until they come around. If they dig in, just stand up and say well it has been fun but I'm going across the street to talk with your competitors and we will see what they can do for me.

One thing for sure, if they got time invested in you, say you been at it with them for 2 hrs, it is hard for them to let you walk away, any sales or finance guys who are involved are in for a HUGE a-s-s chewing if they "let" you walk without buying a car. That is exactly what the sales manager is going to ask them, why did you let those people walk away without buying a car, see it is your fault they left you the sales guy failed and now your gonna pay by getting screamed and yelled at for 10 minutes.

Now if your a girl this Costco thing is golden for you. Girls and some girly men dont like conflict so they get taken advantage of because the sales "crew" gets them emotionally upset and then goes in for the kill/sale. It works because these types of people forget and I mean TOTALLY FORGET they got the power of NO. JUST SAY NO. People forget all about this and won't walk away, they just set there and let themselves be pressured.

Do your home work before you walk in. Know what a good deal is then simply get up and tell them the deal is simply not good enough and when they fire the excuses and BS at you on FULL AUTO just be calm, stand up and walk towards the door. They will stop you any way they can. You will get your deal or just keep walking.

Bought quite a few cars over the years, and even worked for a local Toyota/Nissan dealership group for 6 weeks, this is how I know some of this crap.

There biggest scam was to screw you over as hard ad they could then 24 hrs later call you back in and tell you the financing fell through and you need to come back in [to renegotiate]. Then they put on the FULL CORT PRESS, up the price and make you come up with another few thousand $$ for the down and pump up the interest rate.

I sold an "off lease" 4 runner to a nice lady to was retired from being a nurse. 2 days later I met her at the door she was leaving and I was just getting back from lunch. She was crying softly, I asked what was wrong and she laid it all out what they just did to her. They were BRUTAL with her. I had enough after that, left a week later after seeing them do it again and again to other people. When I asked about it they told me all about it and how great a tactic it was while smiling and joking about it. The disrespect most car dealers have for the customer is unreal, been the victim of it and seen it from "the inside".

Yikes

 

[JuglansRegia]

I love to haggle, if the sales manager won't shake your hand when you leave, then you know you got a good deal. Last time we bought a car it was for the wife, I told her to act like she didn't really want the one she picked out, I even believed her and was ready to go until she kicked me under the table and gave me that look, so we let them twist our arm into buying it.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

I sell cars for a living. This program is good October through end of the year, because you get a Costco gift card ($300 or $700 depending on which type of membership you have.) The rest of the year, I see no benefit

ETA: at the dealership I work at. Apparently, its not the same everywhere as per some other responses above.

Do you sell New Hondas?

 

[41mag]

The dealer I visited today came down $4k+ on the full MSRP on a $42k rig. That was the easy 1st pitch. "We are a Costco dealer but found we can give just as good a deal without the paperwork"......*kaff*kaff*

I have just begun my own little tactics.

 

[Ura-Ki]

When I walk in to buy a rig, I know what the actual cost is the dealer paid for the rig, and I also know how to go about getting them to sell it to me at just above that price!
Dealers HATE me YUGELY, because I know the dirty little secret they don't ever want the sheeple to know!
Last time i did that, I saved my F.I.L almost $25,000 on his brand new Dodge Ram 2500 Quad Cab! It takes ballz of steel to walk in and demand that price, and then stand your ground when they tell you PHUCK NO, and then you hit them with the Laws they are required to follow in answering your offer and a simple demand you make, and they fold like a wet noodle and start filling out the papers and get you out of there as quickly as they can, No steak and lobster for any one in the sales dept. that night! I love watching the sales manager turn all red faced when he/she is forced to take over the sale and sell me a rig like that!

 

[Nocaster]

Do you sell New Hondas?

No sir, Chevys. Used everything.

 

[L84Cabo]

I haven't used CostCo's but I've used AAA and I suspect they're pretty similar. I've bought several vehicles through AAA and it would be well worth the $50 membership for a year to use the service if you're not a member already.

Anyway, it works like this...and I'll use a Toyota Tacoma as the example because that's what I bought last...

You call AAA and tell them what vehicle you're looking for and they give you the name of a dealership in your area and the name of the Fleet Manger. You get to deal with the Fleet Mgr., not the regular sales monkeys which is fantastic.

You make an appointment, go in, pick out your vehicle and they pull out the Dealer Invoice and then give you a price above their cost (not MSRP). So for a Tacoma the pre negotiated price is $500 over their cost. This is essentially you're starting point and you can offer them less if you wish but there's not a ton of room left to negotiate at this price (more on that in a second). If there are any factory rebates on, you get those too.

I've found it's best to do all your window shopping/tire kicking first. Once you figure out exactly what you want, then call the Fleet Manager and go in. Also get your financing lined up ahead of time. If the dealer has better financing you can always take it.

You also want to check Edmunds.com before you go in. Edmunds lists all the dealer costs so you can be sure that what the dealer give you is accurate. But here's the thing about dealer cost...

Dealers also get a kickback from the MFG each month for the number of units they sell. Edmunds has been able to crack the general cost but nobody knows for sure how much the dealers get kicked back to them. So in our example of "$500 over cost" for the Tacoma, the dealer is actually making more than $500. But how much more is anyone's guess.

Anyway, this is the best pricing I've ever been able to obtain on a new car. The best price I've ever got was $1000 below cost on my last Tacoma. We started at $500 over cost, I offered them "cost" and there was a $1000 rebate on from the factory. If anyone has found a better way to buy a new vehicle, I'm all ears. Let us in your secret!

Also, if you do your homework ahead of time like I've outlined above, you can be in and out in under an hour with very little headache. Keeping your sanity has got to be worth something too.

 

[AMT]

.....There biggest scam was to screw you over as hard ad they could then 24 hrs later call you back in and tell you the financing fell through and you need to come back in [to renegotiate]. Then they put on the FULL CORT PRESS, up the price and make you come up with another few thousand $$ for the down and pump up the interest rate.....

They did this to us when we bought the 4Runner. We went in to see what they were talking about. The same thing you mentioned! We brought our paperwork (as requested by them). They put the new paperwork in front of us wanting us to sign it. When we started comparing the paperwork we noticed that the numbers were different, so was interest rate and a few other things that weren't the same. One thing that stood out was the sale price at the top of the paperwork.

They were adamant that we were supposed to sign it so they can refile the paperwork. We told them we weren't going to sign it. They were livid. They even threatened to repossess the 4Runner and we'd be out our trade-in, down payment and everything else. They were getting visibly PO'd at me. My wife was frazzled, almost in tears, and just wanted to leave. They actually told her to sit back down as she couldn't leave without signing the paperwork.

That is when i lost it. I told them that it was a contract that was written up BY THEM. If they messed up then THAT WAS ON THEM. I was NOT going to sign the "new" contract. They said that if we drove away (in the new 4Runner) that they would call the police and have us arrested for theft and that we would be out everything that we put down on it, and they would prosecute to the fullest extent they could.

I told them that if they tried it that they would be talking with my attorney as i would go after no less than full ownership of the dealership. I pointed out that we agreed to, and signed, a contract that THEY had written up. If they screwed up, that was THEIR fault.

The guys left the room. We thought they went to go get someone else to bring into the room to try and strong-arm us more. My wife was shaking and almost in tears because she was so upset. We sat there for about 10 minutes before we got up and started walking around. They were no where to be seen, so we left.

The next day we got a call from the "Finance Manager". He mentioned that the paperwork was filled out incorrectly and that we needed to sign the corrected paperwork. We told him that we played that game the night before, and that we were real busy and couldn't get in for a couple days. We hung up with him and went to our Credit Union and told them we wanted to finance the vehicle with them. We did the paperwork and had financing through our CU within 30 mins. We requested that they send the paperwork over to the dealership immediately, and they told us that they always do send it immediately.

We called the "Finance Manager" and told him that we could meet the following day (giving the paperwork an extra day "just in case"). When we walked in the Finance Manager "wasn't available", so they set us up with someone else. Different people but the same paperwork as before. We explained what happened the first time, and explained AGAIN that we agreed to a contract that THEY initially wrote up, and that we would never have agreed to the "terms" that they were trying to put in front of us this 2nd time. Then we told them that our CU should have sent over paperwork. "What paperwork?" The pay-off paperwork, we financed through our CU. We don't owe you a penny.

They were livid and threatened us. I stood up and said "TRY IT !" And that they would be talking to an attorney as i would sue them into oblivion for "baiting and switching" then writing up a contract then trying to FORCE us to sign a new contract. That is EXTORTION and highly illegal. They backed up and said "We aren't "forcing you" to sign anything".

Good! We got up and left.

The "Sales Manager" called us the next day and mentioned that we didn't sign the new paperwork like we said we would. I explained to him that we owed them NOTHING and to check their paperwork again. The vehicle should show paid-off. He went through the roof and started yelling at me saying that he could get fired if we didn't sign the paperwork. I told him that we owed him nothing because we purchased the vehicle at the price they wrote up the original contract for. And if they had issue with it, they need to bring it up to our CU. He started cussing and i hung up.

The phone rang and caller-ID showed the same phone number that we just talked to. As soon as i picked it up i said "this call is being recorded so i can take it to my attorney!"

"FORGET IT" and he hung up.

Never heard another word from them.

I could see how a "frail" or "weak" person could be strong-armed into signing different paperwork.

 

[Mikej]

.

So this is what you need to say to just walk around the lot window shopping unharassed.

I'd suggest wearing you're work clothes, if you do some sort of outside work, will have the same effect. We've perused the cars in the lot of the Honda dealership when we've been there to pick up/drop off our CRV for service. The salesmen on the floor can't see that we're there for service, so I figure we don't look rich enough to afford one of their overpriced cars.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

It happens

 

[41mag]

years ago I made a deal on 2nd/3rd line used 6 cyl. Blazer for a very decent price...using a few of the 'normal tricks' learned over the years. Of course they called me back the next day & did a gradual 2 step up-charge, which still wasn't all that much, and still represented a very decent purchase price. They were working the original deal of course, and to their favor by a few hundred $. Then $38. Petty, but I was still ahead considering other similar rigs I had visited.

Other than the inconvenience it still seemed like a decent deal.
A week later the motor blew out....no big deal, I had a nice 400 small block waiting anyway.....after which the tranny failed.....but a decent overdrive auto gave me exactly what I was after, a cross-country Blazer that gave 20mpg at 75ish mph.

 

[Ura-Ki]

The Subaru dealers also do that finance bait and switch deal! Twice, the Wife wanted a Subaru, and two different dealers in different states tried that same "deal" of strong arming her! I had to step in and put a stop to all that once and for all! Wife will not even step foot on a dealers lot now, so I have to do it!

 

[Nocaster]

Wow, all these stories make me feel proud of how things are done at my dealership. Not saying the name as we are not a supporting vendor, so not trying to get free advertising.