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Yes, the Toyota Dealer in Winston Salem pays for leads from the local Costcos.
Bought 4 cars through their deal.
No dealer doc fee!
Car is delivered to house, with a full tank of gas and paper work is done on kitchen table.
Like much of Costco's product line, their product delivers VALUE, not the cheapest price. You get a competitive price, and the car is brought to you, and you don't have to set foot in the store.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rpscott7
Buy used. Buy privately. Do not finance, pay cash. That's the best way to save.
Thanks Mr. Ramsey. Plenty of people have reason to buy new. No, it isn't the wisest financially, but then again, some people are mighty intimidated at a car where the don't really know the history behind it.
Like much of Costco's product line, their product delivers VALUE, not the cheapest price. You get a competitive price, and the car is brought to you, and you don't have to set foot in the store.
I'm in NJ, but I bought my new Corolla through TrueCar. I got a great price 0% financing, no hassles at all. I would do TrueCar again....in about 200,000 miles.
(Costco usually breaks even on what they sell. Their profit is almost entirely in membership fees.)
Interesting. I didn't expect that they made much, if anything on the new cars. New cars have a gross margin around 6%, net between 1-2%, so by to make it worth the dealers time, I knew there wasn't tons of meat on the bone.
I know grocers are in a similar spot, with even slimmer margins, and a huge part of Costco sales are groceries.
I always figured they made their money on the softlines in the middle of the store, the eyeglasses, beer and (especially) WINE sales, some of their other ancillary in store services (tires, eyglasses,) and from their private label stuff, which many people equate with quality as opposed to many supermarket brand private labels. People like my mother who had to buy 7 gallons of milk a week to feed growing boys likely help too .
Even if you dont buy through them, you can use their prices for negotiating. Last time I bought a vehicle I first checked the Costco and USAA car buying prices. I found that it really depends on the manufacturer and vehicle. For the Dodge/Chrysler minivans, Costco and USAA had huge discounts off MSRP and list prices, but Honda and Toyota prices were basically what dealers were advertising, just under MSRP. USAA was less than Costco for the Chrysler vans because USAA also offered a $1000 incentive for buying through them, but this was not offered for the Honda and Toyota vans. I went to a non-participating Chrysler dealer to test drive and showed them the USAA price on my phone for a base model. They only had ones with about $3k in options, but after about 2 hours and 3 almost walkouts they eventually matched the USAA price - $25,000 for a van with a $37,500 sticker.
We bought a Honda Odyssey through the Costco program a couple years ago. The only Honda dealer locally at that time was the Crown Honda near Southpoint (I'm in Raleigh). My husband hates the whole haggling process so he wanted something quick, simple and straightforward. I think we got $750 under MSRP plus some fancier upgrades included in the Costco deal. There was some pressure from the sales guys (as is their job) to do the deal that day (we had only planned to test drive so had to go home to get some $$$) but they have actually been a pleasure to deal with over the past 2 years. They do value customer service.
I'm sure we could have ultimately gotten a similar or even better deal if we played the game but with 2 little ones at home, we just wanted to get out the door with a good car! And in general, we are big Costco fans and they have never steered us wrong!
The only thing easier and maybe better than buying through Costco is buying through USAA, who is also sometimes slightly cheaper. You've already received Great advice from K4GPB and Myghost (exxept that many dealerships do not have managers or loaner cars anymore, except for luxury models. Even dealers That do often offer them to employees before customers. )
Just updating to say I cannot continue to recommend USAA Car Buying Service. Unfortunately, they now link to TrueCar, which allows you to build a car that doesn't exist, giving you false quotes and TrueCar "Price Guarantees". Then your email fills up with tons of crap from at least 3 dealerships, and the phone starts to ring. And ring. And ring.
Very disappointing to find that USAA has farmed this out to another provider.
the only thing easier and maybe better than buying through costco is buying through usaa, who is also sometimes slightly cheaper. You've already received great advice from k4gpb and myghost (exxept that many dealerships do not have managers or loaner cars anymore, except for luxury models. Even dealers that do often offer them to employees before customers. )
I bought through NCSECU(state credit union) It was painless. I knew what the going price should have been, and they were right there. They brought it is from a dealer up in Hickory, and I picked it up at my branch a few blocks away. You have to be member though.
My friend bought a car and rents cars through Costco. He loved it.
I bought a car earlier this year and used edmonds pricing to find invoice price. Sent emails to the internet sales people at a few places asking if they could do invoice -$500 and found one to order at that price. So, find out how much others are paying via edmonds or similar and go with that pricing at your starting point. I did not have a trade in so that factored into the low pricing but understand that you won't get a great deal on both the price of the car and the amount offered for a trade-in. If you have a trade in then you can work off the gap price between the OTD price of the car and the trade-in. In the past I've bought a car by saying "take this car and $11k for <target vehicle>". It worked.
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