Has anybody ever used a car buying service?

[dennis thompson]

I am thinking about buying a new car. Has anyone ever used a car buying service? The one I am thinking about is the Costco one but I'm obviously open to any suggestions.
Thanks

[Mike Circo]

Almost.
AAA has a car buying service. I entered all my data, car, option, etc. and sent it into their system. I then received some quotes from dealers "in my area". But their idea of in my area was 30 miles away.

So I printed those quotes and took them to my close-by dealers and used them as leverage to get a better price.

In the long run i didn't "use" the service as much as exploit their discounts to my favor. I bet Costco's system works similarly.

[Eric DeSilva]

My wife and I were buying a new car for her recently. I did what you were supposed to do--looked at Edmunds, priced all the options, figured dealer costs, decided on a fair offer... And then my wife emailed me the offers she got just going to the Consumer Reports buying service, since she's a member. They were all about $2K-$3K lower than what all the other buying research was telling me I should pay. Aside from some attempts at being upsold on all usual stuff when we went to get the car--dealer financing, undercoating, extended warranties--it was pretty painless.

[Steve Peterson]

I tried using Costco to buy a car once. I received a phone call from a local dealer that offered $500 off MSRP. After talking a bit, he said that the best he could do would be another $500 off. I got the feeling that the dealer was even less willing to negotiate a price because they had to share their profits with Costco.

We ended up buying a car at a dealer on the on the outskirts of town for around $3500 off MSRP. It was certainly worth driving 30 miles to buy it.

Steve

[Jim Matthews]

$58 a mile, round trip?

I would take those rates,
every day.

Why do car dealers price their products this way?
It's maddening. I don't buy anything else
with hidden incentives - why cars?

[Bruce Page]

I used a buying service once. I bought a 1989 Mazda 626 through our CU service. After laying out exactly what I wanted - color, options, etc., to the CU rep, the first question she asked me was "What's your second choice?" Huh? There is no second choice, this is what I want! It took a couple of weeks but they ended up bringing in the car from out of state. I don't recall the exact savings I received using the service but it wasn't a big amount. The thing that bothered me the most was the bad vibe from the local Mazda dealer when I took the car in for service.

[Mike Henderson]

I used the Costco service to buy a car and it went okay. I don't know if I go the best price - I didn't have any way to check it out.

I sent my requirements to a number of dealers (non-Costco) and the responses I got back were not very good. I gave them a list of requirements, and told them the list was in priority order - that is, the things on the top of the list were absolute, while the things at the bottom were negotiable. So what do I get back from one dealer? A quote on a car that does not have the things on the top of my list but has the things on the bottom of the list. My feeling was that they just didn't read, or care about, my requirements for the car. That's when I went the Costco route.

Mike

[Stan Calow]

Same experience as Steve. Service gave us the name of person to see at a specific dealership. He gave better deal than the service price, once we told him we were sent there.

[Jim Falsetti]

I have bought mew cars through the Costco buying service, and am very happy with the way it worked out. The price was better than anything I knew about. No negotiating and playing games with sales staff, just a straightforward deal. I plan to use them for my future new car buys.

[Jim Becker]

The only downside to the Costco service that I've notices is the inability to get prices without getting formally involved.

PenFed ... which is one of the best low interest financing sources for autos ... has a buying service that includes a slightly better rate and is worth checking out.

Now if anybody is interested in buying a Jeep product, I can point you at a Group Buy (from a Jeep forum I participate in) based at a VA that will knock your socks off. 7% off invoice plus the doc fee T/T. Effectively about %6 below invoice and that's before and available manufacturer incentives. ;) Buys only...their lease deals are not good...and trades are not top dollar because of the aggressive deal. There's a similar Group Buy in Houston, too, although not quite as much off.

[Walter Plummer]

We purchased our Honda from our credit union. We went in to see how much we could afford and they asked what we were looking for and if we wanted them to get it for us. We told them what we wanted and they called three dealers and found one. We came back to the credit union on Monday and drove the van, went in singed the papers and took it home. The only thing was there were some other options I didn't know about that I might have gone for. So if we do it again I would look at a dealers first and then got to the credit union.

[William Payer]

We've used the Costco program twice this year to buy new cars. (my truck got totaled in an ice storm accident and the wife's car was needing to be replaced ). We tried shopping on our own and went through the typical "negotiations" and the typical salesperson/dealer shenanigans. We were close to buying her new car after hours of back and forth with the dealer and "tag team" calling back by the salesperson and the "sales manager" when my wife saw the Costco program. We made the contact, went in an got the same deal we had to work for hours (with the dealer) without any bickering and grief. It was simply $100 over invoice. Ordered the car and have not been happier. For my truck (different brand and dealer) it was $400 under invoice. As we get older I find I have less desire to go through all the hassles of negotiation when I can get basically the same result with a very civilized meeting.
y the way, you can see the invoice price of each vehicle on the Costco web site, but they do not tell you where their final price is from that. (The Lexus dealer we checked on just took a small flat fee off MSRP which did not even approach invoice price, so each brand of vehicle will differ in their participation in the program.

[Phil Thien]

I used Honda financing once, by accident.

I found a good lease deal, called the dealer to write it up and I'd come take a look. On the way to the dealership I realized my wife was driving a lot more miles than I had thought.

Got there and saw the price they were charging Honda was lower than I'd pay by $2000+ (in fact, I had just researched buying the exact same model Odyssey). So I said I had decided to just buy the car. They explained to me that the deal they gave to Honda financing was different because it was "in the Honda family," and they needed to squeeze the prices to get the lease payment down. This is how they were told to write-up the deals by Honda, but isn't how they would sell the car outright.

So I sat there and acted dumb until they gave me the total to write on my check. It was later at night, about 8:15pm, and the finance guy wanted to leave. I always have the best luck when people want to go home. Like when I bought a Corolla at 8:45pm. The salesperson made me a deal I couldn't refuse, and then handed it over to the closers and left.

[Rick Potter]

I bought a car through Costco last year. It was easy, since I knew exactly what I wanted, and researched the price on sites like Cars Direct.com. Turned out the dealer had a car with a few extra's I did not want, and was willing to sell it to me for about $800 less than the Costco price, because my exact car was not at any other local dealers. I didn't really want it to park itself, but it does.

I will never buy a car from a store that starts you out with a 'Hi, how are you' guy, who passes me on to his 'partner' who actually talks to me about the car, then passes me on to the 'closer', who makes the deal. They all seem to have a finance guy finish it off, and that is ok, after the deal is made, but his job is also to sell you an 'extended service policy', 'maintenance policy', a special wax job, and a back rub.

Anyway, the Costco thing was helpful to me, and saved time.

[Matt Day]

What is this Costco service you guys are talking about?

We bought a car for my wife last year and paid something like $1k below invoice. I negotiated with a few dealers and leveraged them against each other. It took some time but I enjoyed getting a good deal. Does the service do this for you or something?

[Jim Becker]

Matt, a service like this provides the opportunity to purchase a vehicle at a pre-negotiated price point without the haggling. While it may not always be the "lowest" price available, the key is the "no haggling" part. Many folks really hate "the car dealer dance", so these buying services are attractive to them. And many folks also are "blessed" with local dealers that really don't do much negotiation, especially in smaller markets where they are the only game in town. I always like to try and give business to local concerns, but when their price is way more than other sources, rather than a small and reasonable premium for being local, I'm willing to try other methods.

[dennis thompson]

Well, I went to 2 Toyota (Highlander) dealers yesterday. One was through Costco (we go to Costco at least once a week, it's a great store) and the other was just a local dealer. I spent about an hour at each dealer and the Costco dealer was about $860 more than the local dealer. The difference was all in the trade in value of my car (a 2009 Honda Odyssey). The Costco dealer offered $11,000 for the trade & wouldn't budge. The local dealer offered $10,000 for my trade & I told him goodbye. He then upped his trade in value in several steps to $12,336, obviously a very big increase in about 15 minutes of haggling, (I don't mind & expect a little haggling) . The increase in trade in value of $2,336 just shows me how much room there was in his original offer. As of now I plan to go with the local dealer but who knows, I might go back tomorrow & get the old trick "oh that car is gone, we just sold it but we have another for you, it's just a little more expensive.":eek:

[Jim Becker]

The buying service isn't a guarantee of best price and yes, there is still the "trade dance"...that was the part I hated about my local dealer when I was buying my present vehicle. They were doing extreme low-balling on my trade citing this and that and some other things. Twice I just stood up and bid them adieu...they eventually upped their offer to where it was begrudgingly acceptable to me. The funny thing was that two days later, my trade was on the lot with only new tires and stickered for exactly what the original private sale ask was prior to my trading...and that was five grand higher than I got in trade. (I wasn't using a buying service for that transaction, but was using a manufacturer affiliate discount available to me through my employer for 1% under invoice plus any available incentives. The dealer got 2% so that didn't hurt them one bit)

[Harry Hagan]

I’m glad to hear some think they got a good deal using Costco’s buying services. I purchased the same garage door from the same dealer that Costco quoted me—for $350 less when I dealt with the dealer directly!

[Matt Day]

When we bought my wife's car I did it all through email (easier ("haggling" I'd say and you can do it from yor couch).

I shopped only for a new car and once I got that price as low as I could, then I said inwanted to trade in a vehicle. That way I removed the wiggle room they had in the new car price. Then I found the best trade in price and went from there.

[William Payer]

Well, I went to 2 Toyota (Highlander) dealers yesterday. One was through Costco (we go to Costco at least once a week, it's a great store) and the other was just a local dealer. I spent about an hour at each dealer and the Costco dealer was about $860 more than the local dealer. The difference was all in the trade in value of my car (a 2009 Honda Odyssey). The Costco dealer offered $11,000 for the trade & wouldn't budge. The local dealer offered $10,000 for my trade & I told him goodbye. He then upped his trade in value in several steps to $12,336, obviously a very big increase in about 15 minutes of haggling, (I don't mind & expect a little haggling) . The increase in trade in value of $2,336 just shows me how much room there was in his original offer. As of now I plan to go with the local dealer but who knows, I might go back tomorrow & get the old trick "oh that car is gone, we just sold it but we have another for you, it's just a little more expensive.":eek:


When you include a trade in, you muddy the waters as to the actual price of the new vehicle. A comparison of dealer A and Dealer B for simply the new vehicle would be a more accurate comparison. For example, we were replacing a 6 year old Rav4 and purchasing a new Outback. We tried combining the new vehicle and trade together and got wildly differing total amounts. We priced the new vehicle before ever mentioning a trade.The trade allowance varied from 10K to 12K while the new vehicle prices were close. It all depends on how much the dealer wants the trade and how much he wants to make off of it. We finally purchased the Outback without a trade, thinking we would sell it privately. After a month and a half with little interest( mainly due to the fact that used vehicles from a dealers lot included a warranty which we could not offer, we sold it outright to our local Toyota dealer for $13,500. He then sold it for $14,500.

[William Payer]

I tried using Costco to buy a car once. I received a phone call from a local dealer that offered $500 off MSRP. After talking a bit, he said that the best he could do would be another $500 off. I got the feeling that the dealer was even less willing to negotiate a price because they had to share their profits with Costco.

We ended up buying a car at a dealer on the on the outskirts of town for around $3500 off MSRP. It was certainly worth driving 30 miles to buy it.

Steve

The Costco program REQUIRES dealers to show you the "invoice" price of the vehicle and every option and then the final variation from invoice is a set amt ( we had $100 over invoice for one make and $400 under invoice for another). In fact, the Costco program will call you after you visit the dealer and check to make sure that procedure was followed, even if you did not purchase a vehicle.

[dennis thompson]

So after doing a lot of research on the Toyota Highlander and visiting and negotiating at two dealers I bought a Honda Pilot . Why?
1-The Toyota dealers were 10-20 miles from my house whille the Honda dealer is 1/2 mile from my house. I can drop the car off for service and walk home.
2- the Pilot was about $2,000 less
3- the interior of the Pilot felt a little bigger than the Highlander
4-Honda offered 0.9% financing, I had originally planned to pay cash but couldn't resist this. The Toyota dealer did not offer any special financing
Thanks for all the helpful advice