Has anybody ever used a car buying service?

[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."

[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."

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