Originally Posted by
ipdanno
A family member had worked at Chevy and Kia dealerships, and told me that hands down, the Costco Buying Program beat every other buying program, to include USAA. He did not have experience with airline-specific incentive programs.
We chose that path, in the Chicagoland area. The eligible dealership had specific program-certified sales reps. There was a binder on the shelf with the sales price for the various trim levels of the preferred vehicle. And it displayed the Costco discount for each option. I was impressed. We leveraged a year-prior (untitled) model for dealer incentives, and chose the brand-specific finance option for further interest rate incentives. Overall, I am pleased with the experience of buying that ‘new’ vehicle.
Mind you, I only get used vehicles for the airport car, and those are vehicles that Jake and Elwood would find acceptable, as long as you fix the lighter!
It depends. Many people are happy to buy a vehicle off the lot. If that's the case, there's often more negotiation possible. At some point, the dealer needs to move it. Keep in mind though, the dealer ordered the car because they THOUGHT they could move it, so they aren't impressed by someone coming in and low-balling it if they think they can keep it for longer and sell it at a more advantageous price. If you want very specific features, they can often be hard to come by at at a dealership, in that you have to order the vehicle. Example, you want a manual transmission, maybe on a sporty car or full on sports-car, well the dealerships know they can't move those and most of the damn public can't even test-drive it, so it doesn't make any sense to stock on on stuff that they know they'll have a hard time moving. Just order some more big AT 4-door trucks and they'll keep the soccer moms and husbands happy. So if you are going this route, a program like Costco makes a lot of sense, you can negotiate the price, often save a little off of MSRP, but not get screwed over because you are "ordering". When you are ordering, you are more at the dealer's mercy, because they know there is something that you want and no matter where you go, you are going to have to order it. They love to tack on "dealer markups" and other BS. I've used Costco...and I've not used Costco. It just depends on the circumstances. Most people are happy taking a car off the lot, which usually allows ample room for negotiation. For the smaller percentage that want's something specific, the programs like Costco make a lot of sense.