Costco Auto Program

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by justanokie

I disagree. Its simple.

Don't trade a car in. Sell it yourself.

Don't talk to a dealer about payments. Negotiate the total price only.

Unless your going for 0% financing, get your loan in advance from a credit union. Even if the dealer offers 0% its often worth it to take a cash back and apply it to the vehicle and go with a low interest rate loan from a credit union rather than 0% from a dealer.

Take the invoice price and take 20% off. Thats your target for a great deal. 15% is a good deal. 10% is minimum, might be necessary for a select few high demand cars, and its better than what most people pay and its better than what a car buying service is going to get you generally.

Call the dealer and speak to the internet sales desk. Tell them you already have a loan approved and do not intend to trade anything in. Ask them for the best deal on the model your interested in. Insist on the 20% off price and don't budge. Get them as low as possible. If they don't get low enough then call another dealer. Repeat until you find one that will. Its simply a matter of willingness to spend some time calling and perhaps some travel if you can't find a dealer locally.

Its worth it to catch a plane and drive the car back to save several thousand dollars. So expand your search out to large cities within an afternoon or days drive away.

You have to keep trying until you find a dealer that needs the sales. End of month, end of quarter is usually the best times.

Keep an eye on sites like autotrader etc. Look for the dealers that are pricing the new car lower than anyone else. This is the easiest way to quickly locate a dealer needing some sales. Don't restrict your search by color, just look for same year, make, model, trim. Even if the dealer doesn't have the color you want they can usually get it quickly. So ignore color until you are actually talking to the dealer.

Trading a car in is almost always a bad choice. If you don't feel like selling it yourself, you probably have a friend or a family member that loves selling things. Let them do it for a few hundred bucks.

Of course all this takes some time. If you simply have to get a new car immediately then your only going to be able to do so much. If you spend a few months though you can save some real money.

Great post a lot of great tips. I got the car I am driving now 2k off by calling around the internet desks.

Product is the same, I can go to any dealership after purchase,..........so what other comparison points do we have ladies and gentleman............PRICE

[rugrats2001]

Originally Posted by justanokie

I meant MSRP in my original post, not the invoice. But you can still get well below the "dealer invoice" price.

Any car except a few specific high demand and/or very low production number cars.

No liquidation.

Yes you can apply any rebates.

Yes they are sold for 20%. Look at a place like true car and you can see at least some people are getting 15% to 20% off of the msrp which is well below the invoice price. Rebates are besides the point. It may or may not include a rebate but with or without one you can get to that discount on nearly any car. Rebates are nothing more than a sales tool to publicize what is normally considered protected dealer profit margin by car mfrs.



I bought a new 2014 VW passat SEL TDI last july. MSRP was running around 34.5K or so for that car. (going from memory so my numbers might be just slightly off but they are close). Dealer invoice was around 32.5K or so. I called 10 dealers that are within a few hours drive. NONE would come off of mid 32K range, most wouldn't go below 33K. I waited and watched autotrader and after a week I saw a dealer post up one for 31K about 800 miles away. I called and was quickly able to negotiate a deal for 29K out the door, tax included. So I got that car for less than 28K. I called up a few local dealers that I had went in to visit and asked them to match that price plus $500 (about what it was going to cost for air/hotel/fuel/food to go get the other car). They said they couldn't get within 5000 much less 500. They told me it had to be a scam, that it was impossible, that the model must be listed wrong, that no dealer would sell me that car for that price. I told them I had a signed purchase order and the vin was correct. The refused to believe. I paid a deposit on the car that afternoon and flew in to get it that weekend.

This advice applies to all major mfrs. Car dealers these days are making a lot of money from mfr to dealer incentives that revolve around customer satisfaction and sales quotas. If you can find a dealer close to meeting the sales quotas then you have found a dealer that is willing to sell you a car at 20% off. They can easily make up the money and then some by hitting a sales quota that gives a huge kickback to the dealer.

Most people do pay a few percent over invoice. Ask yourself what business on this planet makes any money selling a product for 2% profit. NONE. Car dealers have high overhead to make the situation even worse. There is only one conclusion. Car dealers pay much less than the "dealer invoice" price and the holdbacks. They have unadvertised incentives from mfrs that lowers their per car price to well below the "dealer invoice".



I meant MSRP in my original post but you can still get the price down well below the "dealer invoice" price.

Thank you for your clarification. That makes a lot more sense.

[lvs2393]

Originally Posted by rugrats2001

Do you have a list of car makes that you feel this is possible to achieve? Are you assuming the dealership is being liquidated, or are you including factory rebates in your figure? If you are including rebates, then there is no sense in calling around for months, you just wait for the rebates.

Locally, even a new car from two model years ago won't be sold for 20% off of invoice, without rebates making up the bulk of the discount.

I have only experience with Honda's. The main point is to hunt for last year new model that is still sitting on the lot in the summer.
Got this way during summer of 2013 two cars from two different dealerships (all prices before taxes and fees):
2012 Honda Crosstour EX-L v6 w Nav for $27k while MSRP was $39k, (If I remember correctly invoice was around $32k-33k).
2012 Honda Civic EX for $15k while MSRP was shows as $24k.
Both of this cars had to go off the lot.

I see right now a couple of Honda dealerships still have cars from 2014 while now end of august of 2015.
There is not much they can do with them. Either covert to CPO or auction them off.
At this point I would offer them $10k below their MSRP for sure and I won't even flinch at their wining.

[charlygal]

Originally Posted by lvs2393

I have only experience with Honda's. The main point is to hunt for last year new model that is still sitting on the lot in the summer.
Got this way during summer of 2013 two cars from two different dealerships (all prices before taxes and fees):
2012 Honda Crosstour EX-L v6 w Nav for $27k while MSRP was $39k, (If I remember correctly invoice was around $32k-33k).
2012 Honda Civic EX for $15k while MSRP was shows as $24k.
Both of this cars had to go off the lot.

I see right now a couple of Honda dealerships still have cars from 2014 while now end of august of 2015.
There is not much they can do with them. Either covert to CPO or auction them off.
At this point I would offer them $10k below their MSRP for sure and I won't even flinch at their wining.

Thanks for the tip. I'm in the market and I actually found a few new 2014s.