I am a Costco member looking for a new car. I see they have a “club buyers program.” Anyone have experiance with this or other programs? Can I get a better deal on my own?
Well you are not committed when you use it to get a quote for a car. You should check the want ads first to see what the dealer is offering, then you can try your own negotiating and if that doesn’t work, then pull out the Costco number and see what happens.
When you use the program, you find a car you are interested in, then inform Costco. They give you a number to take to the participating dealer, give them the number and they look up the pre-negotiated price in their book and give it to you.
Do some homework at Edmunds.com, and compute their True Market Value for the car you are interested in first. Then compare the quote with it, as a yardstick, whether you choose to purchase through the club or if you try to negotiate yourself. TMV is supposed to be based on actual sale prices negotiated and accepted by the seller in your region.
You should be able to do as well yourself if you do your homework and are willing to negotiate. If you don’t want to negotiate a deal, use the Costco service. I’ve found that the TMV for new cars is fairly accurate.
I’m a member at BJ’s…(same as Costo, but only found in the North East)…They have the same type of program…I was able to beat their price on my own. But if you don’t like to haggle then the buyers club is better then list price (usually).
I signed up for the costco program, they were e-mailing me listings that I could also see on other advertising sites, same pricing. The gimmick was that “this is your special price”, so I ended doing the shopping on my own. I was paying cash, so not sure if their financing could sway one in a different direction.