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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,293
Registered: ‎03-21-2010

Has anyone bought a car through Costco's Auto Program.  Any thoughts, information or recommendations?  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,510
Registered: ‎05-23-2010

Re: Costco and Cars

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@coffee drinker wrote:

Has anyone bought a car through Costco's Auto Program.  Any thoughts, information or recommendations?  


Yes, I tried to buy one years ago. The price quotes I was getting weren’t lower than I could get without them. The company makes a deal with local dealers. You can check and see what deals are available before you buy.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,592
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Yes, one time.  It knocked off a small amount.  I think we could all get that discount if we negotiated. 

I bought a car another time and asked the dealer if they participated in the Costco program.  They said they didn't, but would give me their discount anyway. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 37,847
Registered: ‎06-11-2011
@coffee drinker, I tried it 5 yrs ago when buying a car and did not like the experience for 2 reasons. As stated above the "deal" wasnt any better than I could get myself and in some cases worse, yet I had a hard time getting rid of the salespeople I got hooked up with thru Costco who kept persistently calling. Even worse the place I had to go through to get hooked up with car dealers had and was going to keep my Costco membership number. It wasnt Costco but a place that contracted with Costco. I had to raise a big stink to get my membership number deleted from their system --who knows who had access to it? Never again, esp since I would not save anything pricewise. The deals were not good. And some of the dealerships they hooked me up with were out of town, even though I live in a very large city. It was not a good experience at all.
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,133
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Personally we did not have good luck with it.  The dealership didn't have what we wanted, yet continued to call and email non-stop.

On the other hand, a friend got her Lexus through the car program and had fabulous luck and got a great deal.  She lives in the same area I do.  So totally hit and miss.  Worth a try.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,491
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

It was like $500 off a Camry.

 

Wasn't worth it.

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QVC Shopper - 1993

# IAMTEAMWEN
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,651
Registered: ‎03-26-2010

We bought a car at the end of last year using our Costco membership.  We have gone to the same car dealer for our previous 3 cars, so we asked if they were part of the Costco program.  We bought from the same salesman that had helped us in the past.  No hassle at all.  We saved about $600.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,640
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Yes, I bought my 2017 Subaru Forester thru the Costco program in late 2016.  I ordered the car in Sept. & it was delivered a week before Christmas.  I paid a fair price & didn't have to haggle & was treated wonderfully by the dealership & also got a $1K Costco gift card & some other added goodies from Costco.

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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,239
Registered: ‎10-14-2016

I purposely joined Costco two years ago just to use their car buying program.  A Costco sales rep came to my work trying to get people to join.  She told me that you go online and put in what kind of car you want and they will give you the price and the local dealers to give you that price.

 

That is not how it works.  You go online put in the car and where you live and then they give your information to the local dealer to contact you with a price. But, they don't give you the price over the phone or online so you have to go to the dealership and listen to their sale talk before you know if you even think the price is fair.  Then they keep calling you.  This is not what I wanted.  I wanted to know in advance if I thought the price was fair and then go in and get the sale over with. 

 

I did not buy a car using the Costco membership because I can negotiate lower than what I was quoted.  I also did not renew my Costco membership.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,917
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

My dh researches deals online.He has found some amazing prices but sometimes the car is a few hours drive away.He found the car of our DIL dreams at a steal price in Texas and they live in OKC so they had to drive a bit to get it but saved so much money.