I have not heard either. I have used AARP's program. It is similar to USAA and Costco. It these programs a few months to included the new Tacoma when it came out. I expect the same for the RL.
When I bought my 2009 RTL navi I made the initial contact through Costco. At the dealer the "internet sales manager" handed me a Costco discount list, listing all the models and the various discounts. For the Ridge it was invoice less $500. I had done my homework and knew that invoice is roughly 90% of list, so on a sticker of $37K even, the Costco price was right at $33K. This was January '09 (Obama's Inauguration Day no less) and nobody was buying cars.
I handed the list back and told him "oh no, you can do way better than that." A few minutes later we settled at $2K below Costco price. The world may be different this time around.
MY 08 RTL won't be traded in. It will have about 275,000 miles at that point. Private sale for sure as I have all the receipts and a lot of extra stuff that no dealer would give me a penny for.
Hmmm? Good question. I'm a member of all three and I know USAA uses TrueCar with a discount. My wife just bought a new Mazda through USAA before Christmas.
As a general rule (isn't there always at least one?) Costco plans can be beaten by at least 2000 to 2500. We know because we recently purchased a few 2016 CRV Touring models and Costco came in about last in all the bids we compared. To make the comparison "fair-enuf", we used friends and family to stage a "single car buyer" experience and these spent the good portion of 2 days to shop online and in-person, also using Truecar as a launching point for comparison.
One of our test buyers purchased a 2016 CRV Touring at almost 2900 below the "best" Truecar price (and this was about 1900 below what Costco quoted) from a large local Honda dealer. While it was a true case of end-of-month and end-of-sales-quarter pricing, these deals can be "had" by anyone who is patient and accepts a little guidance from those who understand how the field is played.
In our case, am afraid to even tell just how low you can go with the dealers especially when buying multiple cars, a case to be made for having a group of friends, family, fellow enthusiasts, to create a "group buy" for cars
Great discussion! The problem I have seen, granted it was a few years back, is that when a dealer knows they have a reasonably hot commodity they will not reduce the price very much. In my area, I have even seen one case, specifically my daughter buying a CRV, where they tacked on an additional $500 to the price because they knew it was a hot commodity. I suspect that if I want to purchase a new RL I will have to wait at least a year or purchase in another part of the US?
This is quite true for hot selling cars,the RL was a different story
however because it wasn't a big seller especially around late 08 early 09 when gas prices were absurd. Anyone thinking they're gonna get a killer deal on a Pilot is in for a rude awakening.
I think the Costco auto buying program is much like CUABs... it's for those who don't want to play the game. And that's fine, as long as you're willing to leave cash on the table.
I found the same thing years ago when I tried my credit union's auto buying program (CUAB). I beat it quite handily before even beginning negotiations.
My wife doesn't care for the buying/negotiating process. I find it rather fun and challenging.
I guess the same could be said for buying a used car from Carmax. No negotiations. But I suppose they do provide some value for the higher prices you pay there in that the cars seem to be gone over pretty well and I think there is a reasonable warranty.
I don't mind haggling, but the reason I am looking into buying options like Costco and USAA is that I don't expect dealers to deal on the RL2 during the first year on the market. If it turns out to be a hot-selling vehicle with limited supplies, the buying clubs might get you a better deal.
I did my shopping at my keyboard at home (with a couple of phone calls here & there to identify eMail addresses). This was back in 2005, and I just outlined what I wanted for my RL, and sent it out to the on-line sales managers at about a dozen dealers within decent range.
I got back about 5 with competetive offers. Worked those down to 3 pretty quickly, and found two were willing to slug it out to get my business. Worked out well in the end.... I don't know how much things have changed in that industry in the last 10 years.
Regarding MSRP mark-ups, I bought 2 different vehicles (1985 Voyager mini-van, and 1982 Camaro Z28 with stick) that were 'hot commodities' at the time. In both of these cases most of the dealers marked up price over MSRP; but eventually i was able to find a place that had enough inventory flowing that they did not need to mark-up (I bought Voyager at end of year when '86s were just starting to trickle in). Those are tough times to get a good price on a car (newish model that's selling hot).
EDIT: By "on-line", I mean that I used eMail to communicate / negotiate.
I did my shopping at my keyboard at home (with a couple of phone calls here & there to identify eMail addresses). This was back in 2005, and I just outlined what I wanted for my RL, and sent it out to the on-line sales managers at about a dozen dealers within decent range.
I got back about 5 with competetive offers. Worked those down to 3 pretty quickly, and found two were willing to slug it out to get my business. Worked out well in the end.... I don't know how much things have changed in that industry in the last 10 years.
Regarding MSRP mark-ups, I bought 2 different vehicles (1985 Voyager mini-van, and 1982 Camaro Z28 with stick) that were 'hot commodities' at the time. In both of these cases most of the dealers marked up price over MSRP; but eventually i was able to find a place that had enough inventory flowing that they did not need to mark-up (I bought Voyager at end of year when '86s were just starting to trickle in). Those are tough times to get a good price on a car (newish model that's selling hot).
This ^.. Easy and all in writing..no hassle..online sales guys from what i could tell sell 5 x the cars in house sales does..dont think they liked him..and if online isnt good enough then use gmail without name and haggle at dealer to try and beat it...be specific in your request otd price same car color options
The exclusive Costco package is available on 2016 Silverado 1500 Short Box Crew Cab LTZ models.
CUSTOMIZABLE OPTIONS
Make the Silverado your own by selecting the options that fit your lifestyle.
2-wheel or 4-wheel drive
Your choice of color:
Exterior options
Standard: Red Hot, Silver Ice, Slate Gray, Summit White, Black and Tungsten
Premium: Autumn Bronze ($395), Deep Ocean ($395), Siren Red ($495) and Iridescent Pearl ($995)
Interior options
Jet Black, Dark Ash/Jet Black or Cocoa/Dune leather-appointed interior color
EXTERIOR
Designed with Costco members in mind, the exclusive Costco package includes:
22-inch exclusive chrome 6-spoke design*
Black Chevrolet bowtie emblems, front and rear
Chrome bumpers (front and rear) with CornerStep
Cargo box LED lighting
Chrome door handles and mirror caps
Chrome tubular 6-inch rectangular assist steps
Chrome exhaust tips and recovery hooks1
Power sunroof
Remote Keyless Entry
Remote vehicle start
Spray-on bedliner
LED projector-beam headlamps with LED signature daytime running lights and turn signals, plus chrome bezels
Tri-fold hard Tonneau cover
INTERIOR
10-way power driver and front passenger seats adjusters with power recline
Full-feature driver and passenger bucket seats
60/40 folding rear bench 3-passenger seat
Bluetooth® for phone2
Chevrolet MyLink™3 with Navigation and 8-inch diagonal color touch-screen featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility4
Driver Information Center with 4.2-inch diagonal color display
Enhanced Driver Alert Package
Forward Collision Alert
Lane Keep Assist
IntelliBeam headlamps
Safety Alert Seat
Dual-zone automatic climate control
LTZ Plus Package
OnStar® with 4G LTE and built-in Wi-Fi hotspot5
Rear underseat storage and composite storage bin
Rear Vision Camera with dynamic guide lines
All-weather floor mats
SiriusXM® Satellite Radio with three-month trial6
PERFORMANCE
Customer Option: 2WD or 4WD
5.3L EcoTec3® V8 with Active Fuel Management™
6-speed automatic transmission
Have used Costco, USAA, and Ford's Z-Plan to get an idea of pricing. I have NOT actually bought any vehicles through their programs because I worked a better deal on my own. You have to have time and extreme patience. Internet purchasing is my new hobby, but dealerships are still filled with idiots. I also used Autotrader or Cars.com to gather quotes etc. Problem is that each internet contact on those two will get you at least 4 responses from 4 different people at the same dealership. This can be a pain the ass.
-Typically most dealerships might say that they have an ecommerce/Internet sales manager, but that’s not true. They have to communicate/coordinate with the sales manager and that involves time. The more you contact them, the MORE emails you’ll get from 4 different people checking up on the other 4 different sales people.
Example timeline of internet car purchase or information exchange:
-Initial internet email is sent to car dealers supposed e-commerce rep.
-Immediately I'd get a automated response from the e-commerce/Internet sales manager.
-That message advises that someone will contact me ASAP.
-Day or two later I'd get a message from a sales person that asks you questions that you’ve already asked. So then I'd cut & paste my original message into the new message. I always CC the old sales person to let them know they have failed at this point.
-I would ask what their internet price is for the vehicle.
-They typically quote you the price that’s advertised on their web site.
-I would then send other Autotrader/Cars.com/Other Dealer web site ads where the SAME model is 2 to 3 thousand dollars LESS. That’s when they usually don’t want to email me anymore.
-Then I'd get an automated email that asks if Salesperson XYZ is meeting my expectations.
-I always answer and say no.
-Then I'd get another email from a different salesperson at the same dealer and I'm supposed to start the whole communication again? LOL.
-Some dealerships straight up FAIL at negotiating. Many have not embraced negotiating over the internet, requiring you to call and actually speak to a certified internet sales person. If I contacted YOUR dealership via the internet, why then would I want to talk on the phone?
-A few dealers don’t keep up with their changing ISP and dealer addresses etc. You click on their Autotrader/Cars.Com etc link and that takes you to their old address. In one instance, the dealership name/owners changed a year earlier, yet the old link remained.
Dealers (Stealers) and their little add-on fees make me laugh. You'll see them use creative language with these like:
The last vehicle's price quote I got via the internet contained some of those. I told the sales guy that I’d be charging the dealership the following additional fees if they charged me fees:
-$250 Customer Premiere Focus Fee
-$100 Internet Search Optimization Fee
-$150 DMV Processing Tax Levy
-$25 Sales Interaction Communication Tax
And then on occasion you get a real good experience. Some sales staff are eager to conduct business through the internet and that's the dealership that gets my business.
I just used the Costco program to purchase my '18 RTL and I'm very happy I did. First I found out that different dealers honor the program in different ways. Some told me it was a straight reduction off the MSRP and others told me it was dealer invoice plus BS fees. I came up with an educated guess after 2 weeks back and forth with 5 different dealers and the took 1k off that and told the dealer that was a price another quoted me. This is my usual bargaining tactic. Got the price I wanted and then Costco gave me a 50% off coupon for one accessory and 15% off additional accessories. Plus the dealer took the discounts off the labor too. Well worth the extra effort.
My dealer always checks TRUCAR, and CARGURU. beats the lowest price by $250-$500. I happened to walk in to the Sales Managers office. He had TRUCAR on his screen. Tom
I negotiated my 18 RTL-E using TrueCar... The guy offered me the "Average" TrueCar price - $1398 off the $42,595 msrp, I said, I am looking for a deal, not average... Other people got below average, I want below average.. I have plenty of time to shop... I saved another $2000
Adding my experience for anyone interested. Bought my 18' RTL-E this past October using TrueCar through Consumer Reports membership. I am a huge Costco fan and started there but the deals were meh. When you use either service, you have to have "participating" dealerships in your area. A good thing about the Costco program is Costco audits the dealerships. They have to honor what their contract pricing with Costco is. Bad thing is you pay for it in the purchase price of the car. In all truth, I'm ok with that.
I ended up using TrueCar as the starting price because I was internet shopping for a few months. I had already texted and emailed with the sales rep I ended up using and when I finally got off the fence and decided to purchase the RL, he just assumed I wanted that program. Fine with me. We started at the price for TrueCar and came down some from that.
When I talk to folks about buying cars, I say if you feel like you got a good deal, you did. If you feel like you didn't, then you didn't. I don't think I got the lowest possible price but I feel like my deal was better than I could have made face to face and I'm happy with the dealership and the truck. Don't get me started on the electronics though.
I agree with prior posts about people that want to haggle versus those that don't. I'm somewhere in the middle I think so your milage may vary.
I don't enjoy haggling so when I was ready to purchase my '17 RTL-E I typed a very detailed list of what I wanted (trim, color, 8 accessories) with dealer invoice price and online cost of accessories printed across from each item, and a list of conditions (cash deal, no trade-in, no unrequested additions, etc...). I went to the 3 regional Honda dealers and found a salesman. I gave each the typed page and told them I would visit each dealership that day and request an emailed itemized price within 7 days. If they gave me the best price and I found it acceptable I would come back and sign a contract, otherwise they would not see me again. I never told any of them what I'd be willing to pay, but I did want them to know I knew what everything cost. The difference between the best and worst price was ~$4,000. My truck was delivered 6 weeks later.
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