It's been so long since my last blog. Been inundated with work and personal events.
I have convinced husband to buy a new car. He's been driving his toyota camry for 7 years. He purchased it used with close to 80K miles and clocked in another 120K since.
With our jobs being stable and many car dealerships hoping to revive their business amidst this see-sawing economy, there are some great deals to be had.
A friend refered us to a Costco Auto Program. This program is offered to card members. Costco is similar to Sam's Club where you can buy items in bulks for cheap.
With this program, it's said you can get below invoice pricing on selected vehicles at participating dealerships. All you need to do is provide them with your membership number and the car of your choice.
We then proceeded to give this a try. We put in our card number and the vehicle we wanted. Hours later, the dealership contacted us via email and gave us a quote of $4000 below the MSRP price.
This sounds too good to be true. We'll take this current quote with a grain of salt while still trying to get multiple quotes from other dealerships that are not participated in this program. We're in no rush so we have time and negotiation on our side.
What's the best car deal you've gotten and what was your haggling experience like?
7 comments:
The Costco deal was the best I found in my efforts to get a "deal".
We dealt with the fleet department and it was a no hassle experience.
2 PLY Guy - How much under invoice were you able to get may I ask? This program does seem like a good deal. The fleet manager got back to us right away and quoted us $4000 below MSRP which was a few hundred below Invoice. I've read other reviews and some say you can find a better deal if you negotiate aggressively elsewhere. However, I don't know if I want to bother with such aggressive negotiation tactic since this Costco program is a no haggle deal.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thanks for posting this. I have a cousin who's looking for a car and I'm gonna forward this post to her. ;)
They also say that the best time to buy is in June (I think) because a lot of dealerships are trying to get last season's cars off of their lots. Oh also go in the evening during the week when the customer traffic is extremely low. Again, just manipulating the situation for your benefit. So try combining the Costco Auto Program, the timing, as well as your personal haggling expertise to get the best deal. Car dealerships are HURTIN' and I know most are desperate for a sale.
I bought my (then new) chevy 2003 malibu (I know yuck huh...) for a little over $10,000 when the MSRP price was over $21,000.
It took a combination of rebates, reward card points, and a Upromise discount, and great timing and haggling.
I wish I would have went with a different model Chevy or GM...
Although the new Malibus are nice, I wouldn't say the same about mine...
It's been a decent car though, even if it sucks to look at.
Wow! I've never bought a car from a dealer before but the convenience factor of the Costco Auto program seems excellent.
Good luck with the purchase!
Is the MSRP and invoice price true? I find it funny how people use those terms and think those numbers really mean anything. How can one truly know what the price of anything is unless they made the thing themselves. Mark up in retail is usually 100% and higher.
Post a Comment