I bought two cars with Costco. They trigger a call from the local dealer that is particpating in the program, and the price is from a pre-negotiated list. Costco called after the deal to ask a few questions about how it was handled.
It was a good way to go for me.
watch for the sales taxes, last time I bought my Pathfinder "way below invoice" in Brooklyn, the finance guy tried to collect sales taxes on invoice price, i walked out and he lowered the sales taxes to actual price.
I handily beat Costco's price on my new truck.
-- Team EuroMeko
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pre-negotiated
I've heard great stories about someone beating some price or another. Sometimes I just don't believe it, other times I think that they did a wonderful job of haggling... more work than I want to do.
The Costco price on a Honda Civic Hybrid was lower than andersondirect.com, lower than Edmunds, lower than one other online source, I forget if it was autobytle or someone else, and nearly effortless on my part.
I did a little shopping. The price happened to be the lowest, but it was also the dealer closest to my work.
No work at all. I got the Costco price, the CarsDirect et al prices, and told the fleet/internet Guy at my chosen dealership that he has to do better.
I just don't want others to think the Costco and company prices are the lowest, they are just guidelines. I even beat Consumer Reports lowest invoice price even with buyback and dealer incentives.
-- Team EuroMeko
------------------------------ http://iBuyM> > I handily beat Costco's price on my new truck.
andersondirect.com,
I shopped a couple. If the Costco price had not been the lowest already, I might have gone directly to that dealer, since he was the one I wanted to use.
I tried the AAA member service. That wound up being a good thing on the car that I bought, but I got the "come on down and we'll see what we can do" from a few dealers in the area. One said "I have one coming in Friday, here' my invoice, here's your price." When I got there, they handed me off to some new kid who started at sticker + a bit. He was really confused a the "low" price that I had. My wife thinks they just sent him in to do the paperwork and he got confused.
I just want to buy a car without feeling like I've been to the flea market at the one extreme, or paying extra because I don't posess someone else's great haggling skills at the other extreme.
I had my recall done at a different dealer, didn't make any difference to me.
My wife bought her 2003 Civic through carsdirect. I'll agree with all of the above. It was pretty painless (neither of us like the whole song and dance of negotiating). Only thing is that the local Honda dealer sales guy (Continental Honda in LaGrange, IL) seemed kinda resentful that we didn't buy it directly from them - didn't seem to give us the best service. But we didn't really care that much since we don't ever plan on using them again for anything (we're closer to another Honda dealer that she'll use for anything that she needs done by a dealer).
brian
|watch for the sales taxes, last time I bought my Pathfinder "way below |invoice" in Brooklyn, the finance guy tried to collect sales taxes on |invoice price, i walked out and he lowered the sales taxes to actual price. | I'd report that to the state comptroller. Rex in Fort Worth
I bought a CR-V through AutoByTel and the fleet manager told me that all the buying services (Costco, internet sites, etc.) pay the same price.
pre-negotiated
pretty much true. i told my sister to go the costco route, and she did... but then the fleet guy told her AAA offers an extra $100 off, or something like that. shes a AAA member, so she did it that way.
whichever way you go, just go that way... AAA, costco, autobytel.
why? salesmen HATE it! its prenegotiated, and you never have to talk to them. just walk on by with your printouts, and watch them glare at you :)
you still have to run past the finance guy at the end, who will try their best to get you to sign for a warranty, paint sealant, scotchgard, etc...
be firm, tell em NO!
When I went in as an AAA member, the paperwork said Costco, but the price was what I agreed to when I called on the phone and talked as an AAA member.
The salesman did whine that he only got a $50 commission. He didn't say what his commission normally was, but he didn't do much work either.
Yep. I bit on the HondaCare "refundable" 100,000 mile warranty.
i went through carsdirect and saved $2,000 off original price. the only downfall is you have to put a $250.00 down payment to carsdirect to hold the car...you are doing this w/o even seeing the car. when i went to the dealership there were only minor cosmetic damages, i.e plexie glass scratched (they did replace), window buttons scratched and fiber hair found inside windshield.
his commission would have been a percentage of however much he could have gotten over the prenegotiated price
Here's how I went about buying my Civic last week. First off I went and test drove the models I was interested in (corolla, protege/mazda3, civic, elantra) and each time they tried to sit me down I told them I had to go to competition and I'd be back. So once I had it down to the Civic I looked at carsdirect price, which seemed pretty good (about 500 under invoice). I then took that price and called a bunch of the local Honda dealerships (there's a crapload in Atlanta, GA area) and asked to speak to internet manager. A few refused to match, a few did, and two dealerships in the boondocks of metro Atlanta started beating the price. It got to about 800 under invoice + tax (no junk fees) and I took it. The only number I ever threw out was the carsdirect number, after that it was a matter of just asking these people over the phone to match or beat. From first call, I was done in about two hours with a bunch of phone conversations, only stop into dealership was to get my car.
So, moral of the story, if the carsdirect price is low, use that as a starting point. Also, the price comes from a local dealership, so if you can call them directly they'll probably drop the price since they don't have to pay a referral fee.
I did exactly what you did in buying my truck. I used CD price as a guide and was able to beat it by $500. But in all reality there price is excellent for folks that don't want to hassle, it's low enough.
Does anybody even buy cars by waltzing into dealerships without guides?
|Does anybody even buy cars by waltzing into dealerships without guides?
Every day. That's what keeps them is business. Rex in Fort Worth
Yes. And they are happy with the deal.
I would rather go to this nice middle step, of using carsdirect, or costco, or AAA, and get a pre-haggled price that I assume is reasonable.
Sigh, it's a shame though.
We recently bought 2 hondas, 2004 cr-v ex and 2004 accord ex w/ leather. They both came with the mud flaps and wheel locks. We used mycar.com. This is where the delaers bid against each other for 7 days and then you can choose.
We got the cr-v for 21,300, which is invoice and the accord at 22,050 which is about 30 below invoice. The winning bids were actually abotu 100 miles away and a little bit lower, but we went local.
Anyone else use mycar.com?
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