2005 Camry purchase

Why not just contact your local dealers using their web site. Also contact a couple up to the distance you are willing to drive to pick up the new car.

I got mine the following way :

1. get Costco membership

1. go to costco.com and click on services...auto buy...and put Costco member number and model you want.

2. Costco would tell you the nearest dealer where they have fleet prices with them to set up an appointment .

1. View Costco members price at dealer ( usually 0 over INVOICE price!!!) not over MRSP.

2. buy car and save thousands by just inventing ( plus you get to shop at Costco free for 1 year!)

Even if you don't buy from Costco you get the price from the Costco dealer they referred you to and then you can go shopping around with that price and tell other dealers if they can you beat this price or at least do the same, and they will. That's what I did because the Tustin Toyota dealer (California) they referred to me didn't have the phantom grey LE V6 that I wanted , I Had to wait to get it, so I ran to my closest dealer from my house, found the car, told them the price I would pay on the Costco Dealer and got the car!

IMHO, If money is not the problem, get the SE V6, better engine (3.3 Ltr- same as sienna), better suspension! But if you don't like the spoiler get the LE V6, it's quite and elegant!

Thanks for the info on Costco.

Did you get to put exact option wanted and get the quote? If the dealer doesn't have exactly what I want, I would need to get another quote, if I need to adjust my option abit. How many maximum time you can get the price quote using that Cosco membership?

You actually have to go to the dealer once you set an appointment and a "special fleet" sales person (this ones are friendlier than normal salesman) will help you find the car you exactly want using the inventory list he has, then you can ask him/her for the costco price and then go and look at the vehicle itself! and if you like it you take it that same moment!.

The quote price is immediately given to you , they show you the stock list of cars and you can see the Invoice price and then the Markedup MSRP (like

1000-3000 higher than the Invoice) and they tell you , from all these cars we have add $100 to the invoice price, if they don't have the car you can ask them to check on other dealership's stock for the car you exactly want and they can trade that car with the other dealer so they do the business with you. When I saw the pricelist I compared the XLE V6 and the LE V6 and the SE V6 prices very easily knowing it's just $100 from invoice.

I friend of mine bought his nissan 300Z using this costco option as well another friend got a terrible deal on a Dodge Durango! Do you have a costco store close to you ?

Yes, one not too far. Do I need to go to the store. Can I do it online? Or should I go to the store?

Really? The dealer gives it to you just like that.

Okay. To get Costo member's price, just add $100 to the dealer's invoice price, right? I need to sell my current car.

I'll probably have to trade in, if I don't get it sold by the time I go tot he dealer. Mostly likely, I won't get it sold to a private party because I am not good in doing such thing.

Though I would like to get a price quote for exactly what I want, I would like to know whether there is limit on how many quotes I can get per month or so many months OR per yearly membership.

Do you work for a car dealer to give me such a suggestion?

When I tried to get price quote on internet, I had to fill from, filling my email address and a couple of dealers responded via email. I know for sure that I never opted for mnaul transmission. One dealer sent me email for a manual one (Subaru) w/options I didn't choose.

So I am not counting on the dealer to give me the price quote. And I am not going to waste my time being told by a dealer "oh, the price I gave you is for this blah..blah..blah.."

In fact, I remember what a neighbor told me. He got the exact features he wants and went to the fleet manager at the dealer. I just didn't remember how he got the price quote.

I am following E Arrendondo's procedure: through costco.

In subaru's ng, someone said about getting a quote from edmunds.com for $12 but I found edmunds.com's invoice price to be higher than carsdirect.com.

If you trade it whatever you win on the purchase you will lose on the trade. For the right price the car will sell. Check out selling it on ebay.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Amanda, I don't know anything about Costco but we have Sam's club locally. When I bought my '97 Camry I sent out a request for bids from dealers who are members of the Sam's club network. The best price I got was from a dealer appx 100 miles away, a two hour drive at best. My local dealer came down to $50 over this price which was a better deal than driving the 100 miles so I took it. When I bought my '01 Tundra I went through Sam's club again and got a price from a dealer in another city appx 100 miles away that was higher than local dealer. I solicited bids from an online auto service (don't remember which one it was) and only got one bid, which was substantially lower than the local dealer. In negotiations with local dealer they cautioned me about "low-balling". (This means dealer will give you a really low price, then when you get on the lot they will try all kinds of tactics to get you to buy something higher priced. Usually the low-ball price and vehicle is fictional.) I called the out-of-town dealer and asked if they had the truck in stock, they stated they did. I told them I would sue them if I drove there and they didn't have the vehicle they quoted and that I had printed the bid they emailed me. They put me on hold for a short while, then told me they made a mistake and the vehicle had been sold. Moral of the [long-winded :-) ] story is: be very careful, maybe even suspicious of out-of-town dealers. Also, remember the adage: "If it sounds to good to be true, it isn't." HTH, davidj92

I have always been able to find a better deal through other local dealers compared to Costco referrals. I don't know what the agreement is between Costco and the dealers, but it doesn't offer the best price to the buyer in my experience.