Tips for buying new car - Costco, TrueCar, other "discounts"?

[kermit116]

I'm considering buying a new car within the next month or two. I have narrowed it down to two potential vehicles, both of which are well-rated and generally in demand.

Costco vs. Truecar: I have a Costco membership, and a friend recently told me about Truecar - does anyone have advice on which program tends to provide the better price? Also, if I'm potentially interested in two different models, can I request price quotes for both?

Auto Show Discounts? I'll be going to an auto show in the next few weeks, and I've heard a rumor that sometimes dealerships at the auto shows will offer discounts on vehicles. Is this true?

Trade-in at Carmax: I have a trade-in that's in good condition, but it's high mileage so I'm guessing it'll be something the dealership would send to auction as opposed to putting it back out on their lot to sell. I've run the KBB estimates based on the trade-in value, so I have an idea of how much I'd like to get out of it. Several years ago, a friend who had worked in auto dealerships said that Carmax offered the best money for a trade-in, even if you don't purchase a vehicle from them. Is this still true? I've also heard more recently that all Carmax will do is run the VIN and at most give you the equivalent of the lowest KBB trade-in estimate.

Other advice? Any other advice on bargaining for a new car would be appreciated!

 

[tvguy]

I would get the Consumer Reports Wholesale Price report for the car you want, and negotiate up from that. Depending on the car you want, you should expect to pay $200 to $1,000 over that price.

I have heard good things about people selling their cars to CarMax.
And everyone I know that has purchased a car from them has been happy.

Having said that, I was disappointed in their inventory and pricing. I bought a 2007 Taurus from Hertz with 29,000 miles on it for $9,500 with the balance of the Ford warranty, and a 1 year Hertz warranty.
CarMax wanted $12,000 for a similar cars, except it had 45,000 miles on it. That's when I discovered they were Hertz rejects. At the time Hertz wholesaled off any car with over 30,000 miles on it, they only sold the cars with less than 30,000 miles on it. So I expect the condition was good, just the mileage was higher, and the price higher.

 

[Lisa71]

We used carsdirect.com and got a great deal. SIL just used the other site you mentioned but cars direct worked for us.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

We are in a similar situation, but with nothing to trade in. Need reports from you guys as well because we may pull the trigger by the summer.

Our possible options include AAA, Costco, USAA, Truecar.

I had not really heard of anything regarding carsdirect.com so I will look into it some more.

 

[kermit116]

Any idea what type of percentage discount is standard with any of these programs? Or what percentage below invoice we should expect with one of these programs?

Does this differ for a car that is currently a hot seller?

 

[Psychodisney]

Try getting an internet quote from the dealers. You can see what their inventory is and they all know you have the power to get the information online. We bought our last two cars this way and felt we got good deals.

 

[wiigirl]

We used carsdirect.com and got a great deal. SIL just used the other site you mentioned but cars direct worked for us.

 

[emilymad]

We used both edumunds.com and KBR to come up with the "real world" pricing. Both sites let you custom build your car and then tell you sticker price, dealer price, and what people around you are paying. This helped get a base price for us to shot for.

We went to a car show last year and we did get some extra incentives.

What also worked was to order a brochure online. I did that and they emailed me another $750 off my car that I could combine with any other incentives.

The online brochure incentives were the same as the car show ones though and you couldn't combine those.

 

[Lewisc]

COSTCO should be about the lowest price, comparing it with other similar programs (AAA).

Those prices generally give you a "good" deal, while allowing the dealer to make a few dollars. A good shopper, wanting to buy a car which local dealers have plenty of stock can probably do a little better. A good shopper probably won't get a better price if the car is a hot seller, not in great supply IF the car isn't excluded.

Edmunds real world pricing should be pretty close to what you should expect to pay.

I had very bad result buying a car from carsdirect.com

COSTCO is a very easy purchase. You get the price without having to spend hours going from dealer to dealer.

 

[leslie826]

About two years ago, we sold our car to Carmax because they offered us more than any dealer would offer for trade in. We did not buy a car from them, and it was a super easy process.

 

[bedogged]

I'm considering buying a new car within the next month or two. I have narrowed it down to two potential vehicles, both of which are well-rated and generally in demand.

Costco vs. Truecar: I have a Costco membership, and a friend recently told me about Truecar - does anyone have advice on which program tends to provide the better price? Also, if I'm potentially interested in two different models, can I request price quotes for both?

Auto Show Discounts? I'll be going to an auto show in the next few weeks, and I've heard a rumor that sometimes dealerships at the auto shows will offer discounts on vehicles. Is this true?

Trade-in at Carmax: I have a trade-in that's in good condition, but it's high mileage so I'm guessing it'll be something the dealership would send to auction as opposed to putting it back out on their lot to sell. I've run the KBB estimates based on the trade-in value, so I have an idea of how much I'd like to get out of it. Several years ago, a friend who had worked in auto dealerships said that Carmax offered the best money for a trade-in, even if you don't purchase a vehicle from them. Is this still true? I've also heard more recently that all Carmax will do is run the VIN and at most give you the equivalent of the lowest KBB trade-in estimate.

Other advice? Any other advice on bargaining for a new car would be appreciated!

The last time we purchased a new car we used Costco. We had a wonderful experience. First we went to dealerships and drove cars. We dickered with them to get their "best price." We called Costco and gave them the model, features and color we wanted. They had the fleet manager call us with a price that was several thousand less than our "best price." It took them a couple of days to get the exact car we wanted and then we just went over, paid and picked it up. Very easy.

 

[Mellow Mike]

I prefer HaggleDaddy.com...check 'em out! They've consistently beat both Costco and Truecar pricing for me...

 

[Kachina]

We purchased our last car in 2011 and were thrilled with how easy the experience was compared to the other dealership we'd visited at that time without truecar. They gave us no trouble, and exactly the dollar amount we wanted on our trade-in. We'll be using truecar to buy our next car.

Another option is to check and see if your employer might have some sort of auto discount for you. We could get a discount on anything GM, but prefer Honda. Worth a check, anyways.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

bump

 

[Angrypenguin]

Lots of ways to do it, but the best and most informative way....

Go to boards similar to this that are about the cars you're looking for. People will post purchase/lease deals all the time, asking for feedback. You should get a good general idea of what the best deals you can get are;

Also, email blasting works surprisingly well. I used it this past time to negotiate my wife's car at the end of last year; really all you need is for one dealer to respond with a hard number (which is harder than it looks). This gives you a good starting point to start negotiation.

In general though, I like to know the following information:

Invoice price
Dealer holdback
Incentives
Base money factor (if leasing)
Residual factor (if leasing)

Costco and other programs usually have a set % below MSRP; I think it usually works out to invoice pricing + x amount. It also depends on the brand of car and how well it's selling; for example, I live in Southern California, where there are 20+ Mercedes Dealerships within driving distance. People this past holiday season were getting deals of 15-20% off of MSRP, as there was a holiday incentive program, plus dealers were willing to give up some of their holdback to make their numbers since competition here is so fierce.

Truecar is a good place to start to get a ballpark of what you should be paying. Use that as your starting point (e.g. do NOT pay more than truecar price).

If you're interested, let me know and I can forward you the email template that I used with surprising success.

Good luck!

 

[cvjw]

Use Truecar as your starting negotiating price. If you have multiple dealers around you, you can contact their internet sales dept and haggle with them directly online. If you get a quote of $XXX from one dealer, usually another dealer will beat it. You will know when you get to the bottom line price when the internet salesmen won't go any lower.

I just used this strategy a couple of months ago. I got the truecar price for the 2014 Honda Odyssey Touring edition. I started dealing with the internet sales people at 4 different Honda dealerships. I ended up getting the 2014 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite model for just about the same price as the original Truecar quote on the Touring model - even though the Elite model is over $3000 more than the Touring model.

This strategy worked even though there aren't many Touring Elite models at the dealerships. All 4 dealerships told me that Honda doesn't make that many Elite models because they just don't sell that many, so it is harder to get a deal on them.

 

[mikehn]

Any idea what type of percentage discount is standard with any of these programs? Or what percentage below invoice we should expect with one of these programs?

Does this differ for a car that is currently a hot seller?

Percentage discount varies. Its all different for different makes and models. It could even be different based on region. Its always good to plug in different zip codes to see if there are any differences.

 

[Egdisney]

Everyone say to use true car as a starting point. How much below that should one expect to pay? I have bought several cars, none new but I KNOW we have never got the best deal. Planning on buying a new van this year, so I need help!

 

[kermit116]

Is there a limit on how many quotes I can get from Costco? There are three models (of the same brand of car) we are considering. Part of our ultimate decision to buy will be based on which one we can get the best price on.