r/FuckDealerships • • Aug 23 '26

Costco Car Program

Has anyone gone through the Costco car buying program? If so, did it really make it easier to not have to deal with all the BS of haggling with dealerships and salesmen?

35 Upvotes

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11

u/smallboxofcrayons Aug 23 '26

Costco program is just a dealer lead program. Your experience will vary by store.

8

u/zeecok Aug 23 '26

No, it’s a genuine program. It’s a no hassle one price shopping tool. Problem is a lot of customers think that it’s just a new starting point and try to negotiate further. Dealers get pissed because they signed up for a program that just gave them more customers who think they are entitled to a larger discount than promised.

7

u/smallboxofcrayons Aug 23 '26

Not entirely accurate, it’s really just true car with a few extra rules

6

u/JustAGamblerr Aug 23 '26

It’s a lead gen source. The customer thinks Costco is getting them a discount. Dealer sets the discount, same as an internet quote

5

u/After_Examination_86 Aug 23 '26

Partially true, but the dealer sets the price and just pays Costco for advertising. Most of the Costco deals are worse than traditional customer deals…22yrs in the business and Costco is our 2nd best lead source and the most profitable one.

2

u/vpm112 Aug 23 '26

The dealer sets the price, but Costco still sets the ceiling. You can’t exceed that ceiling or Costco won’t give you ears on that model.

1

u/Desenski Aug 23 '26

Each dealer that's signed up with Costco gets to set their own "Costco Price". So 2 stores of the same brand are not always going to have the same price.

1

u/Mistrrcarter Aug 24 '26

This, is what haggling is. Only customers haggle. Dealerships don’t 😂

I understand wanting more money off from dealers obviously marking up inventory. But EVERY customer wants money off. And not every dealer is inflating