Has anyone used USAA’s car buying service? The FW are thinking of replacing a vehicle, and aside from hating haggling with car dealers, I don’t have the time or patience to sit there all day while he/she “checks with their manager”. Just looking for any real-world experiences.
Negotiating with the dealers is half of the fun.
If it’s included with your insurance, it couldn’t hurt to try it and see what prices they come back with.
I looked at the buying service my wife gets access to as part of her corporate benefits package. I think it’s just a re-branded version of that Truecar website, which to me looks the same as doing the “build and price” thing on the car dealer’s websites and then they just knock a % off the sticker price to make you feel like you got a deal.
Car buying basically blows ass. Especially if you actually know what you want and need because it’s all a bunch of chasing around and time wasting, I totally agree.
Grouse
Negotiating with the dealers is half of the fun.
I know some people enjoy it, but I am not one of them!
From what I have been able to tell so far, using it will limit the scope of my search (downside), but they’d drop 0.5% off the interest rate of the loan (upside).
just pay what their asking ? 
who initiates the 
“haggling” ? 
they’d drop 0.5% off the interest rate of the loan
I would recommend shopping your rate around, as you can often improve it immediately after purchase with a Credit Union or Online Bank.
I have used the Costco Auto program twice. Both time the price came back below invoice and in both cases I was able to haggle a little more from there. Funny thing is that both cars were bought from one of those no haggle dealers whose “no haggle price” was much higher than what Costco was able to obtain. Tried another service that uses Truecar and wasn’t impressed with the prices.
If you don’t want to haggle, pay for a 1 year Costco membership and then use it to buy the car. You will likely save much more than what the membership costs.
1.99% on a used car is the best rate from a bank with good credit, just to compare.
I have used the Costco Auto program twice. Both time the price came back below invoice and in both cases I was able to haggle a little more from there. Funny thing is that both cars were bought from one of those no haggle dealers whose “no haggle price” was much higher than what Costco was able to obtain.
A couple of people at work have bought through Costco and said they felt like they got decent prices at a relatively low hassle level.
Now that I think about it, Sam’s Club may have a similar program. Anyone recall or maybe used it? Might be worth looking into if you’re a Sam’s Club member already.
Grouse
I used the Costco program last year on a new F250 and was impressed at the ease. They have pre-negotiated pricing with approved dealers. For me, I had to drive nearly 300 miles, but I ended up paying $2700 less than I could find the same truck locally.
I will definitely use the program again when I replace my other vehicle.
If I remember right, USAA’s service is just a repackaged TrueCar. The downside of needing to use the designated dealers outweighed the small interest rate benefit for me. I love USAA, just not that aspect because I can do it better on my own.
I’ve had very good success on my last 3 trucks and my wife’s car using TrueCar on my own. I find the vehicle I want and load it option-by-option into TrueCar. It will match MSRP to the penny when you’ve got it right. Look at the “exceptional” price point, walk into the dealer and offer them that amount. No haggling involved; if they say no, say goodbye.
Some dealers subscribe to TrueCar, some don’t. I’ve bought at ones that do not, just used it to reference pricing and they’ve still met that price 4-for-4 times for me when I showed them that I knew MSRP, invoice, dealer invoice, and then reality of what the dealer paid. One time I was asked if I thought I merited getting the lowest 1% of prices. “Ummm, yes.”
I’ve also noticed that the availability of this pricing information is helping drive down the online advertised prices. They know that if you’re shopping them online, you’re looking at other sources too…
We bought our last car using the USAA service. It was great!! They located the car we wanted and saved us thousands. At the time, we got 1% interest rate. We also have Costco and compared the 2 services, USAA saved us a few grand over Costco. I highly recommend you trying it.
If I remember right, USAA’s service is just a repackaged TrueCar. The downside of needing to use the designated dealers outweighed the small interest rate benefit for me.
That’s kind of how I am currently feeling.
We bought our last car using the USAA service. It was great!! They located the car we wanted and saved us thousands. At the time, we got 1% interest rate. We also have Costco and compared the 2 services, USAA saved us a few grand over Costco. I highly recommend you trying it.
Used or new? I’m looking used.
It was a new, end of year model, Toyota Highlander for $32K We saved about $10k off of sticker. You might be surprised what you can pick up a new, 2015 for right now.
Nope. Not going new.
I did talk with someone at USAA, and their “pre-negotiated” pricing only applies to new vehicles. You’re basically on your own with used vehicles except if you find a vehicle through the USAA site, they’ll give you the interest rate reduction.
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