I purchased a car at the Advantage BMW Midtown location in Houston, TX. I used the USAA car buying service and got a price at about $1500 lower than MSRP which was what I expected. It is an excellent service, very user friendly and with no surprises. That being said, I still did extensive research before going to the dealership. I thoroughly checked out the dealership website to see which cars were available and the MSRP. I also checked out reviews, the names and pictures of all staff members so I could be sure who I was speaking to when I went into the dealership. I went on-line and checked out all available information as to the year and model I wanted. As a result, I knew exactly the car I wanted (by VIN#) when I went into the dealership. I also researched all financing options (decided to pay cash) and what if any maintenance offers they had (decided not to take any of them). There was still a small amount of haggling but in the end I got the car I wanted at the price I wanted to pay with no additional cost but I think this is mainly due to a lot of hard work and research to insure I knew exactly what I was getting. A car buying service for me is just one tool (a good one) of many to insure a good car buying experience.
