Usaa Auto Buying Program
USAA, the financial services giant that serves only military members and their families, has announced a new car-buying service. The recent launch of the Online Auto Loan and Car-Buying Service allows USAA members to handle all the steps of buying a car -- from choosing the car to financing to arranging auto insurance -- without ever having to leave home. There are excellent military auto discounts available through this new service, which will save members money and create a vast improvement in the dreaded car-buying experience.
usaa auto buying program
1. Members log on to www.usaa.com/auto to get started. They can apply for a military auto loan and receive an approval within minutes. There are no papers to sign, because the entire process is electronic.
The USAA auto program makes it easy to search for car prices, select a dealership, and set up a new or used car purchase right from your phone or tablet. In fact, you can do just about everything through the app, from finding your car, locking in a price, securing financing (if needed), and even buying a new car insurance policy.
Qualified members can also take advantage of Military Autosource. The program enables service members involved in an OCUNUS PCS move to use this global car buying benefit. US-specification vehicles can be purchased and delivered to 50 overseas base locations.
The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), Urban League of Louisiana (ULL), and the National Urban League (NUL) joined partners at the Baton Rouge Community College McKay Automotive Training Center to unveil its new pilot automotive apprenticeship program for residents in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Club- or bank-based buying services are the simplest level of car buying service. They save you time on researching vehicles, pricing the model you like and finding a reasonable trade-in value for your current car. These are usually free services provided to members of discount retail clubs, credit unions and auto clubs like AAA, Costco and the USAA for military families.
I used navy for my loan. Told them the amount and they sent the check. I bought using overseas delivery program a new volvo with no trade in. They required no documents and the loan check was good for up to 125% of the nada value of the car. I received one HP on EQ. They pulled a 694 and I got 1.79% for 5 yrs. I did not use their car buying service. The dealership did not pull my credit. Transaction went super smooth. The check was good for 60 days. I submitted the check to the dealership on day 55 and they did not repull. Very pleasant experience. I put down 3800 on the car for my own peace of mind (it wasn't required)
"I used navy for my loan. Told them the amount and they sent the check. I bought using overseas delivery program a new volvo with no trade in. They required no documents and the loan check was good for up to 125% of the nada value of the car. I received one HP on EQ. They pulled a 694 and I got 1.79% for 5 yrs. I did not use their car buying service. The dealership did not pull my credit. Transaction went super smooth. The check was good for 60 days. I submitted the check to the dealership on day 55 and they did not repull. Very pleasant experience. I put down 3800 on the car for my own peace of mind (it wasn't required)
Santa Monica-based ZAG (www.zag.com) is a venture-funded firm focused on applying technology to the automotive buying industry. Founded by Scott Painter, former CEO of CarsDirect.com, the company recently bought and sold Autoland, purchased a number of automotive buying programs, and has started to scale out its operations. We caught up with Scott to talk about the progress the firm has made since its launch, and the idea behind the acquisitions the firm has done. He also showed us the firm's full online configuration capability and interface, which is far more advanced than the simple lead generation forms most auto buying sites provide. The interview was conducted by Ben Kuo.
Scott Painter: The strategy for what we're building, really, is quite simple. We're an auto buying program operator. What that means is, we help large brands, affinity groups, organizations, and other offer to their members a complete auto buying experience. Primarily, there are two platforms, a technology platform--which allows those member organizations to offer to their audience, a private-labeled, auto buying experience over the web. You can go online, research, shop for a car, configure it, and get up front pricing. The second part of the platform is a dealer network. We have 1500 dealers across the country, who have agreed to provide upfront pricing and a better experience at the dealership. It's a bit more streamlined than traditional dealer relationships. In terms of that relationship, with those dealers we require not just an upfront price, but also full technology integration into their back end, so that we can see when a prospect becomes a sale. Our entire revenue model is cost-per-action. We do not charge dealers for leads, but we do charge dealers when a car sells. If a prospect buys a car within 90 days, we then charge the dealer $300 -- it doesn't matter if that is a Porsche or a Hyundai.
In many ways, you can think of it as an all those auto information sites out there, coupled with an auto buying/brokerage/sales situation, coupled with actual dealers that fulfill. We have three constituents -- one is the consumer, the person buying the car. We have to make the web and offline experience compelling enough, that they won't go through the traditional routes. So we have complete and accurate data, our web sites look great, they are streamlined, they answer all questions, and have good upfront pricing--or they will go elsewhere. The second is the affinity group. Since we launched, we have had three primary affinity groups. Capital One is one of them, they were also an investor. They're the largest direct automotive lender in the country--meaning, you apply for a car loan and auto financing from them and you can buy a car with a blank check. Our second constituent affinity group is USAA. USAA is the military credit union, and they offer banking, home mortgage, credit cards, auto finance, and insurance. They have over 5 million households. Capital One, by the way, has 45 million. We are the exclusive auto buying program for both organizations. For these affinity groups we give them a turn key solution. We've invested nearly $30 million in the technology platform. We manage and give it to you for no charge, and the bargain we make with them in exchange for them avoiding risk and cost and resources, and time to market, is we expect them to present it powerfully to their members.
Our third group is the American Automobile Club. You had mentioned our acquisition of AIS. AIS has been for many, many years the AAA auto buying club. However, they haven't used any technology to do it. These programs basically ask that you walk into a list of dealers, and flash your AAA or Costco card, and ask for a discount--that's the full extent of the program. What we found was with these programs, from Dealer A to Dealer B, even within the same brand you'd get different pricing, and who says that is good at all. Those programs transferred the good will in the AAA or Costco directly into the dealer, which is a good way to sell cars--but not necessarily a good customer experience. What we did when we acquired AIS is flipped it to a different model. They had ten AAA contracts--you have to understand, there are actually 70 different AAA chapters nationwide, and you have to sell to each individually--with AIS we were able to tap into 6 million out of 42 million members nationwide. Since then, we've signed up an additional three AAA clubs. The acquisition of AIS was really about one thing, and one thing only--more volume through our platform. More volume through our platform, equals better pricing leverage and a better return for our dealer partners. The more volume, the more reward they saw; the more value, we can extract better pricing and better pricing over time.
Scott Painter: If you are a USAA member, it looks like you USAA, and you're in a USAA environment--but that's a Zag operated web site where they can configure and price their car. They will then get a call back from USAA auto buying, understand how the program works, get an appointment with the dealership, or the dealership will call. From the dealer point of view, someone who has gone through the process as a USAA member is pretty likely to follow through.
A customer who has gone through a site like Automotive.com today is what is being sold at $20 per name. That average Internet lead closes two to 2.5% of the time. Dealers are spending $400 to $700 per car in terms of marketing, not to mention having to call back twenty to thirty people. What we do for dealers is we don't sell them a lead, we send them a customer which went through what you and I just went through. We're closing at about 15% to 25% depending on the program. That's a dramatically higher percentages of customers who are buying a car. That's less work for the dealership, and is a $300 fixed cost--only when the sale happens. Its performance based marketing. Our business at this point is about scale. We have built out our dealer network, we have built out technology as quickly and as large as we can, and we have a robust pipeline of affinity groups, who are serving 1.5 million unique visitors a month.
An extended warranty may be worth buying if your vehicle is ten or more years old or has a mileage above 100,000. Vehicles with these ages and mileages tend to break down more often, and out-of-pocket repair costs can often outweigh the total prices of extended warranties. If your automaker brand is more well known for its vehicles suffering mechanical breakdowns and other issues, it may be worth it to get an extended warranty.
Wilson says that several organizations that almost anyone can join have programs that members can use to get deals on new cars. Many can be combined with factory-to-dealer incentives, which can bring down the price even more. Here are some of the member-based groups that offer discounts for car buyers. Not all of these programs will automatically get you to or below the invoice price, which represents the cost paid by the dealer plus fees and is lower than the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). With those that don't, a little negotiating might help bring down the price even more. 041b061a72