Cars and Drivers

Costco, GM Kick Off Holiday Auto Sales Special

Paul Ausick

Published: October 4, 2016 8:35 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 2:50 am

Last Saturday, Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) announced that it will offer 29 different General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) cars during what is now an annual holiday sales event. Last year Costco members purchased nearly 58,000 vehicles during the promotion, up 34% compared with 2014 sales.

The offer features GM supplier pricing and includes most qualifying manufacturer rebates and incentives on the selected vehicles, including pickups, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), luxury and fuel-efficient models. Buyers also receive a $300 or $700 Costco cash card for purchasing a qualifying model and completing all eligibility requirements.

Costco does not actually sell cars to its members, but if it did and if Costco sold nothing but new cars, it would be the largest new car dealer in the United States. In 2015, the company sold more than 465,000 vehicles. AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN) is the nation’s largest car dealer, and it sold 339,080 new vehicles in 2015, a 6.6% increase year over year. Costco’s year-over-year increase in new vehicle sales totaled 16.8%.

The Costco program is run by Affinity Development Group, which monitors prices and discounts to ensure that Costco members get a sufficiently low price at the more than 3,000 dealerships in the program.

A GM spokesman said:

General Motors is excited to partner with Costco Auto Program to bring this valuable offer to Costco members. Seeing the continued success of the Holiday Sales Event with each year, GM is pleased to offer the largest selection of vehicles to date for Costco members that will make the event just as popular, if not more so, than last year’s event.

Among the vehicles included in the promotion are the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups, the full-size Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, and the Chevy Camaro. The Buick Cascada convertible and Enclave SUV are among the selected vehicles, as are the Cadillac Escalade, XT5 and CTS sedan.