It’s not clear whether or not these earlier conversations had been hindered by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Maxwell instructed Automotive News in August that Costco executives usually focus on with automakers potential partnerships on incentives, together with on CPO autos. But in 2022, as dealerships within the Costco community continued to grapple with restricted new-vehicle allocation, Costco Auto Program revisited increasing incentives to used autos, he mentioned.
Volvo had been the primary automaker to companion with Costco Auto Program on a new-vehicle incentive with structured pricing in 2007. Since then, the 2 corporations have provided roughly 12 completely different car incentives, Maxwell instructed Automotive News. And each events got here to the identical conclusion in 2022, he mentioned: Why not design an incentive program for CPO autos, that are fascinating to patrons and never almost as scarce as new automobiles?
“Our dealers are no different than what dealers are experiencing in general [with] inventory availability,” Maxwell mentioned.
It made sense to companion with Volvo on such an effort, Maxwell mentioned, as a result of the automaker and Costco Auto Program already had that “very good working relationship.” Volvo’s autos are also a preferred choice for Costco members — usually the No. 1 or No. 2 luxurious model that they request, he mentioned.
Offering these members offers on used autos will not be new for Costco, nonetheless. The program has lengthy provided prearranged member pricing on licensed used autos by way of accredited dealerships in its community. Costco’s first used-vehicle applications launched in a number of markets in 2006.
If the brand new Volvo CPO promotion matches the success of its different promotions, it appears cheap that Costco would attempt to supply different automaker-specific CPO incentives, Maxwell mentioned. He didn’t disclose different manufacturers that Costco Auto Program might already be working with to develop such incentives.
“We have conversations with all of our OEM partners about all of our offerings, and with this being a new offering, everybody’s taking a peek,” Maxwell mentioned.
Source: www.autonews.com