Costco membership gives you discounted gas prices, so fill up before or after shopping.  As a member, you also have a dedicated Costco team to handle travel issues…here’s the current story.  Reserved an intermediate car from Budget for a week; pick up and only a behemoth that won’t fit in garage!  No choice, so we take it, hoping to swap out in a day or two.  Next morning find all paperwork is for another car: license, odometer, level of gas in tank (this was only half full).  Call location a few times, but get forwarded to international call center, who can only help with reservations.

Called Costco in frustration who not only made a new reservation at another location for an intermediate size car, they did the paperwork so all we had to do was show up and swap out.  Yes, they have a dedicated team for auto rentals.

This Costco deal on Groupon continues. Get all your household shopping done (buy a car!) and enjoy lots of samples.  Groupon deal costs the same as buying directly from Costco, but you get shop cards plus travel promo codes.  The $130 Executive membership is also available and that one snags not only the gift card, but you also earn 2% back on purchases, a nice benefit (This is the card we have and sigh, use heavily).  Your $65 yearly Gold Star Membership Package includes:

A membership card for the Primary Cardholder and one additional Household Card for anyone living at the same address, over the age of 16 and a  $40 Digital Costco Shop Card (valid at Costco locations and Costco.com).

Costco is good for more than toilet paper and eggs; gas is always cheaper so fill up before or after you shop. Costco offers discounts on car rentals (Budget, Enterprise & Avis were all listed using my zip code). Membership also entitles you to add another driver for free instead of paying the usual extra charge. That discount paid for a yearly membership at either level!