As a USAA member, I get a $500 discount off the Mini model I am looking at (I understand there are similar discounts offered with other membership clubs such as Costco).

My question: At which point does that figure into the negotiation? Do I make my best deal first THEN have that discount applied, or is this discount more like a pre-haggle thing where I start at the minus 500 and work from there?

 

We used USAA also. For our car, the discount came up front. Then, there were other discounts applied to various options that were added to our custom order due to the USAA affiliation as well. Our MA made a couple of errors -- mostly because our order fell into the new 2013 line before any firm info had been passed to the dealer. Our MA did a couple of nice things for us to ease any inconvenience. Our dealer is also "veteran friendly", so that helped tremendously.

Since the 2013s have rolled out, there also may be additional negotiation you can add to the 2012s still on the lots. Good luck and let us know how it goes.