9 Car And Truck Products You Should Be Buying From Costco

Costco has become synonymous with bulk goods, $1.50 hot dog meals, and killing time on Saturday afternoons. It's the obvious first stop when you need a six-month supply of coffee or a discounted cruise vacation, and it can save you tons of money on (ordinary and extravagant) automotive expenses.

Of course, a Costco membership comes with an initial upfront cost and annual renewal costs, which you'll have to consider in your personal calculus. The $60 Gold Star Membership grants you basic access to shop in Costco's brick and mortar and online stores; the $120 Executive Membership comes with additional perks, including 2% in rewards earning you up to $1,000 per year on eligible purchases.

In exchange for your membership dues, you'll get access to discounted and Costco exclusive items. Considering how costly some automotive expenses are, it's possible to recoup the entirety of your dues pretty quickly. In fact, some of the items on this list are so discounted that a single purchase could absorb the cost of an Executive Membership and still leave you with extra money in your pocket.

The elaborate web of pavement that makes up local roadways and interstate highways systems provides a relatively smooth and reliable surface upon which to drive, but it's never perfect. Wear and tear create potholes and roadways are littered with bits of trash capable of poking holes in tires. On long enough time scales, you're almost guaranteed to get hit with a flat tire or a slow leak sooner or later.

When that happens, you usually have to find a gas station with a working air pump or a tow truck to get you to a shop. A relatively small problem can become a major headache if it happens at the wrong time. Fortunately, you can avoid all that with the S100 APEX portable air pump from Fanttik. It's a Costco exclusive, but part of the wider family of APEX car products.

The S100 APEX contains an internal battery bank totaling 7,200 mAh, capable of running for about 40 minutes on a charge and filling a car tire from flat in a few minutes. It's also got a built-in flashlight for filling up tires in the dark, built-in settings for filling up everything from a basketball to a truck tire. Between flats, you can even use the power bank to charge your cell phone and other gadgets, just make sure to leave enough juice to top up the tires in an emergency.

If you're the sort of person who likes to take your car or truck off the beaten path, you might be accustomed to getting your beauty sleep in unconventional places. If so, there's a better place to sleep than the back seat or the cold, hard ground.

The Trustmade Scout Plus Rooftop Tent mounts to the top of your car and goes up quickly, allowing you to rough it on the fly. Once installed atop your car or truck, setup is as simple as releasing a couple of latches, lifting the cover, and opening a couple of cloth awnings. The whole thing can be done in about a minute and when you're finished, the tent collapses back down into a storage case only 9 inches thick.

Inside, you'll find a two-inch foam mattress, interior storage nets, and an included LED light. The tent's exterior materials are waterproof, flame retardant, and provide protection from UV radiation. It's a low-profile sleeping and storage solution for the more adventurous among us and it regularly retails for $2,200. At the time of writing, Costco is offering it for $1,600.

Trailer Valet offers a variety of trailer hitches, jacks, and remote control movers known as RVRs. They are capable of running for 30 minutes on a charge and have a remote range of 40 feet, allowing you to park or move a trailer without an assistant or all of the awkward reversing.

Costco offers Trailer Valet products through its Costco Next program, which provides consumer access to some of Costco's trusted suppliers. While the costs and benefits can be robust, it's worth noting that items purchased through Costco Next don't come with the usual Costco warranties or qualify for 2% reward benefits for Executive members. Assuming you're comfortable with those limitations, you can get items for considerably lower prices, courtesy of Costco Next.

When deciding on the right RVR, the main consideration is the payload you'll be moving. The RVR3, Trailer Valet's smallest-capacity model, is capable of shuttling 3,500 pounds, the RVR5 has a medium capacity of 5,500 pounds, and the RVR9 maxes out at 9,000 pounds. The RVR9 regularly retails for $4,399 from the manufacturer, at the time of writing it's on sale for $3,649. If you've got a Costco membership you can get it for about $500 cheaper than the current sale price.

For decades, drivers relied on rearview mirrors, side view mirrors, and a well-honed spatial awareness to back up. It's a tried and true method, and it still works, but most modern cameras have upgraded their systems to include backup cameras and digital displays.

If you've got an older car or truck and you want to upgrade your backup game, this solar powered backup camera from Type S might do the trick. A small solar panel array spans the bottom of a license plate frame, with the camera mounted at the top. The camera provides 160-degree views and is compatible with a wide range of native or aftermarket dashboard displays.

It can be combined with a second front-view camera, providing a split screen view of both ends at the same time. It retails from Type S for $130 but is out of stock at the time of writing. You can find it at Costco, though, for $30 cheaper.

For all of the electric vehicle (EV) drivers out there, the Wallbox Pulsar Plus EV charger provides level 2 charging at home. Typically, at-home EV charging uses a standard 120-volt outlet, the same one you use for the morning coffee. It's convenient and it works, but it's slow. Depending on your EV's battery capacity, it can take up to 40 hours to get a full charge. A level 2 charger, using a 240-volt line, reduces charging times from dozens of hours to roughly 10 and can be up to seven times faster.

In addition to shorter charging times, the Wallbox Pular Plus has an integrated app that puts the charging controls at your fingertips. You can pause and restart charging and schedule charging for when the grid is most efficient and electricity rates are low. This particular charger is a Costco member's only item and $150 cheaper than the comparable Wallbox Pulsar Plus 40A, which retails for $649.

It's important to note that you'll want to work with an electrician in advance to ensure your home electrical system has the capacity for an additional 240-volt line. The last thing you want is to get your new charger home only to blow the breaker every time you charge your car.

Specific tire recommendations become complicated when considering the wide range of makes and models on the road, not to mention the variety of terrains and activities under consideration. A family sedan in Texas, for instance, has different needs than an SUV in Colorado, but there are some general benefits to getting your tires at Costco.

Every tire purchased from Costco comes with Lifetime Maintenance Services which include inflation pressure checks, balancing, rotations, and flat repairs. In addition, Costco's Road Hazard Warranty provides 5-year coverage for tread wear damage and tire failure. The company will repair or replace any tire damaged during ordinary (legal) operation.

Lastly, Costco fills all tires with nitrogen instead of ordinary air. Atmospheric gas is mostly nitrogen (about 78%) and oxygen (about 21%), with some water vapor and trace gasses. The thinking goes that concentrated nitrogen responds less to temperature fluctuations and leaks out of the tire more slowly. When comparing tires filled with ordinary air to tires filled with 95% nitrogen, the ordinary tires lost 1.3 psi more over the course of a year, according to tests by Consumer Reports.

Costco offers Interstate batteries not just for cars and trucks but also for boats, RVs, golf carts, lawn mowers, and more. The precise battery you'll need is dependent on the year, make, and model of your vehicle, some of which are more or less expensive than others.

While the prices for individual batteries will vary, Costco's Interstate batteries are generally quite a bit more affordable than the same or comparable battery from elsewhere. Plugging in the information for a 2017 Chevrolet Volt into the lookup tool for Costco reveals a single battery choice for $179.99. The same battery purchased directly from Interstate costs nearly a hundred dollars more.

Every Interstate battery sold at Costco comes with a warranty, the conditions and duration of which varies slightly from battery to battery. In general, Costco covers ordinary manufacturer defects for up to 36 months, as long as the battery remains in the original vehicle.

Whether you accidentally left the overhead light on or your battery is at the end of its useful life, every once in a while you have to deal with a dead battery. Getting back on the road often means calling a friend or asking a stranger for a jumpstart. Alternatively, this Costco exclusive Michelin Portable Jump Starter and Power Bank can juice your battery without any social interaction.

Plug it into an ordinary outlet to charge an internal 10,000mAh power bank, enough juice to jump most vehicle batteries. At 500 amps of peak current it's capable of jumpstarting up to 6-liter gas engines and 4-liter diesel engines. All you have to do is turn it on, connect the jumper cables to the dead battery, and follow the instructions on the LED screen. And between dead battery emergencies, built-in USB-C ports let it moonlight as a portable power bank for charging your cell phone and other mobile devices.

Costco's Kirkland Signature synthetic motor oil is a relatively new addition to the Costco lineup, but already it's proven to be a competitive bargain option. All Kirkland brand motor oils are produced by Warren Oil, a company which produces motor oil for a number of third-party companies. If you've ever bought a bottle of Autoguard, Lubriguard, or Gold Band, it was filled with a blend of Warren Oil.

You can expect similar performance from Kirkland Signature synthetic oil as you would get from any of the other Warren Oil products. The major limiting factor when it comes to getting motor oil from Costco are the viscosities on offer. The only choices are 0W-20, 5W-20, and 5W-30, which are the most commonly used viscosities, but far from the only ones. If you're driving a specialized vehicle with unique oil requirements, you might be out of luck, but Kirkland brand motor oil is suitable for most common commuter vehicles at a fraction of the usual cost.