Carmax....good/bad...your opinion wanted

[RACERnsX]

I'm considering purchasing a used vehicle (not an NSX) from Carmax. They are a national chain that promotes a "no-haggle" philosophy with regard to the price (which is clearly marked in the window), financing, purchasing your vehicle etc. every day. It's kind of refreshing and different from the other dealerships around here. If anyone has had dealings with them, I would be interested in hearing about your experience and/or what you think about their approach as a whole.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

 

[OneRedNSX]

my roommate bought his 350z from them about 2 yrs ago. it wasnt really all that bad of an experience to be honest. they even shipped it down to him (the one he wanted was a few states away) and even if he didn't want it it would have only cost him $250 as a transportation fee.

the pricing seems to be 'middle of the road'... not a huge deal but not a bad one either. they seem to undervalue the used cars you trade though so I'd buy from them but sell my own car privately if I wanted to do so...

 

[txtony]

Years ago when I was shopping for an Audi, they seemed at the high end of the market rate price range.
Since they have a large inventory, I suspect a majority of their vehicles are bought at auctions. As you would expect, the margins are generally significant - 3k or 4k gross profit per car would not surprise me.
I think if you are looking for a specific car, you might do better with a private owner. They may be good for a comparison but I doubt you would find the best deal unless it was a car they had been sitting on for awhile and reduce it to move it before they take it to the auction.

 

[squid2004]

I always find their prices at the very top of blue book/retail. Unless you get there when a car has been sitting for a month or two and they are trying to unload it. Look for usually the front of the lot area with the cars they are getting ready to ship out and are marked down a good bit.


Otherwise, yes, too high on the retail, poor trade in (typically only appraise at wholesale --- BELOW average trade in value), and really don't offer the personalized service smaller/local dealerships can offer.

 

[enesexdreamer]

I've delt with Carmax. Fair pricing. Would do business again.

 

[Da Hapa]

I haven't used them but two co-workers have sold them used cars and been very happy with the experience. From what I understand, they don't give you top dollar, per se, for your used car but they give you what is a reasonable trade in value on the car at absolutely no hassle.

 

[Syncro]

Sold my 2 year old Subaru with 16,000 miles to them for $14,000

I paid $18,000 out the door when I bought it (2.5 RS A\T)

I considered it fair knowing full well they'd never make a profit on it. I looked up their inventory on that car before I took it to their lot - they didin't have a SINGLE one :tongue:

 

[usafdarkhorse]

I have not had very good experiences with CarMax and I would not purchase a car from there.

My parents bought a '00 Accord in July of last year from CarMax around $2k over market price. They justified it by saying that CarMax's whole inspection process would probably be worth the extra money they were spending on a car that had been checked and gone through well.

The first thing I noticed on the Carfax was that there was a good chunk of missing mileage which may or not mean anything, but I didn't like it.

So now it's a year later and here are some of the things that we've experienced:

- After 500 miles, every darn belt in the car had to voice its opinion. I think Carmax's "thorough" inspection involved spraying Teflon spray to cover until they could offload the car

- Numerous electrical problems. Lights that won't work, lights that won't shut off. Door window motors that decide to quit working leaving your window halfway down ( I've heard this is a common Accord problem though, but, by the way, I found this out the day after they brought the car home. How could they have not known about this?).

- Broken pieces. The button the controls the front overhead light likes to pop out every now and then.

- and #1 people....one day the engine decided it was going to run on 3 cylinders instead of 4...

I don't ever remember your typical Honda having so many problems, but even more disturbing the fact that these problems became apparent very early after being sold as a top quality thoroughly checked car.

I will never buy a car from CarMax. A supermarket for autos sounds like a recipe for trouble anyway. Sell them your car. Don't buy theirs.

 

[usafdarkhorse]

oh yes, and also, the right headlight aims about a foot higher than the left headlight.

 

[sahtt]

Since I used to buy/sell cars, I tell people to clean their car up and take it to carmax to see what they will offer you when they ask me how much should they ask for it.

There have been two occasions in particular when Carmax offered them a price that was good enough to justify selling it to them. The other occasions were usually within a grand or two [depending on the value of the vehicle] of what I'd tell them they should try to sell it for.

On the other side, I will never tell anyone to buy a car from any used car dealer. If you are looking for something special and it's a specialty sales business, maybe.

You wouldn't believe how many used cars have been through auction after auction after auction and been handled by several owners with NO concern for the car's health.

I worked used cars at a very prominent Chevy dealer in high school and later partnered with the General Manager's son to sell auction cars. 1/3 of the cars on Landmark's lot were auction cars that weren't even owned by the dealer, but by the staff. Another solid 1/3 of the cars were dealer purchased through the auction, I was a friend of the main auction agent who bought the cars.

Use common sense and get the car checked out by someone who knows what they are doing. Don't over pay for "insurance" and don't underpay because of a "good deal" unless you really* know what you are doing.

 

[92 white 0650]

Re: Caroffer.com?

anyone know about these guys? http://www.caroffer.com/

This seems to be an internet version of Carmax; they left me an automated message saying they would make an offer based on my evalutation of the condition and if I like the offer, a local representative would verify the condition and complete the deal unless he disagreed with my evalution. I guess it's like getting a base line price from Carmax? Any harm in seeing what the stats think my 2000 Prelude is worth?

 

[Motegi]

My wife just bought a used Infiniti G35x AWD sedan from the this past winter. It still had the remainder of a factory warranty, was fully loaded with NAVI, and had under 24K miles. Their "no-haggle" price was nearly 2K below Blue Book and they even made a good offer on our trade which was clearly not in the best mechanical or cosmetic condition.

In hindsight the CarMax window sticker listed the vehicle as a base model, non-AWD, non-navi car which may have explained the pricing. Their oversight was our gain!

It also may helped that it was one of 5 G35 sedans on their lot and that it was an AWD car in FL.

 

[ktbaia]

I've sold two cars to CarMax - both good experiences. Each time, they gave me more than $1,000 over what I could get from a dealer trade-in. I've also had them appraise another car I was getting ready to trade in and they were $1,000 lower.

They rely heavily on KBB to sell their pricing to buyers and sellers. So, if you go in well informed, its easy to make a decision. They are definitely "no-hassle" from the buying and selling viewpoint.

When it comes to service though... Not too good. My daughter bought a '90 VW Cabriolet with a CarMax warranty. Of course, the car being a VW, just about everything electrical that could break did - locks, windows, radio, A/C, and on and on. To their credit, I think CarMax tried to fix the problems. But, they were just not capable of doing so. Their mechanics just don't have the factory training needed. So, they would keep the car inordinate amounts of time, and inevitably return it to my daughter with a lame excuse unfixed. She finally took it to a VW dealer to get the really annoying items fixed.

Lessons:

1. CarMax is a good no-hassle way to buy a late-model used car that is not likely to have problems. (If you are happy with the price.)
2. Don't buy any warranty from them - they simply can't deliver, even if the service guys are doing the best they can.
3. They probably will not be best price on any car you actually want to buy from them. But it will probably be a reasonably fair price per KBB.
4. I don't know how much they buy from auction (per the previous post) but I do know they get a lot of private parties selling them 2 to 3 year old cars instead of trading them in to a dealer. This seems to be CarMax's sweet spot.
5. If you like buying electronics from CircuitCity, you will like buying cars from CarMax. They are the same company, and have a unique "my-way" or no-way approach. They are trying to cut new ground in how used cars are bought and sold to the public. It only gets problematical when you venture outside that late-model car that they are set up to handle.
6. And, like CircuitCity, they really haven't figured out the service side yet. Someday they will though. (Well, maybe.)

Kevin T.

 

[ur2slow1]

I sold my 06 Si to the local Carmax last December while I waited for my new 135i and the experience was great. They offered a few grand more than any of the local Honda dealers and the process only took about 30 minutes. I would definitely do business with them again.

 

[Mirroredshades]

If you want to pay 5-10% more than anywhere else, then Carmax is okay. The few times I've looked at cars there, I wasn't impressed with the quality of the cars either.