Carmax?

brokeass4runner

brokeass4runner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2005
Location
Charlotte
Anybody have any experience dealing with Carmax?

I'm looking into selling them my car and then buying from them. Is it worth it?
 
carmax is the asshole of the car sales world. nobody wants to enter the asshole and do business.

i have been there twice. both times they told me my car had been wrecked (neither had, i had owned both since new). tried to offer a silly price for the purchase of my car. dishonesty in a car dealer is a no-no
 
I have not bought from them... nor do I intend to. The few times I have been there, the cars have been dramatically overpriced, and teh sales guy way too pushy. "Oh yeah I had a guy yesterday that said he would be back to buy it" BS. Hm, funny how that guy drove it and loved it yesterday, yet teh rotors are rusted to all hell. Oh and "our cars turn over in a matter of days or weeks", hahaha. That same car has been there for 4 months now.The no-haggle thing is stupid, 90% of the time you'd have the same sticker at a real dealership.
Meanwhile they super-lowball on the value of your car. Everybody I know that has sold to them has been ripped off and regretted it later.
 
My wife works there but I still probably won't buy anything off there lot even with her discount (although I will probably by a wholesale truck when they have one I like). If you don't want to haggle with a dealership or deal with selling your car on the private market its not bad. Most cars they get on the lot will sell with in a matter of days of being put on the lot but there are always some that sit for weeks and get taken to wholesale. I think on an average day they sell 30 cars on some of the busy days they have sold as many as 70. Some cars are way overpriced but others are good deals it really just depends. I could have gotten a 05 Dodge 3500 quad cab diesel 20K miles with every option on it for only 20,500. Many people love carmax and others think they blow so its really about what your looking for. The only reason they are popular is it makes it simple for those that don't like haggling for a car.
 
I took my 2000 XTerra there last night to see what they would say. They priced it at 6000.

Now this XTerra has been to a mechanic and it needs a new rear main seal, brakes in the front, steering checked, etc.

And on top of it all it has a phantom electrical problem. It will run fine for any given period of time. Then it randomly stops. No pattern of any kind. With the gas tank full, half full, empty. Its not the battery. When I turn the key it doesn't drain power.

Then an hour, or a night, or a day later it just starts and runs fine for a while, then does it again.

Its been to the dealership and seen a "specialist" like three times. They can't say what it is.

So I need to sell it ASAP. KBB trade in value for its condition is $5500.

Should i push it and try elsewhere or just take their offer of $6000?
 
I dealt w/ the Winston store when the ex was being dumber than normal and didnt make her payment for oh.......4 months. So the repo man came, we hid the car sold the next day at Carmax. Quick and easy.
 
I once worked at the Carmax in Raleigh. Has to be one of the most honest car dealers in the buisiness. Everything is upfront. No hidden this or that, or lets see the sales manager and "find" a price for you. Selling them a car is a completely serarate transaction from buying, so the value of one does not affect the other.

If you think they were giving you a bad estimate, take it somewhere else. Also ask the appraiser guy to show you why he believes it was involved in an accident. Most of them are real good, and show customers that they unknowingly bought a wrecked car. You know, the one that got scratched on the truck and the new car dealer had repainted before it even hit the lot. Unless there is obvious frame damage, all they can tell is it's been 'redone', but not how exstensive it was damaged.

I wouldn't hesitate do buy a car from them if they had one i wanted at a price i was willing to pay.

don't forget the 5 day return policy, no reason needed. Or did they go back to 3 day?
 
I have never bought a car from them but I have checkout there prices and if you search you can find very good prices there. You Still have to do your home work on the car/truck you are buying as you would on any purchase.

I know many people that have bought from them and loved the process and car.
 
Chris_M said:
I once worked at the Carmax in Raleigh. Has to be one of the most honest car dealers in the buisiness. Everything is upfront. No hidden this or that, or lets see the sales manager and "find" a price for you.
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How extensive do they check over the cars that they sell? Because I have seen some hard to believe deals on their site. I just wonder if their are problems with these cars that are a good price. Can't help but wonder how hard they check each vehicles history.
 
brokeass4runner said:
How extensive do they check over the cars that they sell? Because I have seen some hard to believe deals on their site. I just wonder if their are problems with these cars that are a good price. Can't help but wonder how hard they check each vehicles history.
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They supposedly inspect and recondition them. We had thought about trading the wifey's car in last summer and I was pretty impressed with what we saw from the one in Winston.
 
I have now purchased 4 vechiles from CarMax here in Charlotte. In fact I purchased a Dodge Durango from them and two years later took it back and traded it for the Excursion I currently drive. I have had very good luck with them and found thier prices to be very decent. In fact the Durango I traded back in to them they gave me over KBB. The Excursion had a minor problem 45 days after I bought it and although they were under no obligation they completely covered what needed to be done. When the wife can't decide what kind of car she wants we can go test drive almost anything on the market and she can make up her mind, then when the right color isnt there you can find one at another dealership and have it transferred in..we did that with 3 of the 4 we have purchased.

Bottom line...do your homework, know the value of your trade and the KBB of the car you are looking at and you should be fine. Get your own financing if you need it, the companies they work with don;t have the best rates.
 
My current Yukon came from there and it was a screaming deal.

But it was 5 years old with 24k...

The best part to me about buying is the 30 days bumper to bumper warranty.

I had 1 rear door hinge replaced, the ac/heat fan motor (not as powerful as a friends), the passenger power window motor, and something else minor that is escaping my memory. Its kinda nice knowing whatever shows up that you just dont like in 30 days they will fix.

As to selling to them, you can do better, bu if in a pinch they are a guaranteed sell
 
Brokeass, I see you are in Charlotte.
You should check out Automotive Consignment, i think it's on independence?
Pretty cool place. They're literally a consignment store for cars, privare folks sell their cars through them. Aparently they charge a flat fee to the seller, who sets the price. This means they're not directly motivated by the final sale value, just to get rid of it, and the prices can be great or insane.
I bought my Protege5 from them. It's kind of a rare car so it took awhile to find one at a good deal. In this case, it was only listed at 11,5 w/ 27,5k ('03) mint, fully loaded. Meanwhile they also had an '02 w/ 66k for 12,5. no shock, "mine" had only been there 1 day, while the other for weeks... they couldn't convince the seller to drop the price.
Since the "good" one I wanted needed tires, and they knew I'd buy it, they called the seller w/ my offer (11) and conviced him to take it, and that was it. Done deal. If I hadn't needed to deal w/ loans the whole transaction would have been about 1 hour max. Of course, I walked in knowing I wanted it (found via AutoTrader).
 
I wouldnt buy from them because I feel they are way overpriced but my brother sold a car to them and it was well worth the small loss he took to have cash in his hand 45 minutes later so he could buy another vehicle he had found.
 
SkyHiK5 said:
My current Yukon came from there and it was a screaming deal.
But it was 5 years old with 24k...
The best part to me about buying is the 30 days bumper to bumper warranty.
I had 1 rear door hinge replaced, the ac/heat fan motor (not as powerful as a friends), the passenger power window motor, and something else minor that is escaping my memory. Its kinda nice knowing whatever shows up that you just dont like in 30 days they will fix.
As to selling to them, you can do better, bu if in a pinch they are a guaranteed sell
Click to expand...

I am in a pinch to sell at the moment.

So is their 30 warranty cover more than the extended plan that they offer?
 
RatLabGuy said:
Brokeass, I see you are in Charlotte.
You should check out Automotive Consignment, i think it's on independence?
Click to expand...

I have heard others mention this place. I will have to take a look into that.

I am also looking for a 94 - 98 Cummins. Do they deal with diesels at all?
 
Check it out here:
http://www.automotiveconsignment.com/
I assume they would, they sell cars for folks that don't want to themselves.
When I was there, they have a TJ on 33s and about 3-4" lift too.
They're a regular dealer too.
 
went to look @ an altima and there was 5k in mark-up from KBB, and the guy says "i wish we didnt use KBB"... not my fault... i wouldnt buy from them... email is your friend for buying a car.. making fight for your business.
 
ALL dealerships will rip you off.....I don't care what people say. I have worked at 2 different places, and they were both in it for the money. Oh, yeah, that is why people go into business!

As far as carmax goes, I give it a thumbs up for how fast they are, and for the price that I paid for my car. I bought my Grand Prix $3k under blue book. My friend bought the same car, almost same miles(his was lower), same year, and he paid $1500 more from a dealership.
 
I bought a mnivan from CarMax and it worked fine. Until my wife drove it into a tree, but that wasn't really CarMax's fault. It had been on their lot a while and was marked down more than typical. The whole buying process went faster than I've experienced at dealers.

In general though, it seems like CarMax offers nearly new cars for nearly new prices. I just don't see the smoking deals. If I'm going to pay that much $$$ for a car, I'll buy new instead.
 
I just called up there about to talk to the salesman i had dealt with already. He wasn't there so I talked to someone who could answer questions in his absence. I pretty sure the guy I talked to was trying to get me to buy the car from him instead of his associate. Pretty messed up.

Anyway, what do you guys know about 2003 Chevy Trailblazers? I am looking at smaller SUVs and this one seems pretty decent.

Thoughts?
 
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