I like my car but it is starting to get to the point where stuff is starting to go wrong and I'd rather offload it now while it still has some value. I like the idea of Carmax since they'll transfer vehicles from other locations for free or a small fee so I have a bigger selection. I was just wondering how they are as far as trades and ease of doing business with.

As easy as doing business with any other dealership...

Carmax, like truecar, is a great way to be made to feel good about getting ripped off.

You pay dearly for the increase in convenience and the 'no haggle' way of doing business.

I didn't buy a car from CarMax but I visited their dealerships while shopping a couple of years ago.

You have to do your own research, CarMax sells every make so the salesperson likely won't know anything about the car you are looking at. The sales team is there only to get your info, give you the keys for a test drive, and facilitate the purchase. Carfax is your friend. I found that the pricing wasn't any better than any other dealership.

I've bought two cars from Carmax. Their prices for the new cars are pretty good but I think they get you on the tradein. Both times I felt they really low balled me on the tradein. I will however buy from them again as I prefer to minimize my time spent with a car salesman or in a dealership. My time is more important to me than a few bucks they give me on my junk car.

They have reasonable prices, will trailer in a car if it's not on the lot but in their inventory. It's a great place to test drive with no pressure. Do NOT trade in your car. Sell it privately and buy the car outright. Unless the trade in value in within $1000, I don't understand how people think a few days worth of hassle is worth the thousands of dollars you lose on the trade in.

As far as trade, they will probably give you a decent offer on your current vehicle. Decent, but not fantastic.

I needed a new vehicle a few weeks ago. Went to CarMax to look. The place is great for browsing, especially if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, as they have a huge variety.

I narrowed my search down to a couple of specific vehicles, then did some internet work to find those in my area. Wound up buying a used Ford Edge from a large Ford dealer in the area, as they had a good one at a good price.

CarMax Pros:

• They will give you a written offer for your current vehicle. The offer is good for seven days and is valid for a trade, or if you do not buy a vehicle from them they will buy yours for the specified price. The offer is a good thing to have in your pocket if you go shopping at other dealers, so you can decide whether to take their trade offer.
  
• It is very unlikely that they will screw you with a known lemon. Other dealers are hit-and-miss in this respect.
  
• Short-term warranty. I forget whether it's 30, 60, or 90 days, but certainly not longer than 90.
  
• Long-term warranty. Available for purchase. Terms and cost seem to be comparable to other reputable sources for this.
  
• Five-day period during which you can return the vehicle for a refund in the event of buyer's remorse, problems found by your mechanic, etc. I don't know if the "dealer fee" mentioned below in the Cons is refunded. I wouldn't be surprised if they keep that as a sort of re-stocking fee, but I don't know. Might be a good thing to ask them if you find a CarMax vehicle that you want to buy.
  
• Fairly easy to deal with. I was not subjected to any sales pressure, nor unpleasant sales tactics.

Cons:

• My number one gripe: The "sticker" price is NOT the price! They tack on a processing fee of several hundred dollars. No, I'm not referring to tax, title, etc., I am referring to a "dealer fee" that is pure profit to them. I bought my Edge at a Ford dealer in my area that makes a big deal of advertising "No Dealer Fees!" and it was 99% true. The Ford dealer did add $24.00 for processing the title and issuing the registration, but that was probably worth it as I did not need to go to the DMV and wait in line for a half hour or so.
  
• You can take a short test drive but you can not take the vehicle to your own mechanic for a pre-buy inspection. Yes, there is a five-day return period, but you have to go through all the bureaucracy of actually buying the vehicle before you can take it to your own mechanic. In contrast, the Ford dealer that sold me the Ford Edge just wanted copies of my driver license and insurance verification, then let me take the Edge for several hours for inspection. Good thing too, the $95.00 for the inspection was well-spent money, as I was able to negotiate repair of a leaky power steering fluid cooler, a cracked transmission mount, and replacement of spark plugs (labor-intensive on this vehicle, a few hundred bucks) into the deal.
  
• They do not supply CarFax. I asked why, the answer was "it's too easy to manipulate CarFax." They do supply some other type of report, I forget which, but it's on their website.

Their prices for their used cars seem to be reasonable, except for the dealer fee that I mentioned. Hate those things. They should just fold it into the listed price and be done with it. Not super-bargains but not rip-offs either. Decent prices, especially if you find what you're looking for on the first visit, eliminating a lot of shopping around. Your time is worth something, and you're not dealing with scam artists.

Across the street from almost every CarMax location around here (and they usually have a gazillion signs out where CarMax customers can't miss them) are auction buyers who guarantee they'll give you more than CarMax for your trade. All you have to do is get CarMax's trade value certificate (good for 7 days, IIRC) and take it over to them, where they'll add at least a few hundred to it and give you a ride back to CarMax if you need one.

-Rob

Check out "Doug Demuro" on YouTube. He has purchased and documented several CarMax purchases. He speaks HIGHLY of their "Bumper to Bumper" warrantee.

He is also a writer for Road and Track or Car and Driver or some such. His YouTube videos are informative and entertaining. I think it would be worth your time.

I just bought a new to me BMW Z4, I found it at another dealership as a trade in, same year, same options, same miles, $5k cheaper than Carmax. No thanks

If you want to find a car at a good price use cargurus.com. Search for the advanced search option and just put in what you are looking for. I have found multiple cars on this site.

We traded in a car to them on the Jeep we bought from them. Probably could have gotten a little more on trade in if I advertised and sold it, but to avoid the hassle we just traded it in to Carmax. The salesman laughed every time tried to haggle the price down. The price advertised is the price you pay..no haggling and no bargaining. We are happy with the purchase we made, no real problems with it.

I know they do not sell cars over 10-years old. If you are trading in a 10-year old car, they probably give low dollar and it goes straight to auction.

Hope this helps

People seem to have good experiences there, but their prices have always seemed way out of line to me. When I bought my GTO a few years back, the cheapest one on CarMax was 24k, when regional prices for GTO's were 14-20k. I ended up paying just under 16 at a local dealer, and mine was perfect.

Every time I've looked at CarMax since, I see the same trend, vehicles for thousands more than I see them elsewhere in like condition.

They are indeed a convenient, hassle-free way to buy and sell cars, but you definitely pay for the convenience. You will not get the best price for either the car you sell or the car you buy. If the convenience is worth it, then go ahead. If you are looking to get the best possible deal, then there are better ways.

This is one that I'm looking at, it seems like a good price for the mileage and year, and less than what some local dealers are charging. The question becomes the trade value for my car.

https://www.carmax.com/car/14303252

quote:

Originally posted by jcat:
Carmax, like truecar, is a great way to be made to feel good about getting ripped off.

You pay dearly for the increase in convenience and the 'no haggle' way of doing business.

This.

Scour local ads and buy a low mileage car from an elderly person with all service records.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
This is one that I'm looking at, it seems like a good price for the mileage and year, and less than what some local dealers are charging. The question becomes the trade value for my car.

https://www.carmax.com/car/14303252

According to autocheck, it's been hit:

10/03/15 Police Report, NJ
FRONT IMPACT COLLISION
ACCIDENT REPORTED
Case #150036734
10/03/15 State Agency, WINSLOW NJ
FRONT IMPACT WITH ANOTHER VEHICLE
Case #150036734

We had a pretty good Carmax experience here in CO. Background. We had owned a 2014 Subaru Outback Premium that we paid 24k even plus tax for via Costco pricing at the local dealer. Even included 0.9% financing and two Winter Park season passes for skiing thrown in as well. A great deal. We had been living with one car for a while and decided that we finally needed two. We shopped the Subaru after 23 months and Carmax offered us 21k cash outright. Way above three other dealers. All the other dealers were below 20k. And Carmax gives you 5 days to think about it.

We ended up buying a Lexus GX470 from Carmax and a Toyota Avalon from a different dealer. We looked at 4 other GX470s in similar shape. Two were more expensive (one same year one a year newer) and one less expensive with 25k more miles. Btw, Carmax offers to move SUVs into CO for free or a small fee so that was another reason we liked them since the local supply of GX470 and LX470 was low.

We were able to get Carmax to cut us a check for some of our equity in the Subaru so we could pay cash for one of the vehicles. The small loan we got on the other vehicle was very market competitive. And, unlike some other posters, I was able to negotiate a pre-purchase inspection. Carmax did the water pump, radiator and time belt replacement that were needed as part of the deal. Though we did end up plunking around 1800 down for essentially a 3 year / 50k warranty on the Lexus. But the manager signed off that within 48 hours if I came back with repairs they'd fix them...and they did all of them to my satisfaction. I only bought the warranty because the Lexus one was half the price of the warranties for Euro SUVs. Seems to have basically paid for itself.

quote:

Originally posted by SIG4EVA:
They have reasonable prices, will trailer in a car if it's not on the lot but in their inventory. It's a great place to test drive with no pressure. Do NOT trade in your car. Sell it privately and buy the car outright. Unless the trade in value in within $1000, I don't understand how people think a few days worth of hassle is worth the thousands of dollars you lose on the trade in.

Well there are other motives too. In Florida if you trade in a car for say $10000.00 (for example) on a new car, you don't pay 6% sales tax or $600 on the new car. With the way buyers of used vehicles are today, it takes up a lot of time dealing with low ball offers, people that BS you, are trying to scam you, or just in the end can't get the financing, or are coming to your house for other nefarious reasons. Many times the little bit extra you can make on a used car selling it yourself just isn't worth it.

I have bought 2 from them, had 3 Soldiers buy cars from them and a friend buy from them.

You will likely pay higher than you non-no haggle dealerships. The experience is much more pleasant, though so how much extra it's worth paying really depends on your comfort level.

Some people just don't want to deal with the feeling of being ripped off and the time consuming nature of the typical car buying experience.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
My number one gripe: The "sticker" price is NOT the price! They tack on a processing fee of several hundred dollars. No, I'm not referring to tax, title, etc., I am referring to a "dealer fee" that is pure profit to them.

I've found the high dealer fee shit to be the worst in FL. According to online sources I've read, there is no cap in FL on dealer fees. While there are dealers who don't charge fees, from their prices, it just appears that the fees are just built into the price of the vehicles.

Looks like FL has the highest average in the nation and from my experience of shopping for a Toyota Highlander, the fees were anywhere from $600-900.

Dealer fees