CARMAX

So I thought I would give CARMAX a try in selling my 02 996 C2. What a waste of time. They claim that they will take any vehicle. The car appraiser told me right off the bat that they are not taking SUV's and exotics unless they offer 6k under KBB trade in value. Yet on the phone, they told me to come down, talk to us, we will work with you, the whole nine yards. All they did was offer me 25k for my Porsche and would work me a deal on a accord if I wanted.

They just lowball cars and prey on desperate or uneducated sellers. I had a similar experience.

I have thought the same thing in the past. However recently I sold them my 2006 Mazda 3 and got $700 more than the dealer was offering. You definitely have to do your homework prior to going to CARMAX. I also think the current market will sway the deal tremendously. (ie. You will get boned on trading an SUV right now, but you might be ok if you're trading in a high demand economy car) Don't get me wrong, you will ALWAYS get less at CARMAX than you would by selling it yourself. For me, an instant check that wouldn't bounce, and not having to deal with all the boneheads calling me, was well worth it.

Quotes source post: 5705499

+1 I had the same experience. Sold my BMW X3 back in April to Carmax and bought my 328i wagon certified from a BMW dealer. No dealer wanted to give me the same trade-in value as Carmax offered; only 1 said he'll match the Carmax's offer. However, I agree that exotics and heavy SUVs will be treated differently - especially right now. They don't want to sit on them - which I understand.

Quotes source post: 5706248

Which is exactly what they are doing right now. Two of the CarMax lots here in Atlanta are PACKED with SUVs at the moment which they cannot move. Some of them are priced incredibly low. Last summer before the gas crunch I felt I got a very fair value for my X5. My brother-in-law was also able to get nearly original MSRP on 18 month old Corolla he traded in. CarMax trade-in values are directly related to customer demand. If they think they can sell it easily, you can get good value on a trade, otherwise they will give you little more than dirt.

Well, I bought this (<-------) 2002 C4 Cab from Carmax for 10 grand below KBB so they aren't getting the $ from both sides turning around and selling the cars for high $$. I ended up returning my car however. The entire process was extremely simple. They're a business and they are there to make money but they stood behind their no-hassle policy 100%. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another car from them.

Quotes source post: 5707735

Yeah, something to be said for that.... They are kind of a weird place, but they must have a pretty good back-office system.

I have sold three vehicles to Carmax, and always a good bit more than any dealer would offer. Recently I went to get a price on my 328 DD. I was shocked at how bad the offer was. There was a follow questionaire in the mail. One of the questions asked me was I told they now only offer wholesale. Uh no, but that explains the poor offer. I was disappointed, I had always done pretty well going through them.

Exotics? In the 996 forum?

I think I was more irritated at the fact that the salesman said "just come on down, we take any vehicle� Technically, she wasn't lying. She didn't however tell me that I would be bent over, blind folded and well...you know the rest

I bought a new 2007 Honda Fit Sport 5 speed for $15,525 for the kids who drove it 13 months and 12,000 miles. Carmax offered me $14,000 for it last Saturday.

I've also had quite a good experience at Carmax.

Hopefully all the good experience stories are warranted, although I have found that just about everyone is sure they got a good deal on their car...

no hassel.... has anyone ever bargain with carmax on buying a car? i know they said no bargaining etc...... just curious

Quotes source post: 5707735

I'd like to hear that story. As for me, I've sold Carmax a truck and a car - in both cases I couldn't sell them myself (only one year old - few lookers) and they gave me a good price on the truck. On the car (an Acura CL type-S) they offered me XX dollars, I waited a month trying to sell it, brought it back, and they lowered the price $1000. I asked why - they said that they had two of them and couldn't move them, so the market wouldn't support the previous price. I didn't argue, since I had zero, zip, nada, absolutely no interest, no calls on it at all. Of course, that's also why they (Honda) stopped making them... Also, recently, I paid Carmax $250 to ship a car from MD here to NC, they did their "walk around" inspection - I had specific questions on interior condition, wheel condition, etc. which they all answered. The car arrived, filthy, not prepped, not detailed, scratched, bad wheel, the leather had been painted (common cheap used-car trick) etc. and so I didn't buy it. Obviously they lied to me (the MD folks) in response to my questions on condition. Had to argue with them for hours before I got my non-refundable $250 back, but I did get it. And no, even though the car wasn't as advertised, they wouldn't budge on the price. It was a BMW 530 6spd FWIW. So, yeah, Carmax great for buying/selling Camrys and pickup trucks. Porsches... eh, not so much. Or BMWs... Michael

You can't blame them from getting you in the store. That's their job as salepeople. You have to do your homework and realize they are in the business of buying low and selling high.

The ONLY way I would do a trade in or sell to Carmax is if I had such a low value car that selling it myself woudln't be worth the hassle. It kills me that people will haggle over a couple hundred dollars when buying a car yet are perfectly happy to throw away many hundreds and usually thousands just to get rid of the existing car quickly.