It’s time for me to shop for a car.
In the past I’ve generally bought new. But I’m considering buying a used car. There’s a local CarMax. I hear their ads but I haven’t had any experience dealing with them.
Are they generally seen as legit? What are their pros and cons? From what I’ve heard their “no haggling” policy is real - they set a price and that’s it. But are their prices generally reasonable? And are the cars they sell generally in good condition?
I haven’t bought a car there, but I sold one to them. I got even more money than I had expected, and it was very easy.
So all I can say is that I’ve had a good experience with them. IIRC, they do thorough inspections on all their cars and have various warranty options. Happy shopping!
Here’s a thread I started a couple of years back asking about CarMax. This might help.
We did wind up buying a car from them. I thought the cars were a little pricey but we were in a pinch and needed something quick. It was very much like when we bought our Saturn many years ago… they really do try to make it as painless as possible, but there is a price you pay for that.
My girlfriend bought her car at CarMax and has repeatedly stated that she wants to buy every car of hers there from now on because of how un-dealership-y it was
The last time I bought a car I used them and consider the experience to be positive. They paid more than I expected (based on Blue Book Value) for my trade in and I got a good price on the 1 year old car I bought. I’ve had that same car for 5 years now and it’s not been in the shop one time other than normal wear and tear and maintenance. I did like the no haggle policy - it was a very simple transaction and I feel like I got a fair deal all around.
I got my current pickup from them about a decade ago. Very easy, truck was in good shape as advertised- slightly better even, as their website goes in 5k increments, and this one was just barely over one increment. No hinky sales tactics- they’re like “That one is 25k, this one’s 23k. Want to take a ride?” No hard sell or negotiations either- up OR down in price.
Sold my older one to them as a trade-in. Got far more than I expected; so much so that I nearly asked if they’d appraised the right one.
Anyway, I think where they make their money is on their in-house financing, which wasn’t awesome at all, and on the installation of odd-ball aftermarket crap like power locks for cars that don’t have factory power-locks installed.
I got their lack-luster financing, and then paid it off with a loan from my bank at a MUCH lower interest rate, so everything worked out in the end. But I imagine if you don’t have access to better financing, that’s where the gotcha is.
I bought my BWM from them. The price was decent. The experience was easy easy.
I had a saved search for what I wanted…ranges for the years and millage, lists of features I cared about, etc. I’d get periodic e-mails with updates about vehicles that were in the area.
One Friday, a potential car showed up about 100 miles away. I paid $75 to have it transported to my local shop. It was there Saturday afternoon. I went in and test drove it. I liked it. Left my old car there, and drove home in my new-to-me car.
I didn’t even have my finance in place yet, but I had three working days to cancel their financing and apply my own. So I called my credit union on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), got things taken care of, and dropped off appropriate paperwork.
The only thing I didn’t like is that you have to decide if you want the CarMax extended warranty on the spot. You can’t buy it afterwards.
After a very bad dealership experiment we decided to try carmax - very friendly folks who let you drive whatever you like, they will bring a car in from up to 2hr away without any commitment from you.
We ended up buying a fusion sport and after 3 days of driving it didn’t get anywhere near the advertised mpg - they have a 5 day no questions asked return policy - we ended up using that and it was very painless- we even returned it to a different location- We found a vw gti on the lot and ended up leaving with that.
Keep in mind all of that easy to work with comes with a price. If yore the type that obsesses over getting the best deal, this isn’t the place for you. But the extra cost was worth the ease of the transaction for us in this case.
As for car condition - they are generally in good shape- a few I drove were suspect - bring a car savvy friend if cars aren’t your forte.
Bryan
The pro is that they make the process relatively simple and hassle free and they also apparently offer a pretty good warranty.
The con is that their prices are often higher than what you might get at other places.
I don’t get the appeal of “no haggling.” You can go anywhere and plunk down the asking price if you want, hassle free. You are definitely paying a slight premium at Carmax versus a private party.
Generally, the cars at Carmax are in decent shape, but you should still get an independent PPI. Their inspection prior to taking a car in is actually not terrible (they correctly detected a minor respray from when someone brushed my car in a parking lot), but it’s only about 20 minutes long. The good thing with Carmax is that you can buy the car first and then return it if the PPI turns something up. Also, they’ll ship short distances for free and you can check it out and then just leave if you don’t want it.
I think the warranty is the biggest selling point for me. A lot of their prices seem a tad bit more expensive than the typical dealer in the area. But the warranty is definitely worth it, especially if you want a car known for having issues.
Oh, I should add, re: the Carmax premium, I sold them a VERY low-mileage 7-year-old Mazda 3. About 10,000 miles and great condition because I’m anal about my stuff. Blue book was $8,500, a dealership offered $6,700, and Carmax offered $8,000 so I took it because I needed to sell it quickly. If I had had time to sell it privately, I probably would have ended up selling at about $10,000. Carmax listed it at $14,000(!) and it sold in like a week.
Carmax can also be useful when negotiating a deal with another car dealer. Several years ago, I took my vehicle to Carmax for an appraisal and received written confirmation of their offer. The amount was in line with my prior research.
During negotiations with the other dealer, I used the Carmax appraisal to increase the dealer’s offer on my vehicle without affecting my offer to them on the new vehicle.
I bought from CarMax last month. I’d been looking at cars since an oak tree killed my Yaris in June.
I ran across a 2013 Civic with under 20k miles at a location about 100 miles away. The transfer in was free. I requested the transfer on Saturday, it arrived Monday, I test drove and bought the next Saturday.
I liked not negotiating: yes, I know that means there’s a CarMax premium in here, but I do a terrible job of negotiating and know I’ve gotten thoroughly screwed on a couple of previous cars. I had financing ready through my credit union, but the CarMax financing was the lower interest rate (2.75% vs 3.9%), so I stayed with the CarMax financing.
What I didn’t like:
With the test drive, the sales person had pulled the car around and turned the radio way up, then looked at me oddly when I turned it down so I could hear the car. I don’t know if that’s standard or just her. She also was a little shocked when I did some (safe) hard braking during the test drive, like she wasn’t expecting it.
I did take the car to a dealership within the first 30 days to make sure nothing was wrong that needed repair, since CarMax has the thing where they will repair things found within that first 30 days. I went to a dealership because the car’s still under factory warranty as well. It was due for an oil change and tire rotation, and it needed an alignment, but otherwise said everything looked really good.
I also had a cold when I was there, and could not smell that the car was clearly a smoker’s car. I’ve managed to get the smell out (mostly). And that’s not the fault of CarMax, but if you have a cold, take someone with you who can smell. 
I pulled a full carfax report before I even had the car transferred: that showed me that the previous owner had dealer maintenance done at appropriate intervals, that it hadn’t been wrecked, and that it was a repo.
Would I buy from them again? Possibly, for the right car. But this search was about the right car at the right price, not just the dealer, and next time I have to buy, they may not be it. I also looked at carvana.com but realized I was a bit uncomfortable with that process.
I bought an SUV from CarMax once. It was the best car buying experience I’ve had.
I was considering going to the only CarMax in my state (30+ miles away) but after hearing that they expect you to use their service department if you get the extended warranty I decided against it.
You do pay a premium because of the “no haggling”. I checked their prices against prices from local dealerships and the latters’ prices have been roughly 1-3K lower than CarMax’s, depending on the make/model. I’ve also found that many dealerships have adopted versions of CarMax’s “no haggling” under various names. It’s all basically the same thing.
I’d probably get more for my Jeep re a private sale but if I did that without having a vehicle in exchange I’d have no way to get to work. So…dealership it is.
(ETA: CarMax is opening two more branches in my state in December, one of which will be two towns over from me. Unfortunately I don’t think my Jeep is going to last until then.)
I had the same thing happen. Sold them a low mileage BMW 3-series for more than Blue Book private party, saw them advertise it for crazy money, and it was gone in no time. I didn’t mind as I avoided the hassle of selling, but still, their asking prices are nuts. I’ve sold them four cars, but I’ve yet to buy one from them. Traditional used car lots have beat them every time for me.
CarMax is definitely legit. They only put cars a few years old on their lot, generally in great condition. My problem is the no-haggle policy because I do find their prices to be quite a bit higher than traditional dealers.
I will say they typically give you at least as good a deal on your trade in as you’ll get elsewhere.
I’ve found that the local non-CarMax dealers are the greatest marketers for CarMax. We had such an unpleasant experience with the local used car dealers that we were willing to pay the increased price. They gave us a fair price for our piece of shit trade-in and everyone was happy.
That was a while back. Since then, we’ve found what dealerships are more reputable and hassle free and have been dealing with them because I feel we get slightly better prices, but I have no issues with CarMax.
Actually, I just remembered an issue. They used to rely way too much on CarFax. When I was looking at another vehicle, they kept bringing up that it had a clean CarFax report, like it was Gospel or something. They looked at my trade-in and said it appeared to have been in an accident (probably was, but not by me) and offered a low amount. I had the salesman bring up my vehicle on CarFax to show him that it, like their car, had a clean CarFax report. The point was either CarFax or their mechanics were wrong. Overall, this accomplished nothing and I didn’t buy the car.
It feels bad to pay more than you have to for something. No one wants to be a sucker.
While haggling on price is often the optimal strategy, it has costs as well. Both the buyer and the seller invest time in research and attempts to change the price.
A “no haggle” policy reduces both of these costs. Unskilled negotiators don’t feel bad. They know that they didn’t get tricked into paying more than the “real” price. And neither the buyer nor the seller have to invest time or energy in the bargaining process. And the price at a “no haggle” place is going to be lower than the list price at a place that does haggle, all else being equal. You would expect it to be around the average price that sales are actually made at. Maybe a bit lower, since when the salesman doesn’t have to spend a few hours with each customer trying to sucker them into paying more, you don’t need as many salesmen.