Since we're discussing car sellers - CarMax observations

I'll start with my two recent experiences:

1. I saw a used car on their website that I was interested in, but it was located in another state. No problem, they routinely move cars between their dealerships. Right before officially starting the process, I checked the Carfax report, and it was clean, but one thing jumped out at me - the factory warranty expired in one week. Since transferring the car to my local dealer would take longer than that, I'd be buying an out-of-warranty car, but paying a premium for a car with the warranty. Being clever, I figured I could use that to get them to lower the price. No, I was informed, the price is the price, whether or not the car has any remaining factory warranty makes no difference. I was dumbfounded that they think a factory warranty doesn't matter to buyers. Well, it mattered to me, and canceled the deal.

2. Some time later, I saw another car, again out of state, but CarMax stated that they would not ship it. Because it had all the options we wanted, I called them anyway, asking if there was anyway they could "work with me" to get the car shipped. No, not possible. Period. Okay, so I went on my way, and two days later, the same car popped up in my search results again, but this time, it showed that they would ship it. To say I was annoyed... ugh. Later, curious what happened, I looked into it. Apparently some states do not allow interstate transfer of vehicles unless the owner has title to the car. Okay, fair enough, but you'd think as a money-making entity, they'd have told me that, and said something like, "we've put your name on it and as soon as it's shippable, we'll let you know." Nope, but I over that, really.

Some time later, we sold one of our cars to a local CarMax and I've always been curious how much their markup is. It's been with them for five days now and has yet to appear as available online. Apparently the process takes a while... or maybe a CarMax employee bought it for themselves. Anyway, if and when it appears, I'll update this, as I've never seen anyone post what their car sold for and what CarMax's profit is.

A few years before the current craziness (2017) I sold my Honda Fit to CarMax for $9500 and I want to say it was listed at $12,995 or something like that.

When I sold my GTI to them in 2020 I got $17,500 for it but never saw it listed before I lost interest in checking, think it might have been shipped out of state or something.

They are famously rigid on the "no haggle" part of their pricing but I've had good experiences with my single purchase and two sales with CarMax.

At the larger CarMax locations they also run dealer only auctions out of the back half of the property.  They don't do it at all properties in a local or even all properties in a state.  They ship cars to that designated facility, that they own themselves, and they offload their trade-ins or slow sellers without having to pay one of the big used car auction firms like Manheim.  

There are two CarMax in Jacksonville, FL.  One East and one West but only the East location does auction shown in this aerial view.  Jeremy once helped me buy a fleet car out of that auction.  Front building is retail.  Rear building is wholesale. 

I will be honest.  I bought my recent Honda from Carmax.  It is 4 years old now, so no warranty.  Not super worried because Honda. 

That said I really dislike Carmax.  I sold my wife's car to them and it was painful.  I also traded my truck for the Honda.  We got the best sales person I've ever had at any dealership, hands down.  That made all the difference.  The real problem with Carmax is the average person working there is not a good employee, well trained, or even cares about the business.  It's the fast food of cars.  I never leave reviews, as a personal policy.  I made an exception this time and it was all positive.  It was 100% because of my sales rep.  I really need to stop by and talk to their manager and let them know in person too. 

See, My experience has been pretty good over the years. I've sold 2 cars there and now if I even think of selling a car I get an offer there first. 

I can say the second about them not transferring it was because of the title work. They can't transfer some cars because they are clearing the title for the car. So they put some as non-transferrable. 

Pre-covid, I wouldn't even think of Carmax as a shopping option for purchase but now a days all of the places are priced just about the same. 

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

... That said I really dislike Carmax.  

 

Did you really intend to type that, because your following comments were really positive.

kb58 said:

Being clever, I figured I could use that to get them to lower the price. No, I was informed, the price is the price, whether or not the car has any remaining factory warranty makes no difference.

 

This is what no haggle pricing means. The price is the price. You might care, but somebody else won't, and they're all about volume, not the best possible customer experience. 

I should have been more clear that I was puzzled that their car valuation software doesn't take into account whether the car has any remaining mfg warranty. I think that it does, but choose to not adjust the car's price once it expired.

One weeks worth of factory warranty is pretty much worthless. I doubt it was even factored into the sales price.

kb58 said:

I should have been more clear that I was puzzled that their car valuation software doesn't take into account whether the car has any remaining mfg warranty. I think that it does, but choose to not adjust the car's price once it expired.

Why would it? They want you to buy their extended warranty (assuming they still offer that) anyway. They probably prefer out of warranty cars for that reason.

In reply to kb58 :

Yes. I generally loathe Carmax.  However one person made it a great place for one day.  It really is the fast food of car lots and I avoid food chains out of disgust too.

I had a car transferred from one Carmax to another. They're generally very opaque about when it will arrive - the employees don't seem to know until it actually just shows up. Mine arrived at the dealership a week earlier than my email estimate said it would, and they inspected it and posted it ready within a day of arrival. Said I had 3 days to claim it or they'd resell it. 

I had a car transferred from one Carmax to another a few years back. For the price of $0, they trucked a Nissan LEAF across the state so I only had to drive 15 minutes instead of two hours to see it.

I got a text the day it arrived. "Hey the car got here, we're charging it, when can you come by?"

I drove it, told the sales rep I wanted to buy one, but not that one, and they were totally cool and told me to have a great day. It was a pretty great experience.

I also sold a car to them a few years ago. Bought a broken Honda Element from my neighbor for $200, got it running by replacing the spark plugs with used ones from a Volvo parts car, then drove it directly to Carmax for a $2000 check. 

We are an odd bunch. 
 

In one thread we argue how much we want no-haggle pricing, and in another we complain what a pain no-haggle pricing is. 
 

Haha!

I've only had good experiences with CarMax. They are what they say they are. 
 

They also offered me exceptional service. 

I would agree that in general you know what you'll get at a carmax. They will have basically ok used cars, for basic prices. I mean, you won't get a "deal" but you'll buy at market value and sell for market value. 
I think many of us here (or maybe just me) really go around looking for the screaming deals, we want to beat the market on the purchase and brag about it, and then beat it on the sale/trade as well. 

This means I generally avoid places like carmax or used lots and I look at private sales, and I sell my own. Many used lots around me are filled with snakes who bloat the sale with enormous fees on the back end.

Because of the market though it's getting harder to find gems. 

I found a decent Mazda3 for my son's first car and beat the current market stupidity, but... I was very close to just dealing in the regular market as most private sales were pretty beat.

In fact, I recently bought from a carmax buyer in private sale. He sees whats's being traded in and buys them himself instead of sending to auction, to sell them at just at or under the market so it was a "good enough" deal.

I bought my '17 F150 from Carmax in 2019. Ran into the same issue kb58 did regarding transfer. They would not transfer the vehicle from Orlando to Charlotte because they were waiting on the title and could not sell it in another state. Would not hold it for me until they received the title, because they did have the ability to sell it in state w/o having the title. They were very transparent about the situation.

I wanted to move quickly with a truck purchase, and they had what I wanted at a good price and there weren't any comparable trucks local to me at the time, so I opted to do a fly and drive.

They did a great job supporting the transaction. Did a walk around by phone and answered all my questions and then held the vehicle (I made it very clear I was flying in on a one way ticket and would not tolerate any confusion about it being "held" for me). It was cleaned and had a full (36 gallon) tank of gas when I arrived at 9am Sat morning. Was on the road by 10:30am, home for dinner.

There were two issues with the vehicle that were addressed by my local Carmax service center with no hassle. 1- One of the front tires had been scrubbed against a curb, and peeled some of the outer layer of rubber off the sidewall. Looked worse than it was, because it exposed the white rubber layer used to create the raised white letters. They replaced both front tires. 2 - Failed vehicle inspection due to FL tint job. Local Carmax took it to their tint shop and had it removed from the front 2 windows.

All in all, very satisfied with their support of the purchase. I certainly don't limit myself to shopping with them, but their ability to facilitate sales from their nationwide inventory is a real competitive advantage for someone like me who is usually looking for something very specific.

Just stay away from Vroom. We had the worst interaction with them. From our agent constantly changing or being unavailable to answer questions, to constantly changing delivery dates and the sketchiest of drop off and pick up.

SV reX said:

We are an odd bunch. In one thread we argue how much we want no-haggle pricing, and in another we complain what a pain no-haggle pricing is. 
 

Haha!

When I started this thread, yes, it probably comes across like I don't like them. That's actually not true; I was just pointing out how I thought they could improve their business model. Seriously.

I ended up buying the car we were looking for from a traditional dealer, and nothing has changed. I felt like I'd come away from a pro poker table at Vegas after thinking I'd be okay, the only difference being that I have no idea how much I'd been taken for.

No, I definitely think CarMax has a very viable business for selling cars, much more so than Carvana... we can start a separate thread for them, hah.

A few points of clarification:

Carmax will  never run an aged retail unit through their auction. They will just transfer it to a new market rather than throwing away the reconditioning costs. If it's in their local auction, it's because it didn't meet retail standards or was going to cost too much through the shop.

No one knows when a transfer car will land because they still use 3rd parties for inter state transfers. If a car hauler happened to be on that route already, you get your car earlier. If not, you wait. They're still subject to tire blowouts, car hauler breakdowns and accidents, like everyone else.

Instead of speculating how much money they make per car, look it  up. They're a publicly traded company (spoiler alert, it's a little over $2100).

Everyone's comments about Carmax being the "fast food" of the auto industry are spot on. The "sales" consultants are primarily there to keep you from stealing the car on the test drive and half heartedly sell you an extended warranty.

I would never pay to have a car transferred to another Carmax.  It's supposedly nonrefundable.  Previously  I wanted to look at a Focus ST that was in upstate NY, but had a history from Virginia.  Was a free transfer to the second closest carmax, closest was a fee.  

Took about 3 weeks and I got an e-mail, car has arrived.   I go to check it out and there is obvious crash damage in the front of the car.  Overspray on the headlights, runs in the hood, stone chips in the bumper just painted over.   I complain about the shoddy body work, they tell me Carfax is clean, take it or leave it.  I walked.  This was before pandemic pricing was even something to dream about.

I just think about how I would have had to eaten the cost to ship a misrepresented car

In reply to John Welsh :

Party up front, business out back. 

I sold them my truck almost a year ago. The online offer was way better than i was expecting and the process was generally very easy.  After they inspected my truck they came back with an offer to buy it for only 200$ under the online quote.  Cut me a check and i was on my way. 
i would do it again. 
 

edit: they gave me $16,600, online quote was 16,800. They had to fix a big dent in the tailgate, few other touchups.  I traded the truck in at the Daytona location and it popped up at the Gainesville location a week or so later for i think 22,000.  I wasnt mad about it.  
edit again, they listed it at almost 24k. I paid 24k for the truck like 6 years prior. 

Same here, with the entire process taking about an hour.

Carmax makes (made? before the market got soooooo goofy) more money per unit than ANY other dealer. Ever.     But hey they have nice blue shirts and warm fuzzy ads right?          I even bought one from them years ago. The next day I was looking at the car and noticed a spare set of keys hanging from a coat hanger on the bottom of the car. They were super crusty, and plainly evident if you even sort of looked.      So to me, that meant they never looked under the car.         Nice.