I have a lease that is ending soon. Carvana and Carmax have offered $23.5 and $24k in trade - based on my truthful answers to their lengthy condition questionnaires.
What experiences has you all had with these offers? Does the online offer value stick or do they play games and lower it when they see the car in person?
It's been a few years since I did it, but I sold two cars to them and it was smooth sailing both times.
Carmax did me solid on the online quote. After inspection, they were only $200 less than the online quote. I was expecting them to deduct more given a few of the vehicles needs.
Carmax won't beat you up too much, I've never dealt with Carvana.
The KBB instant cash offer however, is at the opposite end of the spectrum. It's solely designed to get you into a traditional dealership so they can point out all the flaws and offer you less
I helped a friend sell a car to Carvana and they were right on the money despite some flaws with the car. If you meet their requirements for what they're looking for they sure seem to want that car.
I have sold a few cars to carvana. They stuck to there online quote every time. I don't think they even looked at the car before cutting the check and loading it on the truck.
I've sold cars to both. Carvana is more convenient since they do home pickup and instant transfer to your bank account once the vehicle is picked up. The last few times Carmax had a much higher offer so I sold there, just had to wait a while for all of the inspections, paperwork, etc.
One thing I noticed at the business counter in Carmax a few weeks ago was a sign saying they would not purchase from certain lease holders. I don't recall which ones and if that was only specific to certain states. If that didnt come up during your online questionnaire, might be worth checking with the local Carmax before driving over if you wanted to go that route.
Don Fip said:One thing I noticed at the business counter in Carmax a few weeks ago was a sign saying they would not purchase from certain lease holders. I don't recall which ones and if that was only specific to certain states. If that didnt come up during your online questionnaire, might be worth checking with the local Carmax before driving over if you wanted to go that route.
AIUI there are certain leases that you can't sell the car in the middle of them. Tesla was one of these for a while.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
I think there are/were some leasing companies that would insist that only the person on the lease would be able to purchase the car at the pre-agreed price at the end of the lease, and they'd reprice cars if a third party was doing the buyout. I know that was introduced during Covid, and if that's still the case now that prices and values have normalized somewhat.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
It's still the same for a few manufacturers. They wouldn't "insist" it's how lease contracts are written. They just started to enforce it.
Another Carmax approval - no deduction from the online sight-unseen offer. I was at the end of an Acura lease in covid-crazy 2021, their offer was $3k over the lease buyout. Perhaps I contributed to the current policy LOL
They'll probably honor their online quotes because they're usually quite low compared to shopping your vehicle around to different buyers yourself.
I also know Carmax owns Edmunds and that Edmunds relies on sales data they get from Carmax to determine their market value estimates which doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence after reading a case study on Edmunds pricing. In the end, you pay for the convenience they offer you, but you'll likely get a better offer if you do more research on pricing yourself.
I sold a vehicle to Carvana last year and it was super easy. Filled out all the info online and got my quote, they showed up looked at the truck took some pictures, drove it around the block and handed me a check with the exact amount.
Sold to Carmax twice, both times super easy and they honored their initial offer with no hassle.
I have also sold to Carmax two times. Fully honored both online offers 100%, no fuss, no muss.
If you're looking for the catch, I suspect it's that if you have something they don't really want for age/condition/whatever, then the offer will be well below what you can likely get in the market. As a half-curiosity while pondering options I punched in my 2016 Mini with 110k on the clock and they offered me something like $3500, which I expect is not far from of half local private party value. Maybe it's just that expected margin is a much bigger chunk of a cheaper car.
I know it sounds crazy, but it kinda sounds like they simply have pretty smooth buying and selling processes, and just avoid stuff that's not going to fit those processes.
I sold a MB lease to Carvana last year and the process was 100% painless, MB allows 3rd party buy outs, not every brand does. We have a Carvana site not far from us I took it there, they took several pictures and we were on the road in time to have an unplanned sit down dinner before continuing our plans for the evening (i.e. it was in/out in a matter of minutes) and they wired the difference between the payoff and the offer to me in a matter of 48 hours. I'm hoping in 2 years when my latest BMW lease is up i can do the same again.
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