Carmax no haggle?

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:43 pm

Stacy King wrote:

It's been a looooong time since I've done anything with Carmax, but I always thought that's exactly what Carmax did... didn't matter at all what you were buying, they would pay a certain amount for your car... whether you were buying something or not.

Thing is... it's a "sure thing" deal... they WILL buy your car, no matter what... but the price they give you is it.

No, you're right on that. What he said was he traded in somewhere ELSE and got $6k more. Ie. from a traditional dealer. Sure, if the trade-in was at Carmax, then it's apples to apples.

--Donnie

Stacy King · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:44 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Stacy King wrote:

It's been a looooong time since I've done anything with Carmax, but I always thought that's exactly what Carmax did... didn't matter at all what you were buying, they would pay a certain amount for your car... whether you were buying something or not.

Thing is... it's a "sure thing" deal... they WILL buy your car, no matter what... but the price they give you is it.

No, you're right on that. What he said was he traded in somewhere ELSE and got $6k more. Ie. from a traditional dealer. Sure, if the trade-in was at Carmax, then it's apples to apples.

--Donnie

Gotcha... yeah, I was skimming lol

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:37 pm

Skimming?!

In my post I noted Carmax had offered $25k, and two hours after posting the car on a forum I had it sold to a dealer in Rock Hill for $30k. He had it on his lot for $34,900 within a few days.

Stacy King · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:49 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Skimming?!

In my post I noted Carmax had offered $25k, and two hours after posting the car on a forum I had it sold to a dealer in Rock Hill for $30k. He had it on his lot for $34,900 within a few days.

As in not reading very closely... Carmax lowballs when they purchase a car... has nothing at all to do with what you're getting ready to buy... or if you're buying anything from them at all. It's not based on any normal vehicle estimates as far as I know (no matter what they guy told you.) It's based on what they would sell the car for to maximize profit.... probably based on someone NOT buying something else at the same time.

Kevin Hoff · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:59 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Kevin Hoff wrote:

My experience with Carmax was similar to Chuck's. I had the first WRX with high-ish miles but obviously super clean. They offered me about $6k less than what I eventually got in trade-in for my wife's current Outback...

Is that really a fair comparison, though? Certainly some of that $6k was really a discount off MSRP, wouldn't you think?

I'm no Carmax lover, don't get me wrong. Just wondering if we're comparing apples to apples when you start talking about "trade-in" numbers versus "buy your car" numbers.

I've had a few cars appraised there and never sold them a single one. It's always been JUST low enough that it was worth it to me to sell it on my own. And I did better on the money, but not a ton and it was probably barely worth it. So if your threshold for pain is low, then they can be a reasonable option. I'm betting the more valuable the car, the worse the deal gets, though, and it's probably exponential. Why? Because few people go to Carmax looking for $25k+ vehicles. I'm betting a HUGE percentage of their sales are under that amount.

--Donnie

Yeah I wasn't very clear but it really doesn't matter - the end result was that, for me, Carmax lowballed amazingly low. I think they just didn't want to buy that car that week. Here's the (approximate, was a while back...) numbers:

2003 WRX 40k miles bought 10/02.
--10/04 Carmax quote ~9500
--11/04 Performance Subaru trade-in ~14500
(At that time very nice WRX's were selling from dealers for about $19.5. Strangely I only got one looker when I was trying to sell PP for about $15.5.)

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:25 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

When my wife's 2005 V70R was 11 months old, and we wanted to get out of it (due to so many problems with it), I took it to Carmax for their trade-in evaluation. The car had 16k miles, was essentially brand new inside and out, and had 2k mile old PS2s. No dents or scratches, garaged since new, essentially perfect. It listed for about $46k.

Chuck, I didn't know you had a V70R. I was considering one of these for my wife to daily drive now that we have a newborn. I can't really think of a better looking sport wagon than that of the R.

Marcus told me avoid a Volvo like the plague and it sounds like your experience was about the same. Problems on a car less than a year old? That's so wrong on so many levels!

I think I'll be steering back towards the Japanese sport wagon offerings.

As far as Carmax, I don't quite understand why ANYONE that does their shopping/research would buy or trade a vehicle with them. It seems they are just out to gouge folks on price even if their cars show up crystal clear on the Carfax.

I just like buying from a private seller to hear the car's history and try to get the real story behind how much abuse the car has seen.

-Matt

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:44 pm

Matt,

We didn't have one V70R. We had TWO.

We bought a new 2004 V70R in July 2003. The list of problems with that car was long, many of them common to all. It did end up with a boost problem in the fall of 2004 that Volvo couldn't fix. They sent two factory techs down, two different times, and both failed to remedy the problem. After it was in the shop for 1 week it had already exceeded the lemon law requirements based on all repair time the prior 15 months. We waited another 2 weeks and still no fix.

Hence Volvo came forward with an offer for us to sell the car at wholesale to the dealer and they would sell us a brand new 2005 model at dealer cost minus $8500. In net we were out about $4k on the 2004 after driving it for 18k miles.

We ordered the 05 model, but this time we ordered the 6spd manual (the auto tranny version was a disaster in many ways -- Volvo limits the torque output substantially, limits max rpms in 3rd gear and higher to less than peak HP rpm, etc, not to mention it was impossible to drive smoothly due to horrid throttle-by-wire programming). The 6MT wagon was a blast to drive when it was running properly, well, blast until design problems reared their ugly head. Some here may remember me bringing it to VIR a few times back in 2005.

I won't continue the list in this thread hijack, but the 2005 was back at the dealer at 800 miles with the climate control system dead (bad electronic module...ok, early life failure, no problem), and that was just the start of yet another round of issues month after month.

Oh, did I mention the fuel pump failure that stranded my wife on the road? I don't think she's ever been as mad at a car as that day, and I don't blame her.

Call me if you want to discuss more. There are design issues too that you might find less than desirable.

Chuck

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Wed Nov 04, 2009 6:15 pm

Here's a clip from VIR back then.

http://www.tradebotics.com/V70R/VIR%20Grand/MVI_8201.AVI

clinehall · **Posted:** Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:37 am

Steve, if I could afford the car I couldn't afford the gold chains. We have had this discussion repeatedly. anyway, I've already got paddle shifters on this mini. It does make it fun to drive.

Sean, I have heard that you are a wonderful and generous person. If I decide to go this route I will let you know if all the pretty young ladies who have made the same offer back out.

Everybody else. Well I went to carmax. There system is very effecient, with the exception of vasoline. I guess if they are guaranteeing to buy your car they have to be conservative since it is not a bargaining chip to get ride of a car they have had on the lot for a while. I was prepared for a hit but not that much of one. They were 3k less than I though a reasonable theft would be.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:53 am

clinehall wrote:

Steve, if I could afford the car I couldn't afford the gold chains. We have had this discussion repeatedly. anyway, I've already got paddle shifters on this mini. It does make it fun to drive.

Sean, I have heard that you are a wonderful and generous person. If I decide to go this route I will let you know if all the pretty young ladies who have made the same offer back out.

Everybody else. Well I went to carmax. There system is very effecient, with the exception of vasoline. I guess if they are guaranteeing to buy your car they have to be conservative since it is not a bargaining chip to get ride of a car they have had on the lot for a while. I was prepared for a hit but not that much of one. They were 3k less than I though a reasonable theft would be.

Seinfeld disposal then?

Judi Westerfield · **Posted:** Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:05 am

clinehall wrote:

Everybody else. Well I went to carmax. There system is very effecient, with the exception of vasoline. I guess if they are guaranteeing to buy your car they have to be conservative since it is not a bargaining chip to get ride of a car they have had on the lot for a while. I was prepared for a hit but not that much of one. They were 3k less than I though a reasonable theft would be.

Sorry no one warned you to carry a vat of vasoline with you when you went.

Stephen and I were able to get about $2K more than Carmax was offering going directly to the dealer and asking if they wanted to buy a truck we had for sale a few years ago. Not sure with the current economy if they would be as willing to buy a car without you buying something else.

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:31 am

Carmax is simply another option. I actually had a Chevrolet dealer tell me to take the truck over to Carmax, because they might be higher than the trade-in. They weren't.

I have used Carmax to get a bottom line on what the vehicle is worth. Yes, I had hoped I could get lucky, but it has never worked out.

And as Donnie mentioned, usually that $2000 difference between what CM will give you and the trade-in is factored into your final purchase price :-)

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