Comments on: CarMax’s Friendly Buying Experience

By: GirlInVirginia

GirlInVirginia — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:57:46 +0000

I had an excellent experience buying a car on a weekend at Dulles CarMax. It came with its own title (sorry rude Lisa), they have their own DMV on-site and even ran me a new registration after 9 p.m. on a Friday night—saving me a trip to the DMV and hours in line! They were courteous, patient, helpful and offered me a decent rate for a 2007—7.75%, which worked for my payment needs (could vary for others). I highly recommend Dulles CarMax, buying on a weekend and refinancing if need be (I bought on Friday and they give you three BUSINESS days, which they even said meant 9 p.m. on Tuesday night to get new financing if I wanted.) Excellent experience, friendly, knowledgeable people, and a terrific deal on an excellent car—I really can’t complain!

By: Djrobsd

Djrobsd — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:48:08 +0000

BUYER BEWARE: I looked at a used Lexus IS-250 at Carmax in January of this year. The car appeared to be fairly priced, but when I went to sit down with the sales rep and go through credit, my credit is excellent, and she gave me some ridiculous 9.9%APR. Sure, you have 3 days to get your own financing, but let’s get real, if you buy the car on a weekend, are you going to have financing within the 3 days? If you’re going to buy at Carmax, make sure you get your financing and have your check in hand before buying the car. My APR I got from another dealer was 6.9! In addition, they only wanted to give me $3000 for my 2003 Escape. I sold it private party for $8000, other dealers were offering me $5000 in trade. Carmax does not give you a fair price for your vehicle, period, so do not trade it in there. I wasn’t expecting to get $8000 from them, but $3000 was down right insulting.

Overall, I like the shopping experience there, low presssure, and you get to drive a TON of cars all under one roof rather then having to go to different dealers to try each brand of car you’re considering. However, just make sure you sell your car first and get your own financing and I think you will really have a hassle free experience.

By: Car Max Job Seeker

Car Max Job Seeker — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:27:40 +0000

Can anyone tell me about working for CarMax? How are they as an employer? And what about the training program? Can a part timer make any serious money?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:30:28 +0000

Gavin: This was written in 2005. Interest rates may have been different.

Also I might add that too many of my friends have bought cars from private party sales only to have them disappear as soon as the cash was in hand.

I cannot imagine that someone would buy a private party car and giving the other person money without the keys or title!

By: Gavin

Gavin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:15:32 +0000

Hey a 6.45% is actually the lowest going rate on a used car so it’s not “crappy”

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:18:09 +0000

To the person in VA that thought they walk out of the dealership with a title in hand, no dealership gives you the title idiot…The title is sent to you from the DMV after the dealership reassigns it!

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 08:19:25 +0000

Well, it is true that you will find cars on autotrader.com or other websites for cheaper sometimes….however, there is no warranty, guarantee, or reconditioning. My experience with carmax is that they fully recondition every car on their lot – which most people selling a car on the street never do. That peace of mind is worth a few extra bucks to me. A friend of mine used to work for them, and the best part is that sales associates and sales managers do not come up with the prices (most trad’l dlrships just price it for whatever will make them money) it all comes from analytical purchasing agents who know the market better than anybody. When I bought my Accord from Carmax, the other big thing I noticed was that almost every window sticker had a compare to KBB retail price of xxxxx which was always 4 or 5 grand higher than the carmax prices. I would only consider buying a used car from carmax!!

By: Mooha

Mooha — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:56:24 +0000

I just bought my 8th car from Carmax yesterday. I won’t buy a used car anywhere else. I have spend a month researching the car I want. I then check prices on the net, at local dealers ect……. Yes Private party sales on Auto trader are a little cheaper than carmax, but Local used car dealers have never been lower in price than carmax on comparable vehicles in my experiences. Other dealers are always 3000 – 5000 dollars more. I have never had any luck trying to get a used car dealer to come off a price by 3000. Maybe 500 – 1000. To me theres no sense in taking a chance buying a private party car. I will say this, for the first time ever yesterday, The car I chose came up with an accident on the car check report. Turned out it was a fender bump and it got repaired and repainted, They had an identical car on the lot with 3000 less miles at $1000 more sticker. It checked out ok so I went with the clean report for $1000 more. As far as I know they just claim not to sell cars with frame damage.

By: an employee

an employee — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:54:10 +0000

Parker keep in mind that you did indeed purchased a FORD FOCUS, a ongoing version of the Escort, there is a 5 day return policy, you can always have the vehicle inspected by your own personal mechanic, as far as hailstorm, as long as the vehicle was not sold or at least taken care of any defects then carmax will retail so long as the structural integrity of the vehicle is not altered. Plain and simple. Carmax does not advertise never been in hailstorm or other natural disasters, but mainly flood and frame damage.

By: George

George — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:33:08 +0000

I have purchased my 4th car from Carmax. Maybe you all have the time to go and play silly games with regular car dealers, but I don’t. Also I might add that too many of my friends have bought cars from private party sales only to have them disappear as soon as the cash was in hand. Also being ex-military, I have seen all sorts of scams pulled by regular car dealers on unsuppecting kids.

By: ME

ME — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:22:05 +0000

So send car max a fax…
301-483-3562

By: Parker

Parker — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:43:23 +0000

I HATE Carmax!!!! They sell you cars for Kelley Blue Book Retail (Which NO bank that I am aware of uses!!) and the claim of the cars being quality is BS!!! I bought a 05 Focus ZX3 from one of their Chicago locations. the cars HAS been is a Wreck!! It HAS been through a hailstorm!! And it has several Large burns in the Interior plus the interior is screwed up from the hail repair guys!! So, my attorney is preparing some Legal Paperwork for them..

By: Spike

Spike — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:13:47 +0000

I bought my jeep at CarMax in Dulles, VA. I can’t say it was a good experience.

They sold me the car but didn’t give me the title. It hadn’t occured to me that in the 40 different papers I signed to purchase the car, the title was not among them. That became a problem when I was trying to get a license plate. Turns out, CarMax didn’t even have the title. The title was in New York because it still had a lein on it or something.

When I asked “whats up with not giving me a title?” they responded, “Its legal to sell a car in Virginia without a title.” So A) thats pretty stupid on the State of Virginia’s part, and B) as for CarMax, it may be legal, but it just ain’t right.

I took about 4 months before I finally got a title…. I had to drive around on a succession of temporary tags up until then. For a no-hassle process, it sure was a hassle.

Anyway, if you are going to buy from CarMax, make darn sure the car comes with a title.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 31 May 2005 18:38:21 +0000

No way, $14k is NOT a good price for that car. In her research, she’s found that CarMax is more expensive than private party sales, Ebay sales, and most used car sales at a dealership. The only price CarMax seems to consistently beat are those cars that are “Certified Used” from dealerships (like Honda’s Certified Used car program, etc).

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 31 May 2005 16:50:06 +0000

So, do you feel that the $14K was a good price? How much is that same car at a traditional dealer? I suppose it would be lower than the dealer’s sticker price but higher than what you could negotiate the final price down for. But perhaps not…like you said, volume is key…so maybe the price is just as low as a dealer would go…that would be very interesting to find out.