Dealer vs Carmax for Used Car

[Anonymous]

Can anyone speak from experience as to where to get the better pricing? I know Carmax is fixed, whereas a dealer may have a little more flexibility. I don't necessarily care about pre-certified -- I'm planning to take the car to my mechanic for a look.

[Anonymous]

I find the dealers so annoying to deal with, I prefer Carmax as their pricing is upfront and you don't have to haggle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone speak from experience as to where to get the better pricing? I know Carmax is fixed, whereas a dealer may have a little more flexibility. I don't necessarily care about pre-certified -- I'm planning to take the car to my mechanic for a look.

I went to Carmax a few weeks ago to get a car appraised. I took a test drive while I waited. The salesman couldn't get the gate to open, said it had something to do with the vehicle we were in. So he dropped me off out front and told me to wait while he got a different vehicle. Same model, different trim level. So I couldn't even test drive the car I was interested in. Anyway, I would never buy from Carmax. Their prices are high, sometimes exorbitantly so. I understand people not wanting to haggle, but I sort of enjoy the haggling. I enjoy saving money, too.

[Anonymous]

I have loved every interaction we've ever had with Carmax. We were able to test drive multiple makes and models. Multiple dealers tried to scam us with hidden fees even after using USAA's special pricing feature. Carmax also gave us by far the best deal on trade in. I'm never buying another car elsewhere. They are the hands down best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have loved every interaction we've ever had with Carmax. We were able to test drive multiple makes and models. Multiple dealers tried to scam us with hidden fees even after using USAA's special pricing feature. Carmax also gave us by far the best deal on trade in. I'm never buying another car elsewhere. They are the hands down best.

+1, by $1000+ for my car

[Anonymous]

At Carmax, I got an offer that was $1,000 more than what I later was offered at the dealer. You can get the Carmax offer, which is good for one week, and take it with you when you go to the dealer. The dealer immediately matched the Carmax offer when they saw the paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have loved every interaction we've ever had with Carmax. We were able to test drive multiple makes and models. Multiple dealers tried to scam us with hidden fees even after using USAA's special pricing feature. Carmax also gave us by far the best deal on trade in. I'm never buying another car elsewhere. They are the hands down best.

+1, by $1000+ for my car

Vroom beat Carmax by about 4000 dollars on the offer for my car. $23,000 vs 19,000. Vroom came by and picked up my car from my house. I didn't even have to go anywhere.

Carmax is for suckers.

[Anonymous]

Op here - I'm not looking for who gives the better offer on my trade-in (I usually sell privately) -- I'm looking for who generally offers the better prices on used cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here - I'm not looking for who gives the better offer on my trade-in (I usually sell privately) -- I'm looking for who generally offers the better prices on used cars.

If your heart is set on a used car, an independent dealer will almost always offer lower prices. That said, I've found that you can get a superior deal on a superior used car from a *NEW* car dealership. When a used car is traded in, it is sorted into three categories by the dealership: the best quality cars are kept for their own lot, the next tier gets sent to their used car sister dealership. The others are hauled off to auction.

We once bought a nice MB C300 from a Mini dealership, and it was a very good purchase. The car was two years old and had only 6000 miles on it. Given its good condition, the Mini dealership sold it directly rather than send it to their used car dealership. They sold it at a very competitive price since presumably someone took a bath on it when they traded it in for a Mini.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here - I'm not looking for who gives the better offer on my trade-in (I usually sell privately) -- I'm looking for who generally offers the better prices on used cars.

If your heart is set on a used car, an independent dealer will almost always offer lower prices. That said, I've found that you can get a superior deal on a superior used car from a *NEW* car dealership. When a used car is traded in, it is sorted into three categories by the dealership: the best quality cars are kept for their own lot, the next tier gets sent to their used car sister dealership. The others are hauled off to auction.

We once bought a nice MB C300 from a Mini dealership, and it was a very good purchase. The car was two years old and had only 6000 miles on it. Given its good condition, the Mini dealership sold it directly rather than send it to their used car dealership. They sold it at a very competitive price since presumably someone took a bath on it when they traded it in for a Mini.

Op here again, thanks. A family member had a bad experience buying from an independent dealership, though stated as you did, that they offered a lower price. I'm more inclined to go to a *NEW* car dealership for my used car. With that said, does it matter whether the *NEW* car dealership sells the same make of car, e.g., buying a used Acura from an Audi dealership?

[Anonymous]

Carmax is always the most expensive price on the vehicles we look at, and I use them mostly to figure out exactly what I'm looking for.

Carmax gave us a stupid amount of money for the last car we traded in - such a stupid amount that I was going to say, "no, we don't need a new car, honey," but ended up paying for half the new-to-us one with the Carmax trade amount. (And, yes, as noted above, take your Carmax offer to the dealership so they match it.)

[Anonymous]

Car max resells cars. If you look at the car reports, it often shows they were previous rentals so just go to the rental agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here - I'm not looking for who gives the better offer on my trade-in (I usually sell privately) -- I'm looking for who generally offers the better prices on used cars.

If your heart is set on a used car, an independent dealer will almost always offer lower prices. That said, I've found that you can get a superior deal on a superior used car from a *NEW* car dealership. When a used car is traded in, it is sorted into three categories by the dealership: the best quality cars are kept for their own lot, the next tier gets sent to their used car sister dealership. The others are hauled off to auction.

We once bought a nice MB C300 from a Mini dealership, and it was a very good purchase. The car was two years old and had only 6000 miles on it. Given its good condition, the Mini dealership sold it directly rather than send it to their used car dealership. They sold it at a very competitive price since presumably someone took a bath on it when they traded it in for a Mini.

Op here again, thanks. A family member had a bad experience buying from an independent dealership, though stated as you did, that they offered a lower price. I'm more inclined to go to a *NEW* car dealership for my used car. With that said, does it matter whether the *NEW* car dealership sells the same make of car, e.g., buying a used Acura from an Audi dealership?

I would say not the same make, so that they are more looking to get rid of it than hold on to it. Also, they would not then turn a good car into Certified Pre Owned, which costs more. The C300 we bought with low miles would have no doubt been a CPO and cost thousands more.

[Anonymous]

If you aren't worried about getting the absolute lowest price and just don't want to haggle then you can compare prices at Carmax to Carvana.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you aren't worried about getting the absolute lowest price and just don't want to haggle then you can compare prices at Carmax to Carvana.

I don't understand this mentality. Haggling is, like, a few hours of work at most. AT MOST. It will save you *THOUSANDS* of dollars.