I think Carmax owes its success to the awfulness of the rest of the car selling industry. Are the prices the lowest available? Almost certainly not. Look at the website: that's the inventory - that's the price.

I know many of you are expert negotiators and know all about cars: Carmax is not for you. One the other hand, some of us have wasted countless hours at car dealerships trying to buy a car for a good price and still ended up knowing we got taken. There are enough of us to keep Carmax in business.

Idk my husband and I both sold our older cars to CarMax several yrs ago and got KBB for them. My car in particular also need 3k worth of work per 2 different mechanics and they offered me 5k (which again was KBB). Took the money and ran. Bought newer car elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:I tried to sell my car to Car max and they low balled -- really low. I posted it on Craig's list with asking price doubling their offer and it was sold in 1 hour.

Not sure how they make their money - they are not even close to reasonable.

CarMax make its money by lowballing people who sell their cars to CarMax and selling them at “pretty steep” prices to people who prefer to pay more for a “no-haggle” approach. Not sure why this is a mystery.

Anonymous wrote:I tried to sell my car to Car max and they low balled -- really low. I posted it on Craig's list with asking price doubling their offer and it was sold in 1 hour.

Not sure how they make their money - they are not even close to reasonable.

That's because they'll offer you the same price they would have to pay to get the same car (w/same age/condition) at wholesale auctions.......but of course, if sell your car via craigslist (retail), you'll fetch more $$$

I tried to sell my car to Car max and they low balled -- really low. I posted it on Craig's list with asking price doubling their offer and it was sold in 1 hour.

Not sure how they make their money - they are not even close to reasonable.

You sell your car to carmax and buy from somewhere else. Im buying a mew used car next month. Im going to take my 2007 Honda Pilot and they will tell me they will pay me X for it. This price is good for 7 days. Then i will go to a Honda dealer to look at crv's. They will ask if im trading in my Pilot. I will say no unless u give me X for it. But prior to this i will have haggled my way to the lowest price on the crv.

Yes, prices on CarMax are a bit steep. For better pricing do this:
- locate a CarMax store
- find car dealers in the immediate vicinity of the carmax store
- look at their inventory of used cars

See, if car dealers are too close to CarMax (as is the case with the Dulles Carmax store), CarMax gets all the love from used car buyers and in order to be competitive, very nearby car dealers have to price their used car well below in order to compete w/CarMax. We picked up a 2010 Honda from a Honda dealer (in Dulles), one previous owner, all service records, for approx $3000 less than almost exactly the same car (but with higher mileage) at the Dulles CarMax store.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought 2 cars from carmax at separate times. Best buying experience ever. We did all our research online, ordered the cars we needed. They had the cars ready when we came in. We were in and out in less than 2 hours.

But did you get the best price?

DP but we had the used 4Runner we wanted shipped from New England and had a good experience. The price was Bluebook.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought 2 cars from carmax at separate times. Best buying experience ever. We did all our research online, ordered the cars we needed. They had the cars ready when we came in. We were in and out in less than 2 hours.

But did you get the best price?

Of course not.

Anonymous wrote:We bought 2 cars from carmax at separate times. Best buying experience ever. We did all our research online, ordered the cars we needed. They had the cars ready when we came in. We were in and out in less than 2 hours.

But did you get the best price?

We bought 2 cars from carmax at separate times. Best buying experience ever. We did all our research online, ordered the cars we needed. They had the cars ready when we came in. We were in and out in less than 2 hours.

If they are charging over MSRP then that’s completely absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw a new Toyota listed for 2K more than MSRP. We are planning to shop used, but if there's really no wiggle room re prices, maybe not.

no haggle means, by definition, they are getting the price they want and you are paying the price they want. never buy from CarMax unless money is no object.

Thanks. We are mainly going to "test-sit," since all the vehicles are unlocked so it's a great way to get inside many vehicles on one trip. But yeah, probably better to buy elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:Saw a new Toyota listed for 2K more than MSRP. We are planning to shop used, but if there's really no wiggle room re prices, maybe not.

no haggle means, by definition, they are getting the price they want and you are paying the price they want. never buy from CarMax unless money is no object.

Saw a new Toyota listed for 2K more than MSRP. We are planning to shop used, but if there's really no wiggle room re prices, maybe not.