Never beat yourself up over where to buy a used vehicle from. ALL places that sell cars are in it to make money from you, and they do. Regardless of your friends or any opinion that you read online, the dealers always come out on top. Also a positive or negative experience can be had anywhere.

My only advice, is to buy from somewhere reputable, not some little dealer that buy their vehicles from an auction.

I think Carmax buys some of its vehicles from auctions, but at least they stand by them and have a very good return policy.

You'll really be overpaying with carvana, less so with carmax, but still a rip off.

I would get a pre-purchase inspection wherever you go. Should be easy to do if CarMax lets you take the car for 24 hours.

Just bought with hertz rent to buy. Good experience and straight forward.

as mentioned by a prior respondent, ALWAYS get an inspection (preferably at a dealer who sells the brand you are buying). This costs you a little money and time, but the risk of a major problem with the car shortly after buying it is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced. A better option is a certified car (a true certified car can only be offered from a dealer). It costs a little more, but much less risk than Carvana or Carmax.

Have used Carmax to buy cars multiple times and have had very good experiences. Had to do a return of one car and they honored their return policy entirely and gave us all our money back. I really like that unlike a dealership the employees have no real vested interest in selling you a particular car and you can easily see what you will be paying for a variety of different models, mileages and ages to compare. At a dealership you often have less selection and never know what the real price will be until after you "haggle".

For the specific make/model/year/trim I was looking for this summer (slightly used 2023 car), carmax cost more than dealerships, so I ended up buying from a dealership. Intended to sell to carmax, but the dealer matched the carmax tradein online estimate.

I used Carvana in 2019. The buying part was easy. The customer service afterwards was terrible. They messed up my tags. It took months and hours on the phone , literally hours, I’m not exaggerating, for them to fix it.
I would not use them again or recommend based on that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carmax also gave us top dollar on our trade ins.

Us too. Carmax gave us 25% more than the dealer or Carvana offered. No idea how they could have sold it for more but I assume they did.

Dealer offered me 100 for my (old) trade in. Carmax offered me 1000. We compared Carmax to Carnava and found Carmax to be better.

I've sold two cars to Carmax and had a positive experience.

I sold my car to Carvana and did not have an issue but others have complained that the company did not complete the necessary paperwork for title transfer, leaving the new owners unable to register their cars and the old owners on the hook for tickets occurring after they sold their cars. I would not sell or buy a car from them.

Anonymous wrote:IMO, you always overpay with Carmax, and especially Carvana, all else being equal.

You always overpay with ALL dealerships that you buy a car from. Buyers feel good when they go to a regular dealership and knock off a few bucks but the dealership isn't stupid. They tack on a few extra thousand just so a buyer can feel good by knocking off the few thousand.

So .....
I have been stalking dealers, carmax, cargurus, carvana, autonation for a few months looking for a specific make, model, trim year (range) and target miles range.

In the end, Carmax was the best deal!
A Dealer in MD was a close 2nd for out the door price.
Dealer in VA and Carvana were really close 3rd /4th.
I have purchased new cars from dealers and they drag it out so it becomes an all day experience. Not my experience at Carmax at all!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carmax also gave us top dollar on our trade ins.

Us too. Carmax gave us 25% more than the dealer or Carvana offered. No idea how they could have sold it for more but I assume they did.

Dealer offered me 100 for my (old) trade in. Carmax offered me 1000. We compared Carmax to Carnava and found Carmax to be better.

Anonymous wrote:IMO, you always overpay with Carmax, and especially Carvana, all else being equal.

This.

Anonymous wrote:Carmax also gave us top dollar on our trade ins.

Us too. Carmax gave us 25% more than the dealer or Carvana offered. No idea how they could have sold it for more but I assume they did.