[HotTea69]

Hello all,

Just wondering if any would be able to share your experiences with CARMAX. I am planning to sell my 2011 Honda Pilot and don't want the hassles of private sale. I hear that their appraisals are usually higher than your average dealership but the nearest CARMAX to me is about 2 hours away.

If you could share your experience - the process, appraisal, was it smooth quick and easy like advertised, overall satisfactions, any dislikes.

Just overall experience you had if you chose to deal with CARMAX.

Thank you for any inputs.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by HotTea69

Hello all,

Just wondering if any would be able to share your experiences with CARMAX. I am planning to sell my 2011 Honda Pilot and don't want the hassles of private sale. I hear that their appraisals are usually higher than your average dealership but the nearest CARMAX to me is about 2 hours away.

If you could share your experience - the process, appraisal, was it smooth quick and easy like advertised, overall satisfactions, any dislikes.

Just overall experience you had if you chose to deal with CARMAX.

Thank you for any inputs.

Since you're 2 hours away I would call them to get a ballpark number over the phone. I traded my Allroad to a BMW dealer and he never saw the car before we struck a deal. We agreed that if "significantly different than as described" we could revisit price. If their best case offer isn't compelling to you save the hassle of the drive.

Also if getting a new car speak with salesman at that dealership there is a way to link carmax sale to your purchase to avoid taxes.

[PTMedg]

My GF sold her 07 Acura TSX through carmax, very easy process. you can make an appointment, but we just stopped in as there is a location not too far from us. Most dealers were offering her around $4-4.5k trade in, car max gave her $5.5k so she went that route. the whole process took about 30-45min they drive/inspect the car, make you an offer which is good for 7 days. hope this helps

[W///]

Sold my E46 328i sedan to them years ago. Offer was lower than what most cars were going for, but I absolutely didn't want to deal with private sale and was OK losing $1-1500 just to get it over with.

Very painless though

[Fahrvergnügen]

From my research, Carmax is usually better for more run-of-the-mill cars since that is what a lot of their customers are looking for. When I got my M4 quoted there, it was $6k-$7k less than what BMW dealers were willing to give for a trade-in. BMW dealers are better at selling the M4, have the client based that might be interested and can CPO it.

[zx10guy]

I would check into other car buying services. I used We Buy Any Car when I sold my 94 Z28. They gave me a ball park number on what they could offer for my car over the phone. Scheduled an appointment. I was there maybe an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish and walked out with a check $1100 more than what CarMax offered me.

[instantexpert]

I've always received better offers at the dealership I'm trading in to than I did at Carmax.

On top of that, Illinois only charges you on tax for the difference in between trade-in value and purchase price. That can be extra thousands in value on top of the trade in!

[HotTea69]

Thank you all for the different options you have all provided. I will call around and see who will work best for me.

[Bubes29]

I have never gotten a fair asking price from a CarMax dealer. Everything is always at least $1k below what a trading dealer has offered me. Granted, I have tried to sell sporty/performance cars that aren't Camaro/Mustang/Challenger which seem to be the only "performance" cars they move with a high frequency.

Generally speaking, I think they tend to offer well below what a dealer will. I have left the CarMax lot feeling slighted and offended several times.

[Joe240]

Sold my 2006 2WD quad cab Dakota v6 with 130k miles to them 3 years ago (Illinois) because I was PCSing to Germany. I was expecting like 3-4k and I'd have to pay the difference, but they paid off the loan and that was all (5k). With that kind of mileage in a northern state and only being 2wd, I was surprised. Although, I kept the truck in great condition inside and out so I'm assuming that's why they offered what they did.

As others have already said, average vehicles you'll get more for. Your Honda Pilot should be in the "average vehicles" category so I don't see why you wouldn't get a decent price.

[Irishsig]

I used Carmax a year ago for the convenience.
I didn't feel like dealing with a bunch of tire kickers coming to my house.
I had a 06' G35 6MT coupe in great condition with 96k miles on it.
KBB was 6k-8.5k. They cut me a check for $7k. Pretty fair in my estimate.
It was well worth it to me for the hassle free experience.

[jeff113]

I used CarMax to sell my Subaru WRX shortly after I purchased my 335. The BMW dealership offered me only 8k. I took the car to CarMax and was offered 10k. The employee remarked that the leather steering wheel was starting to rip and $1000 was deducted from the offer price for that alone. Based on this comment, I felt like I could get a higher price elsewhere.

I ended up selling the car on Craigslist for 12k. If you're in a hurry, CarMax definitely seems like the way to go. You could also try private sales and see how much interest you get. Isn't the CarMax offer good for 10 days?

[Beartato]

When I was selling my old Golf, CarMax gave me $500 more than the dealer was offering for trade in, but the tax savings trading it in made up for the difference. I wouldn't hesitate to go back there though, pretty smooth operation.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by Beartato

When I was selling my old Golf, CarMax gave me $500 more than the dealer was offering for trade in, but the tax savings trading it in made up for the difference. I wouldn't hesitate to go back there though, pretty smooth operation.

Just for future reference if you connect Carmax and your dealer when buying a new car you can get the Carmax better price and still get the tax savings. They can link the deals for you.

[Alfisti]

What are the "hassles" with a private sale? List it, vette the requests and sell it.

I've never had issues.

[saeyedoc]

I too won't deal with private party sales. I often use CarMax to get a good idea of what my car is worth on trade, especially when buying out of the area.

[Beartato]

Originally Posted by BEM-S4

Just for future reference if you connect Carmax and your dealer when buying a new car you can get the Carmax better price and still get the tax savings. They can link the deals for you.

Oh heck, that's good to know. I'll pursue that next time I'm in that scenario.

[9krpmrx8]

It's a rip off, I got a quote on a company owned Honda Civic I was not using and the local Honda dealer gave me blue book, Carmax was $2500.00 under and this car was immaculate with every service record.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by Beartato

Oh heck, that's good to know. I'll pursue that next time I'm in that scenario.

Worth looking into. I'm not 100% on the tax laws in every state but most that I'm familiar with work this way. Utah for example where you are no idea what kind of tax laws the mormons came up with but assuming like most other places it should work that way.

[Viffermike]

A general set of rules, if your car is clean:
- A dealer that sells the same make of car you're trying to trade in is probably going to offer you the best price for it. This is particularly the case with cars less than four years old because a same-make dealer will try to CPO it and increase its profit margin.
- A deal that sells a competing make and model of the car you're trying to trade in will likely give the second-best trade-in value. This is because shoppers looking for a specific new or CPO car will be able to shop a competitor without having to leave that lot -- but that dealer will still make money if either car sells. This is why the BMW dealer offered crap trade-in value for a Subaru WRX in a post above. BMW customers rarely have an interest in a Subaru.
- CarMax is competitive for three reasons: 1). It owns many new-car dealerships across the country, so it can offload what tends not to sell at CarMax locations to some of those dealerships. 2). It offers a relatively seamless process that's worth less consumer value to some, as demonstrated above. 3). The tax-difference factor, which it can achieve largely because of reason 1). above.
- The demographics of the typical CarMax buying customer is very bland: lower to middle class, family-oriented, and not car-savvy to the point of fearing the buying process. Luxury makes, sports cars, specialty vehicles, etc. don't sell well there because those types of customers aren't typically shopping at CarMax.

In light of all of that, your Honda Pilot is a good candidate for a good CarMax offer, except that (as another poster indicated) it's a little old. You likely get a good offer on it only if it has significantly fewer miles than it should. If it doesn't, I would either try a Honda dealership or sell it privately.

[Chihuahua]

I took two cars into my local Carmax on two separate occasions and got ridiculously low-balled both times. The cars were a low mileage '04 MINI I took there in '09, and a super clean '07 Honda Fit that I took there in 2011. I got the impression that they prey on people who are in a financial bind and will sell the car to the first bidder. Others seem to have better experiences so it could just be this Carmax store that's closest to me. The cars are grossly overpriced at this one too.

[ODU135]

I think it really boils down to if it's a generic car or an enthusiast car/performance car. I have used carmax both for enthusiast cars and generic cars, and it's been pretty fair for appraisals on generic cars yet hideous on enthusiast cars.

for example, my family has sold 2 generic cars to them, a 2006 chevy malibu with highest trim and only 40K miles, and a 2012 Honda element. Both automatic. Each time they got the KBB retail price or even slightly over with the malibu.

Enthusiast wise, I took a highly modified Mazda speed3 to them just for fun and it was hilarious. It was a 2008 I believe, 66K miles, had just about every mod you could think of including an upgraded turbo, megan racing coilovers, turbo timer, enkei rims, and was pushing nearly 350 WHP ... to the front wheels and they ended up offering me $4700 or something like that. this was 2 years ago so Im not sure how the car has depreciated now but at the time i was looking for about 10K. I sold it privately about 2 weeks later for 11.5K