What is it like to buy a car from CarMax? Over the past decade, my wife and I have bought four cars from CarMax and related companies, while they also bought cars at CarMax. Our vehicles included a Chevy Cavalier, a Ford Explorer, a Toyota Camry, and a Toyota Highlander. All cars have less than 30,000 miles on their odometers. Our purchases are made in Georgia and Northern Virginia. Overall, we found the CarMax buying experience to be easy and open.
Even before you step onto the premises, the CarMax shopping experience is different. You can easily browse the entire CarMax inventory online at CarMax.com and get complete pictures, ratings, prices and options. Once you arrive at CarMax, you can’t just walk into the lot. CarMax lots are protected by a metal fence. To see the vehicles, you have to walk through the building. You are immediately greeted by a customer manager. But, unlike the dreaded sales pitch in conventional marketing, you can actually give them an easy brush. They simply wish you well in feeding them ll yours and you will know that they want to open any cars or you will take a test drive if you like.
Once you’re in the lot, you’ll find the cars neatly arranged by category and check it out. For example, in small cars, all small Hyundais are listed next to all Hondas. CarMax’s inventory is divided into two types of vehicles: CarMax cars and ValuMax cars. CarMax cars tend to be newer with fewer miles. ValuMax cars with higher mileage (60,000+ miles) are older (6 years or older). Inspections and warranties are different for the two types of cars. ValuMax cars generally cost less.
Each car has a uniform CarMax sticker in the window, with the main features of the car, and the non-negotiable price is fixed as the price to the lower Bluebook vehicle. The sticker is easy to read, but provides a basic description of the features. For example, the sticker might read AM/FM/CD stereo without revealing whether the car has the optional high-end stereo. system or special mono features.
Once you’ve chosen the cars you’re interested in, you can show them to the sales representative and they’ll have the keys to check them out or take a test drive. For each of our test drives, the sales manager guides us through a short test drive through a pre-arranged course. While the test drive seems reasonable enough, with our two purchases, the light and short test run concealed a couple of rattles or handling marks. A test drive experience is reasonable, but you really need to pay attention to the car and prove what you want the sales to represent.
While CarMax prides itself on selling carefully inspected used cars, you should still be on the lookout for defects in the vehicle. In one Mazda test a few years ago we found that the car’s engine had recently steamed and misfired due to moisture in the distributor or a loose spark plug . We decided to pass on that bus.
If you catch defects before the car leaves the lot, they may be repaired as part of the sale. On a recent Toyota purchase we picked up two minor paint scratches and were able to arrange them for CarMax. buffalo immediately after purchase.
After you have decided on the car, you will return to the office to close the deal. However, since the price is not negotiable and very reasonable, you should not threaten to walk on your heels or cool while the seller is selling the manager.” Also fight with the finance guy You don’t need to enter your loan information online and apply for loan offers from three banks. a> before shopping, negotiating a car loan is quite easy at CarMax.
The CarMax sales staff will offer you the option of purchasing an extended warranty, but you won’t get an answer. As a company of Circuit City, they also offer various auto-electronic upgrades. While these were prominently displayed, the staff never pointed them out to me. Of course, we bought sensible cars that didn’t need upgrades.
CarMax handles the car trade separately from the purchase process. You drop off your car with CarMax and have their technician inspect and offer it. While I have never traded in a car with CarMax, relatives who have traded in cars have found that they have received very fair offers for used vehicles.
Selecting a vehicle and completing the sales process can go very quickly at CarMax. However, in my experience, the staff can take a little time to run the car and deliver it so that you can drive it. When we bought our Toyota Highlander, it took about 30 minutes to complete the sales letter and it seemed like another 45 minutes until the car was ready to drive off. I think CarMax can speed up this time quite a bit by starting the deal prep as the first salesperson and the customer to start sitting on the sales documents. There is no reason that two processes cannot run simultaneously.
CarMax also has a small room for improvement in the service arena. If you find minor defects in your used vehicle, they will kindly undertake to repair the usage issues. For more complex problems, they often send vehicles to local brand new car dealers. We have often found that it has been more productive to establish our own business relationships with new local car dealers.
Overall, CarMax offers a simple, transparent, stress-free buying experience, backed by expert high-pressure sales skills and techniques. If you want an experience with no deals, no fuss, no fuss, and few hassles, I would highly recommend CarMax as an alternative to traditional new and used coaches.
