buying from carmax?

has anybody had any experience buying from carmax? pros, cons? are their repair departments any good?

 

I got mine from Carmax. Can't haggle but it was priced well under blue book. Overall great and quick experience. Don't know about the service department.

 

I bought two cars from carmax, one last year and one two years prior. Took one back about three days after purchase for a full refund and got the trade back. Hassle free, like it never happened. Trades aren't competitive, but average. Purchase price was about average, but I didn't walk out all pissed off and aggravated like buying from a haggle dealership. We'd do it again.

 

i hear carmax buys a lot of used rental cars.... and we all know how people drive rental cars!

 

They do. Click the autochek link they have for each car and purchase a carfax before signing, well worth the $20.

 

car fox?

 

i bought a 99 yukon from them several years ago. Had it in for "warranty" repairs, rear end went out. I've never been so p.o'd at somebody in my life! The service writer and I constantly argued. Of course they said the repairs wouldn't be covered under warranty, because they found sand on the frame and in the u-joints. I had to get out my copy of the warranty and take it to him and show him where the repairs were in fact covered. Then he wanted to charge me $300 to tear it apart to see what the problem was. If the problem was deemed "non warranty" it was gonna cost close to $1500. Long story short, a couple of phone calls to the service manager, the problem was in fact covered under warranty...I felt they were just trying to get into my wallet. The service manager said "the service writer is new and wasn't familiar with the warranty policy" HA! BS!
But anyway, truck was fixed, but was never right. It spent several days in the shop getting the fix "fixed" but it was never right until I traded it in on my wife's car. So my experience with them was not good and definately turned me off in regards to Carmax service.
OH, and when we traded it in, they pulled a car fax on it. It had indeed been in a fender bender that was never disclosed to us. It showed up on the report. Shame on me for not doing that to begin with, but still felt dooped.

 

My wife bought her dream car from them in March. It was a used 07 but she always wanted this particular make, model, and color. She loved it.
Process was easy, and trade-in for her old 2001 was right on KBB.

When I started looking for my Tacoma I spent a lot of time in their inventory, ready to buy. They didn't have what I wanted, plus I ended up buying new.

I'm not sure if all carmax facilities are the same, but I would go back to where my wife got hers from. (Fayetteville, NC)

 

Like they drive their own car...

They also buy a lot of lease returns and "executive" cars. I'd imagine most of the cars under 25K are in that category since rental companies keep their cars much longer.

 

I see where you can also have a car moved from another facility to the one close to you...cost is really quite reasonable, depending on distance. I just wonder what would happen if you got it and didn't like it once delivered.

 

Was the Yukon no longer under the GM powertrain warranty? I'd have taken it to them way before the CarMax service dep't. Still, your experience with them sounds like a typical experience with any dealer service department trying to get warranty coverage.

I thought CarMax provided a carfax on the vehicle for free? Oh well...I don't put much weight on a carfax anyway. Lots of small accidents (like a fender-bender) never get reported to insurance.

 

I bought DSully72's 04 Taco through them...I like the way they work...Set up a subscription on the web looking for DC...found one that looked could...and between the car fax and the 30+ photos available I was able to comfortably decide to pay 250 to ship it up here for closer look. Vehicle was as clean as advertised....paid less than KBB retail for it...

 

They give you 30 days no-hassle return, but I guess you have to pay for the x-fer of the vehicle. We wanted to see the car before making any kind of commitment, so a 70 minute drive wasn't too bad. We had lunch up there

 

My wife and I bought a 2003 Montero Sport from them back in 2006. It was in pretty nice shape and fairly low miles. The carfax was clean with no accidents recorded. When looking at it I commented to the sales guy that the tires looked kinda small. He told me they had put brand new tires on it and they were nice Michelin tires.
Once I got home I looked in the drivers door and lo and behold they had put the wrong size tires on it. It had 225/70/16s it should've had 255/70/16s according to the sticker on the door. I took it back and said fix it. They couldn't figure out what I was talking about they said no, all the tires are the same size. I told them duh they are the same size but the wrong size. I had to show them. Then they replaced the tires with some generic pieces of crap that lasted like 20,000 miles.
By then we were trading it in for something less of a gas guzzler and when we traded it in the Honda dealer we traded it to showed us the carfax. It was a fleet vehicle with two fender benders had appeared on the carfax from before we bought the car but hadn't been posted till after we bought it. Wasn't too happy about that. Especially since they talk about how they won't sell you a wrecked vehicle.

 

Ha thats a crock..while most of their cars haven't been wrecked I have seen some that have been. I remember going with my buddy when he was looking for a prelude a long time ago, they had one on the lot with the badges in the wrong spot and there was still buffing compound on the edges around the tail lights and trunk lid. Of course the saleswoman looked at me like a deer in headlights when I told her the car had been wrecked and proceeded to argue with me about it.

My parents have bought a few cars from carmax over the years. They bought an expedition from them years ago that had to be shipped down from TN, they swore up and down it had never been smoked in, we get the car down here in GA and it reeks of smoke, carmax swapped out the interior with leather free of charge. It took away most of the smell but there was still a faint smell of smoke..especially in the headliner right near the driver's side window.

 

No, yukon had 42k on it. We bought it in 2003, So it was outside the gm warranty. They never showed us an actually carfax. We didn't know about the wreck until 2006 when we traded the yukon in. Like you said, it was a fender bender. but makes me curious why the other dealer found it and carmax didn't mention it. hmmm