Carmax offer--too good to be true

Try bringing it to another carmax also some people got offered more with vroom

 

I'm glad I bought my truck when I did.

Everything about the car market right now sounds insane. I've heard of new Ford Raptors selling for DOUBLE MSRP!!

 

Have you actually used Carmax? I've used them many times for a couple decades+ and I've waited about 30min. every time - they do an inspection of the vehicle and have an offer ready right then and there.

 

Try www.Autonation.com.

 

I have 2018 Audi S4 lease that I'm trying to get out of early. I went in last Wednesday (4/21), the car was appraised, and I got my offer. I told them I wanted to proceed, and they contacted Audi Financial Services to request the "dealer" payoff. 3 hours later and the fax hadn't arrived, so they said it may take a couple days and they would call me when the fax came in.

I called CarMax to follow up for a couple days and still no fax. They suggested I call Audi Financial Services myself to help expedite, which I did last Friday, and Audi said they would re-request the dealer payoff and I confirmed the CarMax fax number to send it to. More than a week later and still no fax.

I've sold a few cars to CarMax in the past, including a leased Audi, and I was usually in and out in about an hour. So like @Kairide said,
it seems to be more that the auto leasing companies are making things difficult for other dealers to buyout their leased cars early (profit/inventory) in this crazy market.

 

States are different in how they handle this. In CA, you are taxed on the principal monthly lease payment, not the entire price of the car.

 

Given that status of the car market, I would suspect that Audi wants that car back to re-sale themselves?

 

In NE you only pay tax on each payment at about a 5% rate...if payment is $400 a month, $20 in taxes is added on. This is definitely a favorable situation with leasing vs buying. However, if you buy it out you pay the tax immediately on the buyout price.

Well I agree with the above--I'm thinking they made an offer the manager realized they shouldn't have made and found a way to get out of it. (I wonder if they thought it was Pro instead of OR?) My truck is essentially flawless mechanically and cosmetically, so it had nothing to do with condition. It was a firm offer on paper after the inspection...if they had found a problem, they would have priced it lower.

As far as customer service...I don't buy the "we're too busy to deal with your situation" in any setting. Having to wait a bit is one thing, but poor communication is inexcusable.

 

My local Ford dealer had exactly 2 '21 F150's on the lot yesterday. Typically they would have 50-60. Interesting that Ford has a current incentive for people to special order a truck, at least in my region. I assume this is a move to help dealers keep inventory on their lots as I've SO'd 2 vehicles in the past and it is usually NOT a dealers preferred way to sell. Most much prefer you buy an in-stock unit. They are even offering a hefty discount on special orders....but you might not see the truck for 6-8 months due to chip shortage. Very interesting times indeed.

 

Yep, and especially since I only have another month left on my lease.

 

I bought out my lease early, in mid-2019, to secure new vehicle financing rates. Toyota was a piece of cake to work with, as was our bank. Honestly, it was harder to organize a time to meet up with my wife at the bank than anything else in the process. I never had to talk with my dealer at all.

 

Just FYI.. there's a shortage on most processors and is stopping manufacturing of new vehicles - been many news stories about this

 

I toyed with ditching my truck and poked around at replacement options. Called the local Honda dealer regarding a ridge line- they have one on the lot to test drive but all trucks they are scheduled to receive are spoken for at least 2-3 months out. I’ll be keeping my truck just because of the headache replacement seems like it would be.

 

Most increases in resale value at the moment will be offset on the higher cost of the new/replacement vehicle. Unless you find a really good deal on a used vehicle, its going to pretty much be a wash, unless you are fine paying full sticker price. Many articles about dealership owners being astounded that people are paying full sticker and that they are not discounting anything and in most cases they are tacking on a little.

Carmax and Carvana offered me a excellent resale price on my 2020 Tacoma, but the price of a replacement vehicle washes that out. It only makes sense to me if you were down grading to a cheaper car, (needed to get out of a loan). If your upside down in a vehicle it is however a good time to get out of that.

I am actually in the market for a 1 ton dually, the problem is that without any discounting from the big 3 I am not paying sticker price for any of those models when I know that I can save 15-20% with little to no haggling under normal circumstances. So I am going to hold, and wait for them to have a glut (which they will) and then buy the truck at the price it should be. The Tacoma should not depreciate too much while I wait...

 

I don't see how this really benefits Audi (or any manufacturer) unless they make it known up front that there's a benefit for turning in your vehicle and buying/leasing again from the same dealer. Otherwise in a month you just turn the car in and get what you really want, in fact less likely to lease from Audi if you perceive it's hard to get out of the lease.

I think some leases penalize you for early payoff, but that has not been the case with my leases.

I did a fair amount of research online, and this phenomenon of car companies preferring to deal with their own leases is certainly not discussed in the popular auto websites. Not saying it doesn't exist. But it would be more advantageous for the dealers to make a big deal out of it--a carrot and a stick to stay in the family.

 

I've leased 5 Audis in the past 10 years and I've never had an issue getting out of them early. I'd would just trade them in early for another leased Audi when the equity was near the market value of the car. I don't think any car manufacturer would penalize you for early payoff. If you buy out the car at the quote given, the car manufacturer is happy since they got paid just as if they sold it to you from the start.
The pandemic and now the microchip shortage though has changed the entire car market. Manufacturers want their vehicles back at the end of leases since new inventory is low and used market prices are high. Especially short term lease returns with low miles, they can CPO them and get more per vehicle. Basically car manufacturer dealerships are now competing with third party dealerships for their own cars.

 

Just sold the wife's '05 Rav4 with 140k miles to Carmax. Single owner, no wrecks, pretty clean shape. They offered $4100. online appraisal. We took it in and in 2 hours had a check for the full amount. No haggling, no low balling and they handled all the paperwork. Very pleased with them.

 

It's likely due to new and used car inventory shortages due to the pandemic.

In the past, I have found that my (personal) Audi payoff was pretty close to a "dealer" payoff. However, over the past 6-8 months, I've read that many Audi lessees were seeing "dealer" payoff quotes that were $2,000-$4,000+ higher compared to their personal payoff quotes. Audi has language written into their lease agreements where they can basically charge other dealers whatever they want.

For the past several months, I have been receiving mailers almost weekly from Audi and the dealership I leased from that I can get out of my lease early (skipping 3 remaining payments), cash incentives, waiving fees, similar lease payment, etc. if I turn the S4 in early to them. So if I really wanted to get into another Audi lease, they likely know that I would have already done so.

 

Vroom offered me $39,060 for my 2020 DCSB 6 speed manual with 27,000 miles on it.

After Ford's earnings call yesterday and their outlook of 50% reduction in production for Q2 due to the chip shortages I am holding out.

Might be offered $50k in a couple months.

 

Thanks, I think I mentioned in my post about the computer chip shortage. I only brought-up the subject because Ford is currently offering an incentive for Special Orders....which I have never seen before. Salesman said that Ford is doing it to help dealers keep sales, since inventories are so low, they can offer customers extra $ off for a Special Order rather than them just going to the next dealer. Not looking to debate anything, just passing-on interesting info in this kooky time.