Carmax - or NOT?

gotta say, if i was in the market for a used tacoma, in 'kill-me-in-my-sleep-boring' black/silver/white, absolutely nothing you've posted so far is enough to sway me off this truck yet.

honestly, the fact that it might've been a fleet vehicle is more disturbing than the presented visual issues.

 

I see dust/dirt and then a battery that leaked some acid…

why are we getting so salty?

 

The truck is probably fine but IMO stay away from CarMax unless you want to overpay.

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Do a vin check on any used Tacoma at any dealership in California and you will most likely see that they purchased it from another state and had it shipped in. Tacomas sell for a lot more on the west coast than they do in the rest of the country so it is profitable for them to do this. If you have the time try to broaden your search. I found my truck at a dealership in Tennessee and drove it home. I wanted a Lunar Rock DCLB TRD Off-Road and it was actually the closest one I could find at the time. I paid 10k less than I would have for a similar truck in California.

 

As far as CarMax goes I was never going to pay their prices but they were my favorite place to do test drives. The dealerships always wanted to ride with and tell me to go a certain route. At CarMax they just gave me the keys and told me how long I could be gone. It really helped me to figure out exactly what I wanted.

 

Clean truck. No salt. Has a battery that is currently leaking sulfuric acid.
They'll drop in a new battery for you.

 

That looks about like what my truck looked like after it's first drive on Ontario roads.

 

That is a major part of the point that I am making. The vehicle I posted looks better in pics... I bought a used vehicle (not from CarMax) that met MY standards. You are 100% correct in Tacos being transported to CA, the used market is FLOODED with them!

 

I would actually say the used market for lowish mileage 3rd gens is drying up a bit at the moment. Especially if you want something more rare like a long bed or manual transmission they are getting much harder to find.

 

You think Oklahoma, which is at the same latitude as New Mexico and Tennessee, heavily salt their roads?

This is road salt for reference:



The only thing rusty in the pictures you posted is the battery hold-down, probably from the OEM battery acid leaking out of the vents.

 

Body panels and frames don’t stand much of a chance without proper protection.

 

Picked mine up from Carmax. They purchased it from a dealer just off a three year lease. So clean I could eat off it. You do pay more. With that said, the transaction is buttery smooth and zero BS. Is it worth it? To some, yes. Just don't finance through them.

 

I thought the same thing until I compared interest rates. Carmax had the best interest rates I could find, even beating out my credit union... was very surprised by this.

 

Hey! what's wrong with fat chicks ?

 

Yeah I got mine from Carmax as well - it came down to NC from VA - just under 14K miles - clean.
What surprised me about those pics was that Carmax had not detailed the truck better.
Mine looked like a new truck so I know for example they had to have pressure washed the engine bay maybe a new battery or at least cleaned the terminals and brackets stuff like that. The only thing they missed was they didn't notice that the previous owner left a VISA card in the glove box.
I cleaned (pressure washed) up my engine bay after a season of trail riding and it looked better than those pics.
The other thing the price is way off - that's only a couple of grand less than I paid for a 22 Off Road with the Technology package with ~14K miles.

 

OP gone!

 

OK the OP is gone . . . . but how about the fat chicks comment - what's up with that ?

 

Honestly I somewhat prefer the dirty truck. The Honda dealership I bought my truck from did an amazing job of cleaning it and covering up every scratch. Of course they didnt actually fix the scratches so after a couple washes all the goop they used was gone and the scratches I didn't see at first showed. Don't really mind any of them just would rather buy from.the dealership that doesnt put in as much effort to deceive me.

 

Bought my 2021 TRD Offroad at Va Bch Carmax no issues and my daughter bought a 2018 Jeep Cherokee only have had to replace battery. Pleased with their vehicles.