Here's why you should take your car to Carmax

Even lower

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lol holy crap even lower hahahaha

Why I’m not surprised? Maybe because I tried Carmax 4 times, I think. 2 Volvos and VW CC - understandable low offers, but even for the low mileage Forester Touring they offered me less than KBB/Edmunds trade in.

$8,000. Eight thousand measly f*cking dollars on a car that three private parties bid 14k or more.

Some more detail / their supposed rationale: This was in October and they said it’s due to it being a RWD sedan ahead of the winter…umm, (A) RWD is actually a desirable trait in a sports sedan, and (B) Carmax is one of the few chains that can actually take advantage of regional pricing differences by inexpensively shipping the car to one of their stores further south…not even that far, from their store outside Philly PA to southern VA or northern NC.

Essentially it appears they wanted 3 grand (or more) profit just to send the car to auction.

So here’s why you should take your car to Carmax: to tell them to go fornicate with themselves.

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Lol. lol lol lol lol yeah 20 chars

That doesn’t surprise me in the least after my experience with Carmax last month. I took in a Kia Soul that they were selling for more than 15k for a similar equipped and they quoted my 11k. Still can’t believe what a rip that was.

I appreciate that it gives you a “starting point” for negotiation at the dealership, but it really seems pretty pointless.

That spread is probably typical. It’s what pays the salaries and keeps the lights on. I would have expected to be offered 12+ for a car they can sell for 16+.

8 was a joke (or would have been if it wasn’t such a waste of time).

yea, I wasted over an hour and a half, your offer seems like even more of a slap in the face.

Though to be fair to carmax, they were significantly less insulting than BMW. BMW wanted to offer me 8.5K for a car that the buyoff was 13.5K + 11 months left on the lease at 295/month.

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Since my lease is about to expire in a couple of days, I spent an hour this past weekend to get my Mazda6 2014 appraisal at CarMax. They offered me $9000 while the purchase price of my vehicle at lease end is $13,555

what a sh*t post

your title is wheres why you should take ur car to carmax but the info is how they’re lowballing you from 14k to 8k

I found the post very entertaining

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Learn the meaning of “tongue in cheek”, sarcasm and how to read between the lines.

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Hush, every time you say his name he collects $198. And a kitten dies.

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I had a similar experience with my carmax visit where they lowballed me on my wagon. But here’s the thing - it’s a wagon. People don’t want wagons en masse, nor are they choosing sport sedans. The majority of people want SUV’s, so I see Carmax lowballing as reflective of where the market is.

The other issue is that Carmax holds their own car auctions for vehicles they won’t sell on their lots, and builds that best guess sell price into their lowball offers. It’s a good business model for them but obviously tilted away from the seller with a vehicle that’s not an SUV.

I totally get that. I’m just shocked at how far below a conservative estimate of auction value they were. A non-Carmax dealer could easily get 15+ for this car so even if not 12, one can estimate at least 11 for wholesale value.

Based on others’ responses here, seems it’s time to retire the “Take it to Carmax” advice for anything except SUVs and trucks.

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I still sorta understand the merit if you’re trying to get a grasp on the very low end of the spectrum of what you should be willing to trade in your car for. You can walk into a dealership with an actual offer in hand rather than a hope and dream that you can sell your car on the private market for more.

I just don’t think Carmax is relevant for anything anymore. They paid well maybe 10 years ago. At best they give the same ballpark offer as any dealer.

Just for the record, my offer from Carmax was almost 30% higher than a Chevy dealership.

Or your Chevy dealer’s offer was 30% lower than average.