CarMax says car appraisal is done centrally so it doesn’t matter which store you go to because the offer will be the same. But I was told if you have a newer, low mileage high line vehicle to sell, always take it to a nicer CarMax store in a high income area because it has the clientele for the car and therefore the offer will likely be more competitive. Any experience?
1 Like
Given the nominal cost of getting a car from one location to another in the same metro area, I’d be surprised if it makes any difference.
Do they do reconditioning on-site at every location? If no, even if your car goes on the lot at the same location where you sold it, it may go offsite for repairs, detailing, tires, etc. first.
I do believe you’ll get a different valuation from Carmax if you submit the info online and the car is appraised without seeing it vs in person at a store, and that contradicts the assertion that all valuation is done centrally.
Separate company but I was surprised that Carvana shipped my former M550 from San Diego all the way to the Sacramento area.
1 Like
Sold my 2010 GX460 to carmax in 2022 at the CT depot, car went straight to Kiev. 
3 Likes
Doesn’t really matter which Carmax, only a small chance they will be the highest bidder
2 Likes
it’s now a technical with a 50 cal on the roof.
8 Likes
Technically, CarMax isn’t done centrally, but rather on a regional basis. You might get more money for a Jeep on the East Coast than on the West Coast. My dealer offered me 100K on my X7 but another west coast dealer offered me 85K. All depends on demand.
They’ll move it wherever in their network they think it will get max value. I’ve seen the 3 or so cars I’ve sold to them land about 300 miles away.
Eventually I’ll do a more detailed write-up in the thread that @max_g linked, but I just sold my BMW private party after getting a dozen or so offers from sources in that thread.
Discarding the lowball offers, most of them including Carmax were right at $33,000 (before deducting any purchase fees; I think Carmax charges $200).
The two outliers on the top end were both used car dealers with inventories that skewed toward higher-quality/lower mile inventory (mine was a 2019 with 15,000 miles).
The one in my city offered me $34k (they’re right next to Carmax and have a sign that says, “We’ll pay more than Carmax” 
), and a dealer 400 miles away (after a video walk around with their appraiser) offered to wire me $35,500 and send a transport after I signed papers and got the money. He found my ad on FBM.
I ended up selling it private party, in about a week, to an out of state buyer for $36,750.
4 Likes
Maybe we need a “sold to private party” thread a la all the “Sold to ___” threads.
They don’t.
They listed my Macan S at the same store I sold it to (after around one month for some reason) and then sold in CT within a week.
1 Like
My offer document is 2,000 miles away from me so I can’t look now, but it showed a ~$200 fee that would be deducted from the sale price.
I’ll look more closely at the language when it’s available to me. I was surprised to see it.
At least one of the other buyers I worked with told me to watch carefully for fees charged by other car buyers to ensure I considered them when comparing offers. He didn’t mention Carmax specifically.
Maybe it’s regional, but I got the full price from their online offer. Or maybe I just didn’t pay attention to the missing $200 lol
Could be. I remember the impulse to require a $200 seller fee to cancel it out.
I still have the document, I’ll try to remember to look when I get back.
Are CarMax, Carvana and Autonation the only places I should sell to if I’m looking for a quick and clean transaction, i.e. drop off car at physical location, everything checks out and get paid on the spot? Not interested in selling private or to iffy dealers with risks (“leave car to us, you get check in the mail in 2 weeks” type BS).
I think some of the larger dealer networks are OK if you are in their region, I sold a car to Carshop here in PA and it was fine, and while I didn’t end up selling to them the Koons network in the DMV was pretty friendly and easy to deal with. Sell or Trade My Car to Dealer in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC
I took the car to CarMax for appraisal and they gave me a lowball offer citing “slow” market condition. For comparison, I also tried the online places (Carvana, AutoNation, Driveway). They gave me near identical quotes. I wonder if dealers can see each other’s offer.
I think many of the buyers subscribe to or license the same valuation tools and resources.
1 Like