I'm gonna be in the market for a new vehicle between now and Sept., and I'm looking at late model used vehicles just because I dont wish to throw away money on depreciation when i drive it off the lot.  I've been looking alot at Carmax just cause they have a pretty big inventory nationwide, it doesnt cost THAT much to get a vehicle moved from far off places to where i am if i want a specific vehicle, plus its a free transfer from what i've been seeing everywhere in TX to Plano, except for maybe from houston.  

Has anyone bought from Carmax?  They do alot of pitching about how reliable they check the cars to be before they put them on the lot.  i sold my old Jeep to a carmax a couple years back, it was a POS, but i know that they sent if off to auction or salvage to make money that way.  So it never hit their sales lot  

So who has bought from them?  tell me about your experience.  Would you do it again?

Lets hear it.

Bought this.................



I had a very good experience. Not a thing to complain about.

Got this at Car Max. Great experience. I wish we had one in Reno.

The only problem I had was the wait to buy my truck. I went on a July 4th holiday sale and the place was packed. Wouldn't hesitate to do business with them again.

You'd think they would have washed it first.



 

Daughter that knows everything with a really dumb dad bought a Honda without talking to dear old dad first. Turns out she had some problems with the car. That can happen after a front end rebuild after the major accident.  After the letter from the dad's lawer they refunded the money and took the car back. WJ

Errr, yeah I did that. We have dirt out here in Nevada.



 

Well the good news for me is that i work for an auto insurance company and have multiple tools at my disposal with searches i can run on VINs to check accident history, as well as they have a 5 day money back gurantee.  So i figure if I do end up buying from them, i'm gonna have a local mechanic who has serviced my families cars for years take a look at it right after, and if he sees anything that is bad juju's i can get it back to them in five days.  I'm hoping that will help negate any bad things in a scenario like that, but i do appreciate the input.  Thats definatly the kind of stuff i'm looking for.

Carmax gave us full blue book trade-in value for good condition on an '01 PT cruiser, that had an entirely rusted out (and clogged) cooling system (which we disclosed, repeatedly). I would have rated the car as "Fair/Poor" myself, just because the repair estimates for a new radiator, all the water hoses/pipes, a new pump, and getting the block taken out, and cleaned out was going to cost almost the exact value of the damn car. And they sold us an '05 Honda Oddesy at Blue-Book retail that they delivered to the location from another state just for us to test out.

I was on Edmunds on my phone's web-browser the entire time to double check.

All in all, I'm happy with the experience. And as others have said, no hard-sell on the "extras". Nor did they do that insulting B.S. of trying to get a monthly payment figure  out of you that you can afford first, then working backward from that to try and set the price of the car.

I did read all the complaints about carmax on the internet, but then again, there really isn't a "national brand" of used car chain to collect all those complaints either. Somewhat akin to the Glock KB phenomena IMO.

When I was looking for a car their prices were horrible.  They were practically new car type prices.

Don't use it. It took me months to get off that lip balm. I was straight up addicted to those little porcelain jars with the yellow tops.



Oh wait, you said CarMAX! Nvm

Little expensive, but I have no complaints. I will do business again. And buy the freaking warrenty next time.

My wife bought a car there once, it was a good enough experience that I'd go there again.  You have to know what you're looking for and what a decent price is, just like shopping anywhere, but as far as car-buying goes, Carmax is about as painless as it gets.

Last December we bought my wife a loaded '06 pathfinder there with <40k miles for about $20,000 less then a '09 would cost similarly loaded.

You are probably going to pay more at Carmax than some other channels, but the selection is good and their vehicle warranty is probably worth the cost as well. I bought a 2002 4 Runner in fantastic condition from them in 07 with 60K miles on it for about $20K out the door. Even my friend the Carmax hater was impressed.  I had some emissions control failures less than a year later, and the warranty fixed about $800 worth of stuff for $100 in co-pays.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I have had 2 good experiences and will buy from them again.

do they budge on prices at all, or is it WYSIWYG?

I had a great experience with them. I like that their entire inventory is searchable. I waited until a great deal came up on a low mileage car I was looking for. Had them ship it in for $200 and they gave me more for my trade-in than any other dealer. Buying was painless and I will do buisness with them again without a doubt.

But I guess it depends what type of person you are. I have family members that take up to a year to buy a vehicle because they like to talk to dealers and make connections, pit them against each other and haggle every penny.

it's whatever you said, IIRC.

Just like Saturn it's no-haggle.