Anyone ever sell a car to CarMax?

[GTaudiophile]

As some already know, I have had my Mazda 3S (see sig) for sale since early September. I have had several phone calls, a few test drives, but no sale as of yet.

I bought it for $20K OTD back in January 2005. It now has 20K miles on it. I had in on the market for $17,250 at first but that is obviously way too close to MSRP on a 2007. I now have it on the market for $15,250.

I went to Carmax on Monday and they will give me $14K now, and I could be done with it. I owe the county/state $210 in taxes on it in three weeks if I keep it longer, bringing the difference to $1000 really.

My plan is to see how many phone messages my father's answering machine has received when we get back to Atlanta on Saturday (currently in Jacksonville). If no serious calls received during this "shopping week of the year" then I just may sell it to Carmax.

Essentially I paid $3K/year or $250/month for the car. But I just think the sooner I get the $14K back into my Car Savings Account (which has been growing since I bought the car) the better.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[jonjoyner83]

I would do it....opposite equity stinks...The more you hold the car, the less it is worth. Banks see cars as a deprecation each month...

 

[neovan]

I sold my car to Carmax. At first I tried to sell it online and all the calls I got were from people trying to sell me services to help sell my car.
I went to Carmax and got an appraisal which was about $1K off of what I wanted but knowing my registration and my next car payment was coming up, which totaled about $800, I decided to sell to them. They give you 7 days or something like 300 miles to decide. It was an efficient process because they handled all the paperwork including DMV and financing (if you still owed money on your car).

 

[krunchykrome]

Heh, my friend worked for Carmax a while ago. He said this guy came in once with an old beatup Integra. He was leaving the state for good that night and he absolutely had to sell this car. Carmax gave him $50 for it.

I say dont sell it to Carmax, thats an evil company.

 

[KaChow]

I went to CarMax once to see how much they'd give me for my truck. I then took my truck to a dealership and used the CarMax price as a bargaining chip to get more out of the dealer.

 

[Mermaidman]

I was in a similar situation as the OP: Trying to sell a late-model vehicle. Ended up selling for $1500 more than CarMax's offer, but it took 4 months and I sold it through a car consignment sales service.

CarMax offer: $15K
Sale through consignment: $16900, subtract $450 consignment fee.

You are competing with new cars and dealers have the advantage of offering financing that you can't. I think CarMax is offering a good price--Take it!

 

[TXHokie]

The difference of what you get pays for the time/hassle of selling on your own.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I've heard of people selling to Carmax and in each instance, they were given more than it was really worth. Part of the reasoning is that they want you to feel good about their services and hope that you'll come back to them for a future car.

 

[galperi1]

My wife and I sold our 5 year old Jetta to CarMax about 3 months ago and it was a very pleasant experience.

It took about 1 hour for them to check out the car and give us our offer which was @ $800 lower than the KBB but excellent for a car with close to 70K miles on it. As long as your car drives and shows well and it isn't a SUV then you'll get pretty close to the KBB value for it

 

[Mutilator]

Wonder what they'd give me for my dying 92 Caravan w/150K miles on it... :laugh:

 

[McGyver]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
I've heard of people selling to Carmax and in each instance, they were given more than it was really worth. Part of the reasoning is that they want you to feel good about their services and hope that you'll come back to them for a future car.

4 real???

 

[vi edit]

It's a good option if you have a fairly desirable vehicle.

Popular make/model. Good options. Clean and well kept condition. It's quick and pretty painless (short of the depreciation hit).

If it's the difference between Carmax for $1000 less and trying to sell outright for months on end setting up test drives and what not, I'll suck it up and spend the extra grand.

My time and frustration dealing with calls, backed out of deals, test drives, ect are worth that extra $1000 to have it done and over with in an hour.

 

[lokiju]

Sounds good to me.

My brother had a beat to hell v6 Camaro that the dealer only wanted to give him $200 for on a trade in, I told him to bring it to Carmax and see what they say and they bought it off of him for $1,000.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: McGyver

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
I've heard of people selling to Carmax and in each instance, they were given more than it was really worth. Part of the reasoning is that they want you to feel good about their services and hope that you'll come back to them for a future car.

4 real???

Someone had posted on AT about their experience quite a while ago too, if the search function worked better, then I might have bothered to search around.

 

[GTaudiophile]

The people at CarMax didn't test drive the car as it is still under factory warranty. All they did was come out and inspect it, inside and out. They gave it a rating of "Excellent" in all categories.

I still have a 1992 Miata that will end up in DC sooner or later.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
It's a good option if you have a fairly desirable vehicle.

Popular make/model. Good options. Clean and well kept condition. It's quick and pretty painless (short of the depreciation hit).

If it's the difference between Carmax for $1000 less and trying to sell outright for months on end setting up test drives and what not, I'll suck it up and spend the extra grand.

My time and frustration dealing with calls, backed out of deals, test drives, ect are worth that extra $1000 to have it done and over with in an hour.

I agree. I would take the $1000 hit and be done with it.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Evening bump!

 

[Slacker]

My good experience with carmax since then I have sold two more cars to them and was very happy with both transactions.

Another thread with good reviews for carmax.

 

[raildogg]

Is this a 3 GT or 3 S? Because it mentions the HIDs and only the GTs have them.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: raildogg
Is this a 3 GT or 3 S? Because it mentions the HIDs and only the GTs have them.

Wasn't the case with 2004/2005 models.

2004: I and S models
2005: I and S and SP models

The HID/TPMS package was an option on "S" models back then.