So, NEVER buy a car from Carmax.

[CrackRabbit]

My GF owned a Chysler PT cruiser she bought from Carmax in 2003, owned it until earlier this year when she traded it in to a Carmax in California and paid off her loan.
During the time she owned it it was in two serious rear end collisions. The second should have totaled the car. It was also falling apart mechanically (like most Chryslers).
Today we were looking for a new car for her and low and behold what do we see on Carmax's website. Her car with no mention of the two accidents.
The funniest thing, they gave her $3500 for it and are now trying to sell it for nearly $9000.
Link

To make the long story short, Carmax is full of shit on their "We don't sell accident vehicles" policy. Don't buy a car there.

 

[Jugernot]

If it wasn't totalled, then you have no case.

As for the $9k, obviously you've never traded in a car before, that is par for the course. That is why you should always sell a vehicle yourself and never trade in.

 

[Scouzer]

Wow, those crappy cars sure get crappy mileage.

 

[evident]

typical for that crappy brand

 

[XZeroII]

Looks like the accidents were not officially recorded. How are they supposed to know? Should they just put a note on there saying that the previous owner said that it had been in two previous accidents?

 

[zerocool84]

I bought my SRT-4 new from Carmax. Don't see what's wrong with them.

 

[thescreensavers]

http://www.carmax.com/enUS/his...efault.html?sn=5815399 lol auto check says no accidents. you can never believe that shit

 

[StageLeft]

Carmax has some cars at ok prices and some at fvcking ABSURD prices, I mean OBSCENE like wth. I think it's a similar pricing model as Walmart; at walmart most things are cheap but the occasional thing is extremely expensive, like coke products are always very expensive at my walmart. Carmax does decent on some items and then ass rapes you on others.

$9k for that PT Cruiser is just cock-hungry insane by anybody's standard. That price would get, for example, a 2004 Mazda MPV with about the same miles, and that's a million times the car. And this would be from a dealer, too.

 

[Dman877]

9k for a NEW pt cruiser is asking a lot...

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
My GF owned a Chysler PT cruiser she bought from Carmax in 2003, owned it until earlier this year when she traded it in to a Carmax in California and paid off her loan.
During the time she owned it it was in two serious rear end collisions. The second should have totaled the car. It was also falling apart mechanically (like most Chryslers).
Today we were looking for a new car for her and low and behold what do we see on Carmax's website. Her car with no mention of the two accidents.
The funniest thing, they gave her $3500 for it and are now trying to sell it for nearly $9000.
Link

To make the long story short, Carmax is full of shit on their "We don't sell accident vehicles" policy. Don't buy a car there.

dont they show carfax reports on their cars?

 

[woodie1]

If the accidents are not reported to carfax or any other car history reporting agency then any search will show a 'clean' vehicle.
Most insurance companies do file reports so it is odd that the accident history is missing.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
Looks like the accidents were not officially recorded. How are they supposed to know? Should they just put a note on there saying that the previous owner said that it had been in two previous accidents?

If they had done their inspection they would of noticed the extensive frame and sheet metal work on the underside of the car.
The only reason the insurance company didn't total it is that the body shop had started the rebuild on it already.
I'm curious as to what extent the mechanicals were repaired. When she traded it in it needed wheelbearings on both front wheels, a new clutch and throwout bearing (bearing was going bad), ball joints, tie-rods and tie-rod ends, and brakes as well at least one motor mount.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit

Originally posted by: XZeroII
Looks like the accidents were not officially recorded. How are they supposed to know? Should they just put a note on there saying that the previous owner said that it had been in two previous accidents?

If they had done their inspection they would of noticed the extensive frame and sheet metal work on the underside of the car.
The only reason the insurance company didn't total it is that the body shop had started the rebuild on it already.
I'm curious as to what extent the mechanicals were repaired. When she traded it in it needed wheelbearings on both front wheels, a new clutch and throwout bearing (bearing was going bad), ball joints, tie-rods and tie-rod ends, and brakes as well at least one motor mount.

You could call in and feign interest and find out. I presume they have done a minimum for it to pass a test drive without making awful sounds, though.

I remember one time I actually emailed Carfax to ask them about why they were trying to outright screw customers out of money. I remember they were selling something like an 8 year old sentra for $8000 when the thing at the time was realistically worth about $4k (from a dealer, no less). Yep, it was in 2005 and they had a 1997 sentra for $7995 IIRC.

 

[Gibson486]

Lots of car dealers do this. If the title is clean, then the dealer did nothing wrong. You have to take it upon yourself to do research into how to long for signs of an accident. The Toyota dealer a few miles away from me was selling a used corolla. title was clean, mileage was low. However, You could see that the engine bay's door was a little uneven.

 

[RichUK]

That is by far the ugliest car ever made.

It looks like a hearse.

 

[Farang]

I'd be more concerned about dating a woman who bought a PT Cruiser. What type of person does that?

 

[cbrsurfr]

The only thing Carmax is good for is getting a hassle free quote on what your car would be worth as a trade in. Their prices can be ridiculous. For example while I was waiting for my last car to be inspected I saw similar cars on their lot for around 10K (way too high), KBB was around 8K retail/6K trade-in and they offered me 3K. I took the car to a Mazda dealer where they offered only 2.5K (lowest black book) and claimed there was all sorts of things they would have to do to put it on the lot. I pulled out the Carmax offer which was higher and said the car was immaculate and needed nothing to put on the lot. Ended up buying a totally different car and sold my old one outright, but it was nice having the Carmax offer/inspection on hand.