I would like the 2 hours of my life wasted at this CarMax back. I went with a buddy to get an appraisal for his 2009 Mini Cooper S. We were told it would be 30min. It actually took over an hour to see a sales consultant, then another hour with him. He was shown a super clean car in excellent condition. The sales consultant was excited about the car and mentioned several times they would like to purchase it that night. After an hour of the sales consultant going back and forth in the room asking us questions then talking to the buyer, they provided a ridiculously low offer of $13,000, which was well below the blue book price for a dealer trade-in and way below market value.
The same car with more miles and less features was on their own lot for $16,998. Previously I had asked him how much CarMax tries to profit per vehicle...$3-4,000? He avoided the question - because it's more. They have a very transparent methodology; invite you into office, sales consultant gathers info then leaves to talk to buyer, comes back and says we should have an offer soon though no offer comes through system, he fishes for more info, then a coworker pulls him out of room for ""something else"", makes you wait even longer as he fills in buyer with additional info, come backs and we stare together at his computer screen with ""anticipation"" as the offer transmits complete with silly countdown and lame ""drum roll"" sound from the sales consultant. What a joke!
Only the most unsophisticated or desperate people would fall for these tactics. We politely told him the offer was ridiculous and left. I was so annoyed that I called back that night and spoke to the actual buyer to question his lowball offer and complain about wasting our time. He came up with some garbage that it typically cost them $2000-$2500 to recondition Minis. I asked him to tell me ONE item that needed to be reconditioned on this vehicle. The tires were new, brakes were new, recent tune-up, no body damage, and it was just detailed. He had no answer.
Basically their ""reconditioning costs"" are thinly veiled profits centers. The buyer told me they could sell this vehicle for $18-19,000, which is a $6,000 profit for CarMax. On the call he was also mentioning things that my buddy only told the sales consultant, so we know they were in cahoots. The crazy thing is if they offered $1,000 more it would have been theirs that night. They were hoping my buddy was desperate enough to take their lowball offer and lost. I was skeptical about going to CarMax with good reason. This place is for people who need cash quick and don't mind selling for less than the value of their vehicle to just unload it. CarMax does not provide the ""honest and fair"" offers that they advertise. Rather than being taken by these shady people, my buddy decided to sell privately.
Car Max Reviews
I would like the 2 hours of my life wasted at this CarMax back. I went with a buddy to get an appraisal for his 2009 Mini Cooper S. We were told it would be 30min. It actually took over an hour to see a sales consultant, then another hour with him. He was shown a super clean car in excellent condition. The sales consultant was excited about the car and mentioned several times they would like to purchase it that night. After an hour of the sales consultant going back and forth in the room asking us questions then talking to the buyer, they provided a ridiculously low offer of $13,000, which was well below the blue book price for a dealer trade-in and way below market value.
The same car with more miles and less features was on their own lot for $16,998. Previously I had asked him how much CarMax tries to profit per vehicle...$3-4,000? He avoided the question - because it's more. They have a very transparent methodology; invite you into office, sales consultant gathers info then leaves to talk to buyer, comes back and says we should have an offer soon though no offer comes through system, he fishes for more info, then a coworker pulls him out of room for ""something else"", makes you wait even longer as he fills in buyer with additional info, come backs and we stare together at his computer screen with ""anticipation"" as the offer transmits complete with silly countdown and lame ""drum roll"" sound from the sales consultant. What a joke!
Only the most unsophisticated or desperate people would fall for these tactics. We politely told him the offer was ridiculous and left. I was so annoyed that I called back that night and spoke to the actual buyer to question his lowball offer and complain about wasting our time. He came up with some garbage that it typically cost them $2000-$2500 to recondition Minis. I asked him to tell me ONE item that needed to be reconditioned on this vehicle. The tires were new, brakes were new, recent tune-up, no body damage, and it was just detailed. He had no answer.
Basically their ""reconditioning costs"" are thinly veiled profits centers. The buyer told me they could sell this vehicle for $18-19,000, which is a $6,000 profit for CarMax. On the call he was also mentioning things that my buddy only told the sales consultant, so we know they were in cahoots. The crazy thing is if they offered $1,000 more it would have been theirs that night. They were hoping my buddy was desperate enough to take their lowball offer and lost. I was skeptical about going to CarMax with good reason. This place is for people who need cash quick and don't mind selling for less than the value of their vehicle to just unload it. CarMax does not provide the ""honest and fair"" offers that they advertise. Rather than being taken by these shady people, my buddy decided to sell privately.