Carmax takes away the pain. UPDATED May 2003
Written: May 23 '02 (Updated May 06 '03)
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(For the sake of consistency I’ll refer to sales people as “he” – no sexism intended)
I recently purchased an SUV for my expectant wife. Given the outrageous prices of new SUV’s today, we decided to explore the used car market. After my experience at Carmax, I’m a convert. I can’t imagine purchasing another new car. For comparison sake, I’ll compare my car buying experience at Carmax to the purchase of a brand-new car at a regular dealership just two years ago.
First, I had to overcome the apprehension of purchasing a used car. At Carmax they have only late model cars with fewer than 60 K miles. (Older or higher mileage cars are called “Valumax cars:”). I am generally nervous about buying a used car, because I never know what happened to that car before it came to the dealer. At Carmax, they put the car through a fairly rigorous inspection. They won’t sell a car that has been on a frame straightening clamp, or one with more than three repainted body panels. These are all indicators that the car has been in a serious accident – one that will cause future problems, or could compromise the integrity of the frame. In fact, on the showroom floor they have a sample car showing you exactly what to look for, by showing you a car that did not pass inspection.
When you walk into Carmax, a salesperson comes up to you, can ask if you have a particular car in mind (a specific car, which you saw on their web site). If not, they’ll sit you at a computer, and let you browse through their entire current inventory. While you are browsing the sales person walks away leaving you to shop in privacy, to talk to your spouse about choices, money, et cetera. This is a good thing!
What is nice about this system, is it has the same inventory as that on Carmax.com. Where Carmax.com really comes in helpful is that it also has the inventory of all the other Carmax locations. You can even arrange to have the car of your choice transferred from a distant location to one near you. This comes at a price, but at least part of that price is incorporated into the purchase of the car.
I began my auto search on Carmax.com, and was wowed by the selection.
When you find a car (or cars) you like, you print them out, and the sales person escorts you to each car. He’ll run down the details of the car, let you start it up, and generally go over it in as much detail as you want. After looking at each car, you can take it for a test drive if you want.
Meanwhile if you have a trade-in, they’ll put a little cone on the roof of your car, and a second person will come out an appraise it for you. When the appraisal is done, you’ll get a detailed sheet indicating the type of car, its condition and features, and it’s trade-in value.
By comparison, when I took my Mercedes Benz into the new car dealership they came out an hour later with a single handwritten number on a post-it. $2400. Less then half of the blue book value.
When negotiating the price at Carmax, it’s simple. There is no negotiating. The price in the sticker is what you pay. You can’t haggle, as they don’t allow it. The salesperson is on a fixed commission, and the price is the price. The sales person sits with you in a private office, at their computer and runs down what everything costs, tax, tags etc…. You know what you are going to pay for the car – it’s written right there.
By the time I had finished “negotiating” the price of the new car at the dealership, the sales person had scribbled figures down all over a sheet of paper, making every effort to obscure, and misdirect me on price. They would never come out and say what the price was, they wanted only to hide this fact from me. Furthermore, you I couldn’t leave, even if I wanted to – they had my car and keys from when they started to appraise my trade-in. After an hour of going back and forth with the sales person – who spent more time “talking with their manager” than with me. I demanded my keys back so I could leave. We were literally screaming at each other – no joke, screaming. They were lying to me about nearly every facet of the transaction – and would not give me my keys back. My wife and I were mortified. By the time we actually settled on a price (a monthly payment actually – big mistake) They played loud hip-hop music, and took a polaroid. Our sneering faces burned on film illustrate how displeased we were with the transaction. (Why did we buy the car? It was the end of the model year and had searched high and low for that specific make and model – it was the only one we could find. It was that or settle for another car we didn’t like as much.)
Back to Carmax. After agreeing to the monthly payment – we determined how much to put down by modeling the payments up on the computer. We could see exactly what the car would cost, what the payments would be at whatever amount we wanted to put down on the car. They even ran an amortization schedule for me so I could see every payment I would make.
Once we got the financing approved – again through Carmax – at just .4% higher than my credit union rate. They began the paperwork. We signed the loan package – with the same salesperson, (Not some financing flunky) and someone from their back office came out with my tags, and registration. I actually drove the car away with metal plates on the car. No trips to the DMV for me!!!! They washed the car, shine up the tires, put the plates on, and we drove home. Jeez, even at the new-car dealer I had to deal with temporary tags, and put the metal plates on myself.
By comparison, the new-car purchase – which was the worst purchasing experience of my life (car or otherwise), the Carmax purchase was three hours of car buying bliss. No hassle, no haggle, no screaming. Just easy.
In retrospect I did a bunch of stuff wrong in purchasing the new car. But that’s the point. It shouldn’t be hard. There shouldn’t be games. It shouldn’t be a stand off between you an the dealer. Carmax takes away the pain..
I will, without hesitation, recommend Carmax to everyone. This is the first car I have owned that I didn’t scrape the dealer’s badge off the car immediately upon pulling into my driveway. I’ll advertise for Carmax any day.
Update, May 2003 - Things only get better!
I recently returned to Carmax to trade in my beloved Toyota. It had served me well, but I was ready for a change. I went back to Carmax.com to begin my search. After looking up many makes and models, I found the one I wanted. A shiny Silver BMW 540i, the only problem was, it was at the San Antonio Carmax. No problem. I used their web interface to send a request to my local Carmax to request a “Walk around” of the vehicle.” And they would examine it and answer any questions I had about the vehicle. I wanted to know if there were any painted panels, or if the car showed any sign of being in an accident (Stuff you would never get a straight answer out of a regular used car dealer). Within hours, a rep had performed the walk around, and confirmed for me via email that there were no painted panels, no sign of any major repair work. They also informed me that the body was in a condition consistent with its age and mileage, and so were the tires (and several other nice details about the car.) Upon receipt of the email, I returned to the site, and requested the car be transferred from San Antonio to Baltimore. A local rep called me at the number I requested, and gave the transfer details, and confirmed the transfer cost that was appeared on the site. They indicated it could take up to 21 days to transfer the car. I said “no problem” call me when it arrives. I went to the Carmax on my way home from work that night to pay the transfer fees with my credit card .
Within 3 days I was called to say that the car was on the truck and was on its way. It was in Baltimore by Friday night. Just six days later, not the 21 I expected. I was impressed.
That weekend I brought my cherished Toyota to the local Carmax for an appraisal of what they would give me for it. In advance I went to kbb.com to get a sense of what I should expect to get for a trade in value, or what I might ask if I decided to sell it myself. I fully expected Carmax to quote me a price in the vicinity of the Trade in Value, $9,145. I did not expect to get quoted near the Private Party sale value of $11,520. Within 1 hour of taking my (very high mileage) Toyota, I had a firm quote from Carmax -- $11, 000 even. I was delighted. Needless to say I sold them the car. No hassle, no haggle, no problem. They did all the work, and got me what I would have if I tried to sell it myself. They took a personal check for the negative equity I had as part of the huge blunder I made when I originally purchased the car.
Once again, in the purchase of the transferred BMW, went smooth as silk. Financing? No problem, good price? Absolutely. The car was pristine, not a mark on it. Any defects I found were added to a punch list at Carmax, and new parts are ordered as I write this. (These were really, really minor things, such as an ill fitting front license plate bracket, and a loose shifter handle) This car will be like a showroom version, that has less than 9k miles per year on it. Did I pay more than if I really looked around in the paper for the same car? Probably. But I don’t get a money back guarantee with the private party purchase, I would have to find the defects myself, and pay to fix them, and hope I didn’t buy someone else’s lemon. I’ll gladly pay a small premium for the level of service I get from Carmax. And it was still thousands less than an equivalent car that was “Certified Pre-owned” by BMW. So I feel very comfortable with the price I paid. And, as a bonus I got an immaculate high-performance $45,000 luxury car for less than $29K (That’s what I paid for my beloved Toyota!)! Thanks Carmax.
PS. I was so happy with the service I received from one particular Sales rep at the Carmax in Laurel MD. If you go, specifically ask for Richard Abrahams. He’s a genuine car enthusiast who seems to really love his work. He walked me through every aspect of my sale and purchase. Definitely no pressure to sell me on anything, but certainly worked hard to earn his money. He gets a firm recommendation from me as a representative of everything that’s right with Carmax.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Davidsonville, MD
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me: Web site developer, with interests in photography and audio/video.
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