Any Carmax fan

[KCJeep]

Their inventory is huge, and not all priced the same. We bought our Edge there, it was minty with very low miles and they wanted no more than other dealers. They even shipped it here from Omaha for nothing with no obligation to buy. Buying process was peaceful, they asked once if I wanted the warranty, I said no and we moved right on. No working us over for profit pack add ons and all the other game’s many dealers play “after the sale”.

I have no problem fighting all the way through a deal but uninformed or passive buyers could easily end up spending more at a dealer with a lower advertised price than Carmax.

We’ve unloaded a few beaters for wholesale there also.

 

[wlk]

Sold 2 cars to them, love them. Easy peasy, walked in, did paperwork and walked out with a check. Nice.

 

[JHZR2]

Yeah. For most of folks on here, we aren’t paying more than MSRP in current bad time and mostly somewhere between invoice and MSRP during normal time so the above benefits are null.

It is a nice place to see cars without pressure. And then go buy new from dealership.

The whole pressure thing I’ve never understood. If you go to the dealer and agree to pay MSRP and whatever they mandate, there will be no pressure there.

Paying a premium on a used car so Carmax can tell you what to pay and not to haggle with them is just silly.

If they had a great used car I’d want. I guess I’d consider, but not because of haggling.

 

[GON]

The whole pressure thing I’ve never understood. If you go to the dealer and agree to pay MSRP and whatever they mandate, there will be no pressure there.

Paying a premium on a used car so Carmax can tell you what to pay and not to haggle with them is just silly.

If they had a great used car I’d want. I guess I’d consider, but not because of haggling.

I wholeheartedly agree that the no haggle price may not be the best deal. But haggling post covid is not the same as pre covid.

Warren Buffett' Berkshire owns over 100 new car dealerships. Something Buffett mentioned is as the USA continues to grow in population, the amount of new car dealerships are reducing ever year. And of the new car dealerships, large dealership groups are buying the remaining independent new car dealerships.

What this means is the consumer has never had less leverage in buying a vehicle from a new car dealer in the US than right now. Makes haggling for a car a possible in vain endeavor.

 

[zzyzzx]

Just sold a vehicle to CarMax, and yes someone locally offered $900, Carvana offered $1000, but CarMax offered $2800 So I rushed to CarMax to sell the vehicle... Wouldn't buy there though.

 

[macarose]

I wholeheartedly agree that the no haggle price may not be the best deal. But haggling post covid is not the same as pre covid.

Warren Buffett' Berkshire owns over 100 new car dealerships. Something Buffett mentioned is as the USA continues to grow in population, the amount of new car dealerships are reducing ever year. And of the new car dealerships, large dealership groups are buying the remaining independent new car dealerships.

What this means is the consumer has never had less leverage in buying a vehicle from a new car dealer in the US than right now. Makes haggling for a car a possible in vain endeavor.

You can still haggle in most markets. However the bigger issue by a factor of 10 is the use of bogus fees between dealerships.

That $699 to $999 doc fee. The add-ons that don't add up to anything but pure profit. I was so miffed at how Southeast Toyota Distributors and the local Atlanta Toyota dealers rigged the market, that I actually flew up North to buy a car. My brother bought a Camry wagon, and I ended up with a Camry coupe that's still on the road today.

The local dealer syndicate even gamed the process so that it was completely impossible to buy any Toyota Camry with ABS for less than $20,000. They were available. But the bogus fees and the distributor gamed it so that you would have to spend an extra $2000 versus one up North.

 

[dogememe]

From the buying a car perspective, Carmax and Carvana’s sales are basically to people that either:
-Prioritize simplicity of buying over anything else
-Have poor credit and are OK with paying 13-24% APR and $5K higher price to get approved at any cost.
-Don’t know anything about cars and simply want a place where they can go explore a huge lot with no pressure and pick a car based on how it feels to sit in it.