Car prices still strong at auction when measuring what carmax will pay for the exact vehicle

[GON]

Looking for a SUV for my Daughter in Law (DIL). I have been struggling with the continual high price of salvaged titled vehicles at auction, so thought to bid on some clear titled SUVs at the salvage auction. I do all the research including carfax, epicvin, etc. I pick out about a dozen prospects. I then run these prospects SUV through edmunds dot com, which gives a carmax offer as part of the appraisal process.

What I am finding is clear titled vehicles that one can't test drive, can't even start up- are selling on average for 60 percent to double what carmax is offering. Maybe carmax is super low balling, looking for a uneducated Seller, maybe carmax inventory is up and they are only making lowball offers, but my observation may suggest the used car market is still very strong, and people are will to pay top dollar for a vehicle, even with significant risk in the purchase.

 

[JeffKeryk]

@GON I am looking for a car for my niece; her Odyssey is killing her on gas. I was thinking about a Mazda 6 or 3.
The local dealership prices seem pretty high. Do you think Carvana or whatever is a good way to buy?
I really wanna key it under $20K plus tax... Thx.

 

[loneryder]

@GON I am looking for a car for my niece; her Odyssey is killing her on gas. I was thinking about a Mazda 6 or 3.
The local dealership prices seem pretty high. Do you think Carvana or whatever is a good way to buy?
I really wanna key it under $20K plus tax... Thx.

Carvana is expensive...high prices. I was looking for my E350 Cab and they were way higher than the dealers who were high themselves. Found the best price on a car I wanted at a dealer that had it on the lot for a while. It was January and a convertible.

 

[loneryder]

Looking for a SUV for my Daughter in Law (DIL). I have been struggling with the continual high price of salvaged titled vehicles at auction, so thought to bid on some clear titled SUVs at the salvage auction. I do all the research including carfax, epicvin, etc. I pick out about a dozen prospects. I then run these prospects SUV through edmunds dot com, which gives a carmax offer as part of the appraisal process.

What I am finding is clear titled vehciles that once can't test drive, can't even start up- are selling on average for 60 percent to double what carmax is offering. Maybe carmax is super low balling, looking for a uneducated Seller, maybe carmax inventory is up and they are only making lowball offers, but my observation may suggest the used car market is still very strong, and people are will to pay top dollar for a vehicle, even with significant risk in the purchase.

I've gone by 2 different Carmax's in the last 2 days and both lots were full.

 

[GON]

@GON I am looking for a car for my niece; her Odyssey is killing her on gas. I was thinking about a Mazda 6 or 3.
The local dealership prices seem pretty high. Do you think Carvana or whatever is a good way to buy?
I really wanna key it under $20K plus tax... Thx.

JK,

I think private party is likely the best route, but only from the Seller that has their name on the title. I don't know much about Mazda (actually nothing), but for a family member I am a huge proponent of a Toyota or Honda product.

Carvana is a intersting play. They appear to not want to play the games as strongly as many car dealerships with mark ups and F&I guy shennaigans. Keep in mind, Carvana is in the bond business, not the car business. They just sell cars to aquire and package auto loan bonds, and service those auto loans. I wonder if one can get a better deal with Carvana doing 100 percent financing with Carvana, and then paying off that loan the first month.

 

[Zee09]

The online car places are no longer offering to buy your car but to sell you theirs.. Noticed that lately over email. Sell only .

 

[GON]

The online car places are no longer offering to buy your car but to sell you theirs.. Noticed that lately over email. Sell only .

I am not asking carmax to make me a offer, but they are sending me a offer simply by doing a appraisal on edmunds. I suspect carmax pays edmunds for this ability.

 

[Zee09]

I am not asking carmax to make me a offer, but they are sending me a offer simply by doing a appraisal on edmunds. I suspect carmax pays edmunds for this ability.

I was saying that's what I'm getting as I sold most of those companies cars last year..
They only send me emails now to buy their stuff

 

[Egg_Head]

Would be interested what @macarose has to say about this.

 

[SatinSilver]

Would be interested what @macarose has to say about this.

It's interesting to see what he has for sale. Simply go to Atlanta Craigslist, cars for sale, and "Steven Lang" . Plus shipping is available and not too bad.

 

[cptbarkey]

Carmax might not be in the mood to buy at the moment. I recall commentary that was similar early this year where they stopped buying Tesla's around the time Elon started cuts.

 

[thastinger]

@GON I am looking for a car for my niece; her Odyssey is killing her on gas. I was thinking about a Mazda 6 or 3.
The local dealership prices seem pretty high. Do you think Carvana or whatever is a good way to buy?
I really wanna key it under $20K plus tax... Thx.

Get her a Mazda 5

 

[FranklinJL]

Car prices won't be strong long. Give it a year

 

[CKN]

@GON I am looking for a car for my niece; her Odyssey is killing her on gas. I was thinking about a Mazda 6 or 3.
The local dealership prices seem pretty high. Do you think Carvana or whatever is a good way to buy?
I really wanna key it under $20K plus tax... Thx.

Over on Reditt for every positive Carvana story there are 10 bad ones.....problems with disclosing issues and representing the condition of the vehicle.

 

[CKN]

This it not a good time to buy a vehicle. In other news the sun came up this morning. Tomorrow the sun will come up as well.

Everybody is waiting for a "used car crash" and auction prices and the prices on the Dealer's lots are not reflecting that...not even close.

 

[dishdude]

Carmax makes good offers for vehicles they retail on their lots. If it's a heap they're going to wholesale, you're getting a lowball less than wholesale offer.

 

[mrsilv04]

Car prices won't be strong long. Give it a year

Until the UAW goes on strike next month... then all bets are off.

 

[Vern_in_IL]

The local Toyota dealer has finally about 30% of the lot full. Since Covid it has been like 10% with 8-9 car spaces between each vehicle. New vehicles on the lot.

Everybody is waiting for a "used car crash"

The problem is we are waiting for afforable-in stock new cars, our used cars are going to be beat-to-all-hell when they get to the used market.

 

[Leo99]

A friend of mine flips cars for a living. He buys at auction and sells on eBay. He's always complaining about the thin margins due to buyers bidding the prices up at auction.

 

[CKN]

Until the UAW goes on strike next month... then all bets are off.

If the UAW is eventually awarded what they want-you will again see increased new vehicles prices which (of course) will push up used ones.