Crazy offer from Carmax

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Jan 26, 2012
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Omaha, NE USA
So I know Carmax has a reputation for lowballing people on their appraisals but as it turns out they do have a surprisingly good offer here and there. With me working remote permanently now we can easily get by with one vehicle and if we ever decide to go back to two we can just pay cash for something. Our 2019 Subaru Impreza 2.0i Sport Sedan has only got 14,000 miles on it. Sticker price when we bought the car new in 2019 was $24,803.00. After negotiations we paid $22,291 in August of 2019. Carmax has given us a written offer today for $24,000.00. I got other offers to compare and Carmax was the highest by about 10%. I was pleasantly surprised!
 
I sold my Subaru to their competitor , Carvana. I was surprised that they offered me so much for a 4 year old subaru with no AC, 45000 miles and apparently a collision. Only $4500 less than new! Comes out to the car only costing me like $100 a month!
 
I've heard a lot of good things about Carvana. A friend of mine recently sold his truck to them and he said it went great and he was happy with their offer.
 
I just signed papers to sell my 2019 Alltrack to a dealer for 99.99% of the original MSRP nearly 1.5 years later and more than i ever spent on it, including gas, registration, insurance, every last dime and then some. Loved that car but i can't turn it down.
 
So I know Carmax has a reputation for lowballing people on their appraisals but as it turns out they do have a surprisingly good offer here and there. With me working remote permanently now we can easily get by with one vehicle and if we ever decide to go back to two we can just pay cash for something. Our 2019 Subaru Impreza 2.0i Sport Sedan has only got 14,000 miles on it. Sticker price when we bought the car new in 2019 was $24,803.00. After negotiations we paid $22,291 in August of 2019. Carmax has given us a written offer today for $24,000.00. I got other offers to compare and Carmax was the highest by about 10%. I was pleasantly surprised!
Was this the offer they gave you when they actually looked over the vehicle or was this the online offer?
 
Wow, I just checked carmax and its $29000

at the peak of madness 3-6 month ago it was around 27k-28.4k

And that is for a 3.5 year old cherokee with 48500 miles..

I paid 28.5k new.

Might be a good time to trade in.. I DID just put new tires on it.. but it is going to need brakes and battery within the year.
and that price sheeeesh. The battery is $200-$300 and brakes probably $400 if I do it myself.

edit: update carvana $27857
Vroom who is apparently hard to deal with ...but previously was by far the best offers: $27867
Webuyanycarusa.com $30,015
 
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My anecdote/observation is the local CarMax dealer seems to have the fewest holes on the lot.

There is a row of dealers along the interstate. Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and the "Auto Mall" down the road seem to have more room on their lots for more inventory. They have the cars pulled up close to the interstate to look like they have a bunch, but you can see the now empty space behind them.

I'd say they have about 1/3rd of the inventory they normally have.

CarMax is probably at 2/3rds to 3/4s of what they usually had, so they have the metal to move.

Not trying to buy or sell, just what I notice when I drive by.
 
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maybe I can get $18k for my 96 F150 with 2 bald tires, a 2 year past due inspection, some rust here and there, a terrible rattling from the heat shield, broken AC, and an alignment that screams "my owner doesn't love me".

I paid $1400 for it 5 years ago
 
From what I've been reading, Vroom was throwing out crazy offers a couple months ago...now it seems to be Carmax.
 
From what I've been reading, Vroom was throwing out crazy offers a couple months ago...now it seems to be Carmax.
for my specific vehicle carmax was crazy, and webuyanycarusa was "insane"

To give you an idea of how beyond crazy this has gone... the peak of madness with vroom was 28400 IIRC
for a car 5 months newer and almost 5000 less miles..

vs 30015 now.

carvalue.JPG
 
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Sold a leased 2020 Subaru Legacy to Carvana back in September. Was only about 19 months into the lease, but was able to pull out about $5400 in equity on a vehicle that we literally put nothing down on. Anyone who is considering going with one of the online buyers, our experience with Carvana was awesome. Took pictures of drivers license, vehicle registration, odometer, and a copy of a loan/lease payment. Took about 48 hours after we started the process to get a confirmed price. Scheduled a time (one day later) to meet at a local Dollar General with a Carvana employee. The employee took five pictures. (one of the front, rear, and both sides of the car as well as of the odometer.) Signed three or four papers and was handed a check. Carvana paid off our loan within ten days. The whole in-person process took maybe fifteen minutes. There was no haggling, or really any inspection of the car. As long as they are competitive, I don't see myself ever dealing with the hassle of trading in a car at the dealer ever again.
 
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