What will Carmax do with my car?

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Last week I sold my car to Carmax. It had mechanical issues that were affecting the driveability; they test drove it and found the main issue, and offered me a decent price (higher than I was expecting actually). Now obviously they aren't going to sell it on their lot, it's too old and cheap. So they will sell it at auction. My question is, who will buy it? Some kind of dismantler or something?
 
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You should ask the winning bidder at the auction what he plans to do with it.
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That's the only way to know.
 
A smaller car lot owner might end up with it as part of an 'auction batch' they buy - they toss some not-so-great cars into them, and the dealers have to take them.

IF it goes to a public auction, and it is in decent shape looks-wise, it might well get picked up by a mechanic, for whom the repairs are no issue, they just have to cover parts.

I've know mechanics who adore these auctions, b/c they can get great cars for next to nothing and fix them up.
 
A dealer in Manheim, PA right near the big auto auction told me several years ago that he will give always a minimum of $1500 on a trade, no questions asked about anything. The car goes to the auction where he recoveres this amount and the car is sent to Mexico where folks rebuilt them.
 
Not enough info to tell.

What was the year and milege?

What was wrong with it?

CarMax is great at re-finishing/painting cars and performing repairs. They paint about 3 cars a day at the standard body shops and 15+ a day at the MD Supercenter garage. However, if it is too old and high mileage, they wont sell it at a CarMax lot.

Not sure why they would buy and then go to auction. It's a risk and hassle no one needs.

A great orginization though.
 
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Your state DMV records might be public but you may have to pay a price. Run your VIN in six months to find out.

Carfax will too, and there's a "single use" service, one of several, on the NHTSA website that will do it for $2.50 or so.
 
That is just about what I got. Interesting info!

Originally Posted By: Boomer
A dealer in Manheim, PA right near the big auto auction told me several years ago that he will give always a minimum of $1500 on a trade, no questions asked about anything. The car goes to the auction where he recoveres this amount and the car is sent to Mexico where folks rebuilt them.
 
Originally Posted By: jdeare
That is just about what I got. Interesting info!

Originally Posted By: Boomer
A dealer in Manheim, PA right near the big auto auction told me several years ago that he will give always a minimum of $1500 on a trade, no questions asked about anything. The car goes to the auction where he recoveres this amount and the car is sent to Mexico where folks rebuilt them.


This depends also. I have seen as soon as the cars pass customs and DMV hassles in Mexico=$$$ grab by Mexican "officials" the car is often sold as is to anyone who is willing to pay the price. At most if the engine is totally done a "new" engine is put in from the yonke.
 
CarMax has weekly auctions where it will be sold. Based on what you have said they will not recondition and resell the car at one of their stores.

You can read about CarMax auctions here: http://www.carmaxauctions.com/

There are local dealer who attend the auctions, along with dismantlers, exporters, brokers/agents, almost anyone with a valid dealers license and is registered with CarMax Auctions.
 
Seems odd they would buy a car just to send it to auction, must be a high demand model...
 
Originally Posted By: TFB1
Seems odd they would buy a car just to send it to auction, must be a high demand model...


If it helps them make the deal of getting the customer into a newer car on the lot, sometimes a wash on the trade in is still dollars ahead on the car they sold.
 
Knowing people at dealerships confirms this, I paid $400 for my current DD from the backlot of cars headed to the auction. I know the dealer paid no less than $2000 for it.
 
Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Originally Posted By: TFB1
Seems odd they would buy a car just to send it to auction, must be a high demand model...


If it helps them make the deal of getting the customer into a newer car on the lot, sometimes a wash on the trade in is still dollars ahead on the car they sold.


No doubt true but the OP stated he "sold" his car to Car Max, meaning to me there was no trade involved... Most any dealer will allow $1000-$2000 on a piece of junk to sell a new car...

I used to buy back lot stuff as well, left one morning with 10 sets of keys for $1350... "Allowance" on those cars was no doubt $12,000-$15,000...
 
Originally Posted By: TFB1

No doubt true but the OP stated he "sold" his car to Car Max, meaning to me there was no trade involved... Most any dealer will allow $1000-$2000 on a piece of junk to sell a new car...

I used to buy back lot stuff as well, left one morning with 10 sets of keys for $1350... "Allowance" on those cars was no doubt $12,000-$15,000...


Well either way, they are in the business of making money and I am sure they would not have bought or traded without some incentive to them.

When I lived in San Antonio, any used small truck was pure gold regardless of condition and dealers like them because the Mexicans would come up and pay top dollar for them.
 
Illinois is a far ride from Mexico. Does CarMax have an effecient long haul intra-carmax transportation program?

I'd love a "southern connection", even 500 miles to Virginia would get me a much less salty/ rusty car.

I'd still like to hear the details of what car, and what problem.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Illinois is a far ride from Mexico. Does CarMax have an effecient long haul intra-carmax transportation program?
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Due to the taxing structure in Mexico, certain year model used cars make it money makers to buy used cars here in the USA and sold in Mexico for hefty profit.

There is actually a legal cottage industry of Mexican used car dealers that will come into the USA and buy at auction barely running jalopies and convoy them to the border. While mostly confined to the border states, they have been known to come all the way to the USA/Canada border in search of vehicles
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Illinois is a far ride from Mexico. Does CarMax have an effecient long haul intra-carmax transportation program?

Yes, I believe they do. I know that if there's a car you want at another Carmax in another state, they can have it shipped to your local Carmax for a small fee, depending on how far away it is. I used that as a bargaining chip when buying my Ranger. I told them (a non-Carmax dealer) if they wouldn't match Carmax's price, I'd walk and buy the Carmax truck. "Oh, that truck is all the way in Maryland, you're not gonna buy that truck," they said. "Yeah but look here, I can have it shipped to here to CT for $200 and still come out way ahead," I said. "*sigh* Fine, let him have it for that price..." they finally relented.
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I don't know if they use the long-haul trucks for trade-ins, but it would make sense if the truck dropped off some new cars at a dealer and picked up some trade-ins while he was there and haul them somewhere.
 
Yes I heard the cars have to be exactly 10 years if they are to buy it and bring it back to Mexico. It used to be anything more than 10 years old but then the dealer association there complain about the competition, so it is now exactly 10 year old model.
 
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