Hirohawa

They offered me $14,000 for my 02 I got $19,500 when I sold it myself on autotrader.

More than 30% difference.

jedblanks

My experience is the economy has forced the dealers to make more on trades. They basically pay the note while they own the car and the longer they hold cars on avg, the more they must make. Suddenly a 2k profit needed has become 6-8k needed. They just pass that on to you.

mongooseC6

I just got a decent offer from CarMax for the Challenger SRT and I think I am going to take it. It is nearly 3 years old and they offered me about $8000 less than I paid for it new. That is not much depreciation IMO. It is pristine and still has a new car smell, popular color and options, and 1700 miles, so that may have something to do with it. I just want to sell it and not mess with CL which I have found brings too many nutty wannabe buyers who have no money to pay cash and just want to haggle then back out of the sale anyways.

The location I dealt with had super nice people, we talked with the appraiser who also was complimentary about the car (didn't try to devalue it to us).

Like any business, CarMax is there to make money. If they pay you what they can sell the car for, then what's the point?

EDHGB

Use KBB look at trade in value:
They always use GOOD not excellent for the value on a low mile perfect car with clean Car fax and no issues. Using this formula it comes up with 41,975 using my Zip in Cali.
They will offer you close to that number.
I have used this formula on two other cars they have appraised for me and it comes in very close.

Good luck.

ls3atomicvette

I got my 08 apparaised at car max in houston they offered 26k I laughed at them and left.... I went down the road to Texas Direct auto and they gave me 31k$$ the process was super easy!!!

GOLD72

You did well. The CarMax offer was to see if you were a sucker. I tried to play Texas Direct off against CarMax but it didn't work for me since they gave identical offers. I sold to Texas Direct on general principle as they treated me far better than CarMax who immediately tried to devalue my car before they had even looked at it.

emmet

42k car on craigslist? the same site people look to use your couch to sleep for a day or two...talk about an asshat experience that would be..my guess 6 scam tries, 10 people who want to test ride (actually just drive a vette around for free), dozen emails with dumb questions, dozens of emails offering you 4k and a 1 year old tractor or motorcycle or their sister in trade. I guarantee that posting will be an asshat convention, after 2 weeks of that you will be willing to blow Carmax to buy the car.

Dirty Howie

In to see if he blows Carmax


DH

Al D

Talk about dusting off an old thread. I sold that car 3 years ago.
Craigslist just got me a bunch of lowballers from 30-35K. Great site, but all cheapskates.
Carmax $42.5K, local dealer $43. I did land up selling another car to Carmax when they gave me the best offer and treated me great.
Just one persons experience,

Dirty Howie

Ah, I got sucked in. Didn't look at OP date

I thought those numbers seemed off for todays market......


DH

surfinva27

was offered over book by 2K on my 2006 dodge ram- SOLD
bought an 06 vette base model Z51 from carmax, payed 31K on sticker, 1 (ONE) year and 4K miles later, brought it back and was offered 19K. they "came up" to 20K, and i told them i would let it rot before i took that deal. (this was a few years ago just for price reference)

propain

Me too! I was about to reply on how many people had their prices wrong and how they were on crack if they thought they were going to get them... then I looked at the date for some reason.


As to the subject CarMax sucks. Lowballers. Autotrader is better. You will get on the average 4-5K less than if you sold it privately and close to the same as a deal trade. If you don't like the BS of selling private its not a horrible idea.

Bill Dearborn

Yes, it is an old thread. I think it all depends on where you live. There are a lot of communities that are hundreds of miles from the nearest CarMax. When I was selling my 03Z 5 years ago the only nibbles I got were from a local Craigslist. A couple of people tried to knock the price down by a couple of K (~10%) but didn't seem willing to negotiate any higher so I waited another week and another guy came along and paid me what I was asking. If you list on eBay be careful of crooks. A forum member alerted me that my add had been copied and the car was on sale from a place in Tennessee instead of where I lived in NY. It was an auction with no reserve. Luckily, when I alerted eBay they stopped the auction immediately.

Bill

Mr.Nubain

CarMax is in business to make money. That's why they stay in business and why the are successful. They offer no hassle/no b.s. approach. You gotta know what to expect going in, look at their facilities and all of their resources, it takes a lot of $ to maintain it. They're not going to maintain that business offering you blue-book.

I HATE tire kickers, I refuse to deal with them. I will trade in my cars every time. I traded one of my cars into CarMax for my first vette. Everything worked out great, just make sure you check that car over if your getting one from them that was shipped.

Good luck

rjwz28

Me too