Her 2010 Corolla never let her down. In 2020, I paid $5000 for it, used. Six years, 180,000 miles,…read moreevery New England winter. It just ran. The air conditioning gave up a while back. Some transmission fluid found its way out. This year it needed a new starter. But it never once left her stranded. It always got her home safely.
So when it was time to sell it, I wanted no part of Facebook Marketplace or Auto Trader. I know how that goes. No-shows. Lowballers. People who agree on a price and then discover forty new problems with the car once they're standing in your driveway.
We tried CarMax instead. My daughter entered the car's information online and got a quote back immediately: $1,700. The same process booked us an appointment on the spot. No phone tag, no waiting for a callback. I assumed the number would shrink once someone actually looked at the car in person. I was bracing for the dealership version of a used car sale, the "well, once we take a closer look" routine.
It never came.
Our appointment was noon. Nobody spoke to us until 12:20, and only then because my daughter walked up to the desk and asked. That's the one place the system slowed down.
Once we were in it, the same high-tech process picked up right where the online quote left off. Christian entered the car's information into the computer, and a buyer approved the $1,700 almost immediately. Not a negotiation. A confirmation. Twenty five minutes after sitting down, we walked out with a check for exactly the number we'd been quoted online.
No haggling. No inspection surprises. No "let me talk to my manager." Just a kid's first car, 6 years and 180,000 miles later, turning into a check for the exact number a computer promised us before we ever left the house.
If selling a car to them is that easy, that high-tech, that comfortable, I'm curious what buying one looks like. All the usual dealership theater, the games, the pressure, the runaround, might just not exist over there. And they've got a massive inventory to back it up.
Next time, I'm the buyer.