This is a long-overdue review... I bought my car in April and kept forgetting. Whoops.
Situation: I'm self-employed with no pay stubs and only had 1 year of tax returns. I'd been driving a junker with no AC for 2 years, been carless for 2 before that, and gosh dangit, I deserved a nice new car. Most banks, however, thought otherwise since I didn't have any pay stubs, and wouldn't approve me, despite my good credit score.
After a month of tearing up rejection letters, I stopped into CarMax on a whim and asked if they could just tell me yes/no in regards to my situation. I didn't want to pick out a car and then get turned down later.
Brandon came and got me in about 5 minutes. He listened to the dilemma, pulled up my credit score, and punched in an amount I was willing to spend. 30 seconds later, several approvals popped up. I love that he just turned his monitor around and let me see all of them: the bank, interest rate, estimated payment, and stipulations.
(Funnily enough, CarMax got me the best offer, 5% lower than the second best, and it had zero stipulations except insurance proof. Amusing.)
Brandon then streamlined the car selection process; I already knew I was into either a Mustang or Camaro. He went through their inventory on the computer, wrote the options down, and off we went. I test drove 3 vehicles, but none were in the colors I wanted. He mentioned they had a black Mustang, but that it was manual. I couldn't drive manual reliably enough to risk screwing up their car, so Brandon drove me around in it. I was sold!
The paperwork part was pretty painless, no upselling or slimy stuff snuck into the contract. There is no haggling; the sticker price is what you pay, plus a $400 doc fee. No '4-square' paper, no "let me go see if my manager can give you a deal". The only negative is that the car might be a tiny bit over KBB price, but honestly I think a $500 price difference is worth it to not deal with traditional salesmen.
The finance girl was really sweet and so was the manager who stopped by.
The whole process was done and I had the keys in about 3 hours. That's amazing.
I've put about 10k miles on the car and haven't had any issues (knock on SO MUCH WOOD).
Good deals aside, I would go through CarMax again solely for the staff. I can't say enough good things about Brandon. Since I wasn't comfortable driving stick alone, he drove the new car back to Apache Junction for me. I was impressed he was willing to take an hour of time off the sales floor. He was never pushy; he went over extended warranties and when I said no, he went "Okay then" and moved on. He was incredibly patient with my constant teetering between vehicles, and at one point went back online to check the Tolleson location for more options. He was probably around my age too, which made me more comfortable, and it was easy to chat with him. read more