I've just read through these reviews about Irvine Carmax and unfortunately I've had a similar and equally disappointing experience with them. I purchased a vehicle from them and brought it back the following day for service. I picked it up the same day only to find that the work was not done properly. I had to wait through the weekend to bring it back in for service on the following Monday. Carmax had the vehicle a full week working on repairs. I picked the vehicle up once again, and once again the repairs were not addressed properly. For the third time I dropped the vehicle off for service. A couple days after I picked the vehicle up another electrical issue occured. I once again took the vehicle back for inspection and repair, only to be told the car checks out and if I continue to have problems, I should contact the manufacturer. I had this vehicle for 25 days from the purchase and it was in for repairs for 8 of those days. I finally had enough and called to speak to a manager regarding returning the vehicle. I was in turn told that there was nothing they could do, it was past the 5 days for returning the vehicle with no questions. I was very disappointed in their customer service, and explained to them that for the first 10 days I had the vehicle, 6 of those days it was in the service department for repairs. I asked to speak to the General Manager and was told he was not in the office. Irvine Carmax basically told me the vehicle was mine and if I returned it, I would have a reposession on my credit record. Their service department seems unqualified and their customer service leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I had previously purchased 3 vehicles from Carmax and they still treated me badly. They obviously have no sense of loyalty. I am sad to say that I had given them my business for so long, only to be treated like a nobody. Please think twice before you purchase a vehicle from Irvine Carmax. They claim they offer great service and excellent warranties, but clearly my experience and the experiences of many others, proves that the opposite is true. read more

battery and alternator dead before 24 hours. tow truck driver damaged body of vehicle. loaner car driven home. tried to use wireless remote to lock it. its broken. sales person kim refused to pay for it to be taken to independent mechanic. what are they afraid of? GET A LEMON HERE. VERY SHADY. read more

Went to CarMax about a week ago looking to trade my car in (former CarMax purchase) and purchase a vehicle. A former employee helped me find some cars online I was interested in and transferred one over for me to test drive and check out. Since it was his last day during the process, he had another employee assist me with the process. PG was a wonderful employee and he was really patient with me. We test drove some cars and it was a great experience. Ultimately, I chose not to purchase a car with CarMax since the apr and payments were a bit higher than I was comfortable with at the time for the cars that I was interested in. In the future, I would definitely consider coming back. I would highly recommend CarMax for trade ins and vehicle purchases!! PG was very professional and a great help! read more

Just went to Carmax to buy a car, i had been there before with a preapproved credit from my financial institution and had some money to spend. I arrived about 10 till 8:00pm because there usually is noone at that time and it was raining a little so i was like there will be noone there....sure thing there was noone there and the lady told me they had a short 1-2 minute wait...i put my name on the list and waited...she then announced over the mic that there was a customer waiting about 3-4 times over a period of 25-30 minutes...so i was like ok sometimes it happens...then a guy came up and said his name and that he would help me so i got up and then he told me i will be back in about 5 minutes...so i sat down and then watched him go up and start helping a guy that had just walked in....i think because i came in wearing basketball shorts and a button up disnt make anyone think i was worth their time....the funny part is i had an approved loan and was ready to buy a car that i had been browsing on my computer at home for like an hour ..i was ready to inspect and if it met my needs close a deal with my loan and a hefty deposit..i guess people really do still judge people based on what they looked like. Im assuming this because 2 days earlier i went in dressed well afterwork and got help immedietly. read more

Took my Jaguar in to potentially sell to CarMax. I've worked in the car industry for years and understand that I wasn't going to get retail or high trade in value for the vehicle. However, the appraiser did not mark down the correct trim level, wouldn't correct the trim level when I asked the consultant about that, and said the car has a cylinder misfire. One of my past jobs has been a technician by trade and have the necessary computer tools to check this. It did not currently, nor did it have stored, an engine misfire code. I was offered about 1/3 value of the low trade-in. CarMax proceeded to tell me that it is what it is and that I wouldn't be able to get any more money for it elsewhere and that their offer is very fair. They clearly rely on the customer being uninformed and unable to verify their condition claims. Typical used car dealer. I used to have to tell my salesmen to stop those tactics all the time. Give the same song and dance and the ones that bite will make up for the smart ones that pass. That whole mentality is why I had to get out of the dealership line of work. CarMax is the same old shady used car dealer but with an appointment system and minus floor closers. They operate on number of bodies through their door, not customer service. Stay away from CarMax. Go to a privately owned dealer if you want customer service and to be taken care of. read more

update on carmax SALE IN june 2013 People do your own homework before dealing with carmax. Which i thought i did, but a sales person by the name Connie at Irvine Carmax deceive me, told me all was good. But all is bad, she needs a job. be sure to take your car to an outside auto mechanic to be checked out. Carmax is not certified to take care of luxury cars, plus they do not own up to their contract to have the cars checked out before purchase. I had bad brake pad and also, small rock nics on hood and front bump unnoticed. ONE STAR due to stress. read more

I will never ever buy another car or recommend any carmax to anyone, its been issue after issue since i bought my 2014 sonata from them, oh and it turns out thay this vehicle was damaged at some point. There is no quality checks from this place, just save yourself the trouble and go someplace else. Havent even made my first payment, and the car has been in the shop longer than I have had it and I have to go back again. Leaking oil, radio not working properly, car wasnt cleaned, overheating, undercarriage cover missing, bumper is broken and held on by screws and adhesive (guess they dont check in depth) air filter and cabin air filter super dirty. Rear brake light still out after repeatedly telling them. Please dont waste your time here, your gonna regret it. Theres more issues.... read more

We began our car search here as shown in their commercials (haha). As our first time here we I was surprised at how busy they were! arrived an hour before closing and there were several people waiting, nevertheless we were helped by a young man named Jonathan (super nice guy and patient!) he listened to our needs and budget and made several suggestions, he was more than helpful and informed us of several benefits offered by their company. We bought a car and have had zero issues with it! I will definitely be back for my next purchase and may even sell my car here next time ;) read more

It was the best experience buying a car that I have had and I have had many cars. The Porsche that I purchased at CarMax was a fantastic deal ....the car is in perfect condition and the price was perfect! Toby and Jillian were fantastic in helping me through the process and making sure I was satisfied 100%.... I will never go anywhere else! read more

This is my forth time doing business with Carmax, superior service! Marc Perida has exceeded my expectations in trading, returning and selling me a vehicle. I am completely happy with my purchase. Marc P. and Paul Francis have made my buying experience easy and smooth! Thanks guys. read more

tl;dr: Buying a car at Carmax is the best experience I've had buying a car. Getting it repaired is prone to grave miscommunication. You might lose your belongings if you leave your car in their care. For the longest time, I have highly recommended Carmax, for good prices and their particularly admirable car repair service. However, I had an incident where they disposed of my property (some CDs were jammed in a broken CD player) after fixing my car, without informing me that they were going to dispose of the property. I provided a manager with my feedback as to how to improve communication (ie: call before throwing people's stuff away), but she was on defense, rather than wanting to actually hear my claim--so much so that I had to tell her to let me finish speaking without interrupting me constantly. Needless to say, I cannot highly recommend Carmax any more for their repair service. Their communication skills are lacking from the service representatives all the way up to the management. Really bummed, since I have had amazing service from them in the past on many occasions. There's your warning. read more

Love my new BMW. Rep was cool as hell. Call first that way if the rep sounds selfish and annoying you can keep calling back till you find someone you are comfortable with. read more

I had a wonderful experience. Marc P went over and beyond to get me the exact car I wanted with a great rate. I would definitely recommend this location. Everyone from Marc to the people in the business office were friendly and made me feel super comfortable with my decision. read more

I love Car Max! Great selection of cars and they will let you test drive anything with no pretentiousness. I have not purchase a car from them yet......but would definitely do so in the future. I felt no pressure from the sales associate even though we have test driven over 15 cars with him. read more

I had a similar experience her name is Haleh Holly Saber this lady was so rude and was so pushy she was like why you want to drive this car if you don't wanna buy it ? I'm like I would like to test drive it and get the feel to the car !!!! And then she's like I have to drive the car for the first couple minutes . Like if I were to steal the car ! And then she said we are taking the shirt route because your not buying ! She is so bad she should get fired she was no help she is just one of the worst sellers out their car max lost my business because of her !!!! read more

Very satisfied with the customer service. Me and my wife were greeted by Wyland as soon as we walked in. We told him what cars we were interested in and our budget. He immediately told us all cars they had within our budget and showed us each one. Wyland was not pushy whatsoever and literally told us that he would show us the vehicles and answer any questions and that's just what he did. He did not push anything on us and was extremely helpful. Best customer service I've ever had period. I recommend the Irvine location and Wyland to help you out. Thanks guys! read more

I took my car (BMW 528i) in for an appraisal... and they provided me with the written appraisal and offer of $11,000. I took it home to think about it, and the next day decided to move forward. When I took a second look at the appraisal I noticed they had the MODEL WRONG... and had identified the car as a 535, NOT 528. So I called the rep I was dealing with to discuss... and she said she'd call be back. When she did... she said the appraiser had keyed in the wrong model, and the offer was based on the 535, and that my offer should have been $2000 LESS, or $9,000. She said they would go ahead an offer me $10,500... and take the loss on the other $1500. Right... they make themselves out to look like they're doing something good for you... all the time they cut my offer by $500! PERSONALLY... I think it's a game they are playing... offer you one price... and then "discover" they made a mistake and offer you less. You can't convince me that a trained appraiser, that probably looks at 100s of cars a week, doesn't know the difference between a 528 and 535... The appraiser and REP should have reviewed the paperwork BEFORE making the offer!! I am glad I noticed the mistake BEFORE going back to their location!! BUT, I won't be back! read more

I've sold a few cars to this carmax location. The process isn't bad and the staff is nice. There's no bs and it's easy to get an appraisal. Now the appraised value will stink but that's to be expected. I got a terrible appraisal on one car (basically junk yard value) and a passable appraisal on another (good trade in value). Still, I didn't have to bother with selling it online or showing the car to independent buyers. So it's a service that works but does come at a price. If you want top value for your old car, Carmax is not the place. But if you don't care and just want to get rid of it without the headache, Carmax may be for you. read more

Very helpful people; the wait for an appraisal to begin was a bit longer than I had expected (~25 minutes). The appraisal came in about $2k lower than we had hoped for; did not sell to Carmax. read more

This place lied to us and tried to cheat us, I would never come here again and would not recommend it to even my worst enemy!!! I was trying to sell a car and they tried to tell me there was frame damage and that they could take the car off of my hands for $300. I declined, took my car to a body shop and they told me there was no damage to my car and that it should sell for $3,000 at least because of the great condition it was in. I wonder what else they lie about . . . this place is obviously not honest and I wish I could give them negative stars for trying to cheat me!!!! read more

Worst service ever! We had several issues in the months following our purchase and the service department went out of their way to not help us. When we asked to speak to the manager he was rude and derogatory. This has been our experience on multiple visits. read more

I had some very minor repairs which fell under the 90 day warranty. Carmax was absolutely wonderful getting the repairs done no questions asked. WE ALSO GOT A FREE LONER !!!!!! read more

This was my first transaction at Carmax. I had just recently purchased a vehicle at the dealer less than a year ago but I no longer needed it. Carmax offered $200 less than the trade-in value at it's current condition. Although, I was hoping for more, they didn't lowball me either. Everyone was nice and friendly. They handled all the paperwork so that I didn't have to do anything with the loan and balance I had with my bank. In about an hour, I was car-free and loan-free. read more

Me thinks that Yelp is becoming a pay to play like the BBB. No way should they be rated as high as they are. Take a look at the last few months of ratings. CarMax is not as advertised. They may not haggle on the purchase price because it is higher than retail. The are more than ready to haggle on a trade in cause they come in below blue book and then tell false truths about why they have to offer a low trade in value. Don't go see Yui Chan, he is not worth your time... read more

CarMax is great! But, Marcus at CarMax, is the best! Honest, straightforward, friendly! We were very satisfied with our car purchase. Go to CarMax Irvine - Ask for Marcus. read more

If I can give this dealership zero stars, trust me I would. I've had nothing but a string of issues, since buying my vehicle in Jan 2014. Hoping my review can help someone avoid some of the trouble I've experienced at this dealership. I bought a vehicle with higher mileage in January of 2014 from Carmax Irvine and the salesman, Matthew Heil, strongly suggested purchasing the extended warranty, which seemed like the logical choice at the time as he stated "it will cover anything under the hood". Fast forward to Sunday, Oct 11, 2015. I am driving to my son's soccer game out of town and the timing belt gave out. Knowing that I have an extended warranty, I didn't stress terribly out about it. Several phone calls later to MaxCare (the extended warranty company) and after having my vehicle towed to the Chrysler dealership (Carmax didn't have an appointment available until 3 days out and I couldnt wait. I have 7 kids and rely heavily on my vehicle) I was told that my warranty would not cover the repairs. I haggled with Maxcare and Carmax for a solution and ultimately ended up with a vehicle that does not run, along with negative equity. What do I do next? I call Carmax to cancel the worthless warranty that I have been paying $60.00 a month for. I spoke with Doug Cicciarelli at Carmax on Tues, Oct 13 and he stated that I could cancel and get back a prorated amount, refunded to me personally. (I paid $1200.00 into the warranty and was told I could only get back $574.70). It is now Tues, Oct 20, 2015 and after numerous follow up calls to Doug, I was passed on to Lina, the other manager at Carmax Irvine, only to find out they are mailing my refund check to my leinholder. So not only do have a car with a broken timing belt (and most likely engine issues), I am now also left empty handed and just overall upset over all the misleading information and lies I have been given throughout my experience with Carmax Irvine. Aside from the extended warranty issue, I had to replace the brake pads after 3 months of the purchase date, replace the ENTIRE A/C system after 8 months of purchase date (Carmax actually did this on their dime, however they broken the serpentine belt tensioner in the process). My best advice is to avoid Carmax Irvine. Just pass. It's not worth the headache and frustration. If seems too good to be true, then it mostly likely is. read more

Hell no! Horrible experience. Made an appointment with Flavia the day before. Showed up a few minutes early for the appt. she never showed and the front desk kept saying they'd get me someone to help me. An hour later I walked out having wasted an hour and a half of my time. Going to the dealer. Worth spending more $ to get some basic service... UPDATE: Go to Trade In Solutions in Irvine. They actually care about the customer and and offer a much better deal. Don't give Carmax your hard earned money. read more

Used car purchase made simple. Once we found the car we wanted the process was quick and easy from start to finish. I gave 4 stars because we encountered some difficulty in getting two vehicles transferred from other CarMax dealers. But, our salesperson, Cory, at CarMax Irvine found us another car - same make & model - with fewer miles. Overall a very good car buying experience. read more

This was one of the easiest and smooth processes I've ever had. From the beginning the staff was friendly, efficient and helped guide me through to make sure I didn't miss anything. Marcus and Gina especially made this an enjoyable experience. Saying bye to my car was so hard, but they made it so easy. Thanks all! read more

I chose this CarMax to buy from because they had the exact car I wanted at the perfect price. The entire buying process wasn't an issue and was actually painless and simple. My car was missing the paddle shifters which they said was no issue and that they would just put in a repair order for it. I could even pick a CarMax closer to me to get the parts delivered and installed! I was told once they arrived I would get a call or email saying they had arrived and that I could go for install. Sounds easy enough right? Boy was I WRONG. I never got a call or email or anything about the order. Being that times are tough right now and I know allot of things are backed up I figured I'd just wait awhile and they would get back to me. 3 Months went by and I got my license plates before I heard anything I figured I'd start calling about it. Initially the lady I spoke with on the phone was very apologetic and told me she saw the repair request in my file and that she would forward it to the service department and that I would receive a confirmation call within the week. Never happened. I call again a week later explaining all of the above to the person I spoke with this time, again super apologetic and told me she would handle it herself and I'd hear from them in a coupe hours. Never happened. I repeated this process 2 more times with the same result. At this point I'm pissed because not only have I been calling, I've been emailing as well and they kept saying they were sorry about the problem and they would call me shortly. Nope. Nothing. Eventually they just started ignoring my emails completely! So a couple weeks have passed and I'm finally able to get ahold of the service department, where once I explained the situation the man I spoke to basically called me a liar saying that there were no women in the department and said that there was no repair request and unless I found a copy myself they wouldn't help me. Well I found my copy and I personally took it to a different CarMax to get the situation sorted and they were significantly more helpful even going as far as to apologize for the entire situation and seeing to it that my issue was sorted out expeditiously. I wouldn't recommend this CarMax if you were going to buy your car, it'd be more beneficial to just go to a different one. read more

I have sold several cars to this Carmax location. The appraisal process is very simple. Just show up, walk into the massive lobby, check in, they hook you up with an appraiser, then they appraise your car while you window shop their huge lot. Process usually takes me about 30 minutes total, just depends on how many people are in line. If the price is right, sell it, if not, keep the appraisal in your back pocket. No pressure either way. read more

Not as bad as I initially thought. Rates were a little high by not that much higher than market.

I worked with David Miller to purchase my new car and it was a very pleasant experience. He was a pleasure to work with, answered all of my questions and bent over backwards to make me a very happy customer. I would highly recommend purchasing a car with Carmax. read more

Excellent experience all around!! Truly friendly staff and NO hassle to be found. Imagine that in the world of car sales! Thanks to everyone there! read more

I sold my SUV to Carmax this week and I have to say this was much better than I expected. Before we went I researched the value of my car on Edmonds.com... Dealer Trade in value $10k and private party sale $12k. I was hoping for something in the middle and that is exactly what they offered! The whole transaction took about an hour and we left with a check. The guy we worked with (Amin) was really nice. If you are looking to sell your car quick this is by far the easiest way to go, especially when you need to time/plan the transaction. Just be aware that they pay you with a bank draft check and it can take a few days to clear your account after you deposit it. read more

I recommend anyone who is in the market for a used car to shop here. I have purchased 2 cars from this location....and couldn't be any happier! My latest find had LOW mileage, like NEW condition, and my car dealer.......he was so wonderful and treated myself and my family like old friends. They are not pushy, and take the time to make sure you have the right deal. Thank you car max for allowing me to have my dream car! I went in for a car that wouldn't break down like my old car did, and left with a shiny 2 year new car of my dreams. I never thought I could afford to own such a vehicle, but they made it possible. YAY me!!!!!! read more

sold my 2008 toyota camry here for above kelly blue book value very satisfied with the service highly recommended read more

Just bought our 3rd car from this location and we couldn't be happier. A great salesperson makes all the difference in the world and Cindi is awesome. If you want a great experience with no hassles, ask for Cindi!! read more

FALSELY ADVERTISED the Truck I purchased for cash had "cruise control" and when i tried to get them to rectify, i was ignored and given the runaround!! Still not resolved. And now dealing with them for a refund on a cancelled extended warranty "oops they lost the paperwork". FRUSTRATED!! Will never purchase another vehicle from them! read more

Nope. Nope. Nope. If it was possible to rate negative stars I would. The car salesman was pushy, didn't listen to what I wanted or care what I said. Obviously just wanted to make a sale. And then when I said "No, I don't to go ahead with the sale" he sighed and rolled his eyes at me! LET ME MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR, I walked in and was very up front with just wanting to look so I could get an idea and had an exact price that I wasn't willing to go over. read more