I would give 5 stars to our salespeople, Clint and Anita who each helped us immensely and were very patient, professional, personable and best of all, honest & not at all pushy. They get the same commission for selling a Porsche 911 as they do selling a Nissan Versa, so the system is set up to eliminate them trying to push you into something you can't afford. Their communication was great and they even sent text messages and emails when they found a new car listing on their inventory that fit our search. I could reach them virtually anytime I had a questions and they did not send me unnecessary messages.
Here's the deal: you have to understand what Carmax is, and what it isn't. You have to have the correct expectation when you go there. Personally I hate any car dealership, I think buying new cars is dumb, and I have always bought my vehicles used, on my own terms in the private market using auto trader, craigslist, etc. You are not going to get the deal of the century at Carmax, period. You are going to pay more than you would buying from a private individual who's selling his car on his own--about $2,000 more, give or take.
But what you do get at Carmax is some peace of mind and a very efficient, well-oiled machine that can save you tons of time. At a regular dealership (new or used) you spend hours bickering and bargaining, and of course have to deal with cheesy, pushy salespeople who know less about their products than you do. They have a bad reputation for a good reason. You can be in and out of Carmax pretty quickly, which is nice. We went to buy the car we had chosen after a few test drives and we were driving home in an hour! No BS, no surprises, no hidden costs, just straightforward and to the point. Nice.
So what else do you get for Carmax's inflated "haggle-free" pricing? They are very selective about what vehicles they put out on their lot and they do go through a very thorough inspection process, as well as a very extensive reconditioning process, if necessary. They have their own mechanics and body shop so anything they find on a car that isn't up to standards gets repaired on-site before going onto the lot for sale. Keep in mind the higher the price, the higher the standards are for Carmax vehicles. But even our measly $11,000 car had pretty strict standards and when our salesperson found a few details that didn't meet those standards, he sent the vehicle back to make things right. Most all of the cars on their lot look and feel like new, and you won't see any crappy cars with body damage, bad tires or cracked windows on their lot.
You also get a free Carfax report which is nice. And they give you a 30 warranty on top of a 5-day return policy which gives you peace of mind and lets you make sure you like the car and that nothing is wrong with it. None of these things are an option in the private market.
Here's the biggest advantage in my opinion: you have the ability to search and pull from the ENTIRE inventory of Carmax across the entire United States. That is a huge advantage if you are at all selective about the car you want. For me, I insisted on a 5-speed manual transmission and my salesperson, Clint, found the exact model of car I wanted with a manual transmission about 3 hours from here and had it shipped to Oxnard for free without any obligation to buy it. He shipped it here just so I could see it and test drive it. You can do that for any car within 500 miles. Now if you find your dream car outside of that radius there's a shipping fee of course, but at least you have that option to buy it even if it's in Georgia. Even the shipping fees are reasonable actually.
So the only reason I'm giving 4 stars on this review is that there seems to be a bit of a breakdown in communication at times with the service department, and it seems there is a bit of sloppiness on the part of the folks in charge of reconditioning vehicles before going on the lot. We noticed some shoddy work (cosmetically) and some other minor details that didn't meet standards. Regarding communication, I brought my car in under warranty to have the brake pads examined and the AC checked. Somehow my concerns over the AC didn't get passed all the way to the actual person in charge of my car. When they called to say my car was ready and I asked what they found out about the AC the service rep had no idea what I was talking about. So a couple hours later it was checked out and I got another call to pick up the car.
So while the division of labor and army of specialized workers can bring great efficiency, it can also lead to confusion and communication issues. This problem is not unique to Carmax however, and maybe my experience was an isolated incident. They still treated me professionally and completed their tasks.
I should also add that they were very gracious and programmed an extra key fob alarm for my car at no extra cost, even though I technically got 2 keys with the car. read more