I found my dream car today, and am possibly going to make an impulse purchase on Monday. I received a quote for my truck from Carmax...just wondering if anyone here has sold to them, and if there is any room to negotiate...

btw, I also have a truck for sale, if anyone is interested

I had a two year old pickup, in immaculate condition, and took it to be "appraised." They gave me an estimate that was exactly half of what I sold it for, and I was only asking for the wholesale price. I wanted to unload it so I could make my own impulse purchase.

I noticed that several others in the waiting room were p/o'ed at their estimates. That crap about giving you a great price is marketing hype, or at least that was what happened in my case.

[This message has been edited by kelleragMS04 (edited 2/14/2004 7:23p).]

what did you sell?

online appraisals...
kbb is showing $13,205
edmunds is showing $13,500
carmax's offer is $13,000

[This message has been edited by skrangeo (edited 2/14/2004 7:42p).]

At the time, I had a 1999 Ford F-150 Supercab pickup. It was loaded.

I don't know about the online estimates. I've heard they trim those down when you physically come in.

Also, this was in Irving. It may be totally different where you are. Good luck!

I got lowball offers from them twice. I'll never waste my time with them again.

Good place to buy, bad place to sell.

You can't really negociate with Carmax, but what you can do is take Carmax's offer to the dealership and get them to match it (assuming you're buying from a dealership).

If they do, you'll really net out higher, as you won't be paying tax on the full price of the car, but the cash difference between your purchase and trade in - essentially getting you another $1400 or so - based upon your $13000 quote.

that's why I got the carmax quote...that way, when the dealer made their offer, I could evaluate the tax savings implication

I'll only have to pay the 6% state tax on the difference.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

You're pretty much going to get screwed anytime you trade a car in anywhere.

I sold a car to Carmax. Didn't like their first appraisal, which was in blue book range, so I waited another three weeks trying to unload it myself. When I took it back in the second time three weeks later, they intentionally dropped the appraisal by two thousand dollars because they 1. wanted to punish me for not selling it to them the first time and/or 2. knew I was in a bind & had to offload it. Couldn't make the payments anymore, so I had to take a $6K cash advance on a credit card to get out from under it. Owed $22K on it & they only gave me $16K. Bought it brand new twelve months earlier for $26K. It was a Honda Accord, had everything. I thought Hondas were supposed to retain their value fairly well...

bump for the high level IQ crowd...

You have to walk into this with the understanding that a trade-in vehicle will net you the absolute minimum. You will be dissapointed. What you think your car/truck is worth versus what you are offered is often very disparate.

Try to sell the vehicle on your own - this removes the middleman (Carmax) and the profit they need to make on taking your car.

Don't negotiate a new vehicle with a trade-in or financing included. Negotiate each variable in a vacuum. The tax implications need to be considered however, i.e. buying your new car from the same dealer who accepts your trade as this can save you considerable tax dollars.

All that said, Carmax is going to low ball you and their motivation is a unit for unit swap.

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Try to sell the vehicle on your own - this removes the middleman (Carmax) and the profit they need to make on taking your car.

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I did that. After four months of advertising in the AutoTrader & Classifieds, NO ONE even called on the ads. I had 'will negotiate' and 'best offer' in the ads, too.

People just don't want used cars, in general.

b.blauser, you make two good points
1) With all of the low interest financing out there, it is VERY difficult to unload a used vehicle, unless it is a high-end luxury car.
and
2) Those parasitic worms at the car dealerships will prey on the unprepared, or people they know have no other real choice (aka: returning people with low bids who couldn't sell to the general public).

They are truly the sales dregs of society.

I sold my wife's car last year by parking it in an Albertson's parking lot with a "For Sale" sign inside. I washed it for $3 and paid $2 for the sign. It sat there for 2 days and I sold it for $2k more than I owed. I used the $2k towards the down payment on a new vehicle.

I will never trade in another vehicle at a dealership.

[This message has been edited by Aggie Trapped in Lubbock (edited 2/16/2004 10:37a).]

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I found my dream car today,

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What kinda car is it?

[This message has been edited by AggieDruggist89 (edited 2/16/2004 12:16p).]

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I sold my wife's car last year by parking it in an Albertson's parking lot with a "For Sale" sign inside. I washed it for $3 and paid $2 for the sign. It sat there for 2 days and I sold it for $2k more than I owed. I used the $2k towards the down payment on a new vehicle.

I will never trade in another vehicle at a dealership

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Every town in the DFW Metroplex has city ordinances again this. I tried it once and it took the police all of about 3 minutes to call me. Fortunately, they were nice about it and just gave me a warning.

Car Max gives decent prices depending on your vehicle. You have to be reasonable in what you think they will pay. They have a lot of overhead and have to make a profit.

They don't have a govermental regulation to offer what you think you're owed. They only have the requirement to offer as much as they can and still turn a profit.

I've sold one car to CarMax and probably suffered a $500 hit than what I could have sold it myself. $500 wasn't worth placing an ad, having people call all hours of the day and scheduling for them to take a test drive wondering if they had insurance or financing.

When they didn't give me the price I wanted on another car, I simply said "Thanks" and walked away. No need to get offended, it's my job as a seller to find someone willing to pay what I want, not theirs.

All in all, I'll take any car I'm looking to sell for an hour to see what CarMax is willing to pay.

the dealer offered a good sum more than carmax. add in the tax savings, and the dealer offer was WAY better than carmax.

That's great. We were offered 1000 less at the dealership for our car than at Carmax.