CarMax Reviews 

wanted to sell my car ‘the easy way’, but compared Carmax with Carvana. Carmax offer was 30% LOWER than Carvana! Seller beware!

My wife and I were happy with our experience at the Kentwood, Michigan CarMax location. We were pleased to come away with the amount of money we were expecting to garner from the sale of our Ford Escape. We got a little over $2,500.00. They came back with a check for that amount after they had promised that should be the amount we should expect after they had to do a thorough inspection of the vehicle before they could cut a check. It comes as quite a shock that there are buyers here who have had a terrible experience. We do not know of that experience as we have not used CarMax as a place to purchase a vehicle. We will have to consider, carefully, what CarMax has to offer when we consider the purchase of a car in the future.

If i could give zero stars that is what they would get! I bought a 2019 Mercedes from them for 37k (40 after taxes). Come to find out that the speedometer has been rolled back and also has an active lien on the car and it cannot be registered. I went in and they pretty much said i was crazy and they have started the registration process. I said you haven’t and can’t be done because of the Lien! They kept disagreeing and giving every excuse in the book and even tried to
Tell me that they had mailed the title and it was delivered. It was someone else on the paper and another car. Again treating me
Like i was stupid! I told them i did not want their piece anymore(that was having issues already and i had spent 500 on inspection). The check
Engine light kept coming on and off amongst other things. They said they would not refund me but i could get a trade offer. They offered 33k and said i could get another car and save the tax money! I found another car and guess what? Another lien! This
Place is a joke and a ripoff! Will never do business with them again or their horrible cars they don’t check out. I went straight to another dealership and worked out a “real” car with real warranty. These jokers didn’t even know how to hook my
Phone to Bluetooth in the car or the features on it. Was covered in water spots i had to pay ($300) to get off. I will be looking into steps to get my
Money back and leave my reviews everywhere. Run far from this place! Bad cars and incompetent staff!

What a great experience. Received offer (better than others) via their website - took the car to their offices and within 75 minutes left with check at the promised offer

They will scam you if they think you dont care about the offer, which after waiting for hours, you probably will because youve invested so much time of your day there. They are lousy.

Tried to sell a Lincolnmachine. Got an online offer of $18400. Got to the appointment and was told only worth$14500! No haggle is true. Basically said take it or leave it. Went online and the almost identical car is selling through them for $23998!! Prepare to be bait and switched!

Good experience buying a used car.
They transferred it for free from another state for me to inspect before purchasing. I appreciate they offer that service for free. It meant I didn't have to travel and could still see the car before signing anything. It got me the car I wanted and they got their money. their carmax carcare service seems good for the money, will have to wait to see if i need to use it.

Recently sold my second car to Carmax. Their offer was fair and above what I received from several other dealerships (one offered me $2000, the other $3,000, Carmax offer was $3,200). Easy online process to get the offer, their onsite appraisal confirmed the offer and the total process took about 1 hour.

I took my car in to Carmax for an appraisal. The car was spotless, and in excellent condition. The vehicle is three years old, and had less than 9000 miles on it. The appraiser spent less than five minutes going around it, and I waited 45 minutes for someone to get back to me with an offer price. I had recently purchased a vehicle out of its lease. I am the only owner of the car. Carmax came back to me with an offer below the residual price that I had bought it for. I then went online to Kelley Blue Book, who came back to me with an offer of $10,000 more than the CarMax Price.

I have a 2016 Mini Cooper Countryman/S/John Cooper Works with 40,100 miles.Entered all of their blah-blah required info about the car and they made an online offer of $21,000.When I drove 1 hour to the dealership,the b/s began.Offered me $19,000 without any justification for the reduced amount.They also hassled me about a so-called odometer tampering of 1,yes, a one mile discrepancy from 19,000 miles on the odometer.Funny,previous selling dealer verified no odometer issues.Other than that, they just dropped the ball on this one.I walked out the door and sold it for $21,000 to a competing online dealer.I'm no dummy 101 about cars,sold them and corporate aircraft for 5 years.

We thought we would give CarMax a try before we responded to other interested parties just to make the process a bit easier. Well, that was a joke! When we made the appointment to bring in our car after being given an offer, we asked if this would be a waste of time and would we be offered less. We were told that if the information in our ad was correct, which it was, there wouldn't be a problem receiving the full amount of the offer. Well, that was a lie!! We were offered $3,000 less and walked out! This company plays off of people's desperation! Well, we aren't desperate!! I would NEVER use CarMax again or even recommend it to anyone!!

I went to sell my 2019bmw x5 with 17765 miles. Their edmunds online offer was reasonable/ $44k to $55k. Their in person offer was 43k. Obviously their agent did not include any options it seems. I ended up selling at a bmw dealership for over $50k.

I’ve used carmax before and have been happy but they really missed the boat on this one and grew stubborn when I questioned their offer saying / the offer stands as is.

I was very disappointed and upset. Don’t think I’ll use them again! I shared all this information with them and no response yet. We’ll see. Transaction occurred today.

Turns out bmw submitted a erroneous mileage entry last year. But, carmax didn’t point out the issue clearly. Had they done so we could have cleared it up. They did however to their credit contact me after this review and explained why their offer was so low. They thought i rolled back the odometer but agreed it was a mistake - ie typo. But i had already sold the vehicle so no recourse.

Overall unhappy they didn’t point out the issue up front but glad they called afterwards to explain the issue. I’ll us them again.

if I could rate no stars, I would.
got an estimated offer on my jeep (to sell to carmax) that seemed great. I anticipated some difference upon full inspection, but within reason. I could not have been more wrong.
first, after getting my online offer, I scheduled an appointment to come in. upon check in, I waited an hour past my appointment time before someone actually talked to me.
then after 30 minutes, getting the wrong estimate for the wrong car & customer, I finally got their official offer ... almost half, HALF!... of the online estimate. I found that to be completely unreasonable.
I asked why. they claimed that there was a "rare shifting issue"... now, this is news to me. my car has only 45k miles. I took care of my car & never experienced any shifting issues.
I should mention that I worked in 2 different auto shops across a number of years and grew up working on cars. so, my first question was: shifting issue? what code generated on the diagnostic?
answer: none. I then mentioned that I have never, not even once, gotten a check engine light. and they asserted that a shifting issue would not cause a check engine light.
uh-huh. ok then.
so i asked how they diagnosed a shifting issue (that, mind you, they were asserting transmission slip)
they said their tech "felt it" on the test drive.
ok, so non-official and completely subjective diagnosis.
I've driven this car for 5 years, no mechanical problems, not even a minor hiccup that would indicate any type of engine or transmission issues.
and im sorry, but without a code... I feel like there is no problem & they are arbitrarily coming up with reasons to severely undercut the online estimates.
also, with my experience, even if there was a transmission issue, it would be persistent & reproducible ... clearly obvious ... regardless of gear or rpm. it would not be "rare". something like that (a "slip", but no code) is typically resolved by cleaning the throttle body or fuel injectors or replacing spark plugs...
none of that would decrease the value of my jeep by appx 7k.
tldr: they did a bait & switch. sweet estimate online to get you there in the hopes you're desperate enough to sell your car for half of the online offer.

BE CAREFUL! BATE & SWITCH COMPANY! I had my car appraised through you Murrieta, CA store and they decreased my original offer by $4,000 dollars with no justifications given to me. Pointing out small dirt spots, claiming paint damage. A waist of my time and ridiculous. I will be sure to tell everyone of this companies illegal and scam practices.

I went to Carmax in Newark, DE on the recommendation from a new car dealer I was working with. He said that they would probably offer more than they could. We went through the interview process and as I waited for them to look over my car, I browsed their inventory for cars similar to mine. They had 18 - 2014 Toyota Camry LE's in their inventory. The cheapest ones were listed at $16,998. after seeing that, I thought that I was going to get a good estimate. I was wrong. They call you over and go over their findings with you. All yeses, everything is good, no tears in seats, a few minor scratches, etc.... Then their like, this is what you want to see, right, with a smile. I'm listening for the drum roll....and then they show you this number that is $2000 dollars lower than TRADE-IN! Are you kidding me! In this market, you can't even match KBB Tade-in value! You offer $6000 on a car that you are gonna turn around and sell for $14 to 16K or more. I should have looked up their reviews and seen that they have 71% 1 Star ratings

Complete bait and switch experience when trying to sell our car to Carmax. So slimy and frustrating. You supply your car’s VIN and your zipcode to get a car offer. The offer is fair and good for 7 days so you hurry down. You wait 40 minutes while they “check” your car (no one checks your car, you just wait) They say your car checks out and they will pay you what you were offered. You’re elated and hand them the keys. But wait, they need another 45 minutes to prep paperwork. Somehow youve now been there two hours and they call you too the window and tell you the mileage is different then reported so they are taking. $1500 off their offer - but there are less actual miles on the car than reported ??? For that, we are penalized? And shouldn’t you have seen that when you “checked” the car? So unprofessional. Will never buy or sell anything to them.

Easton PA Dealership (selling my car). I first went online and received a very fair offer based on my input. Made and appointment to survey the car for the next day. Upon arriving at the dealership I was greeted by Alison who took my info and placed me with Jessica. Both Alison and Jessica were very knowledgeable in all aspects of the process and answered the many questions I had about selling my car to CarMax. I felt very comfortable dealing with them. CarMax did a very complete inspection and test ride of my Yukon, then with one hour I had my offer !!! The offer was spot on. No tricks or gimmicks. After about 90 minutes at the dealership I had my check in hand. Could not be happier with CarMax, Alison and Jessica. A few side notes: the dealership was very clean, the entire staff was pleasant and helpful. Thank you CarMax and the Easton crew.

4 YEARS LATTER AND STILL SAY...Dont waste you time with CarMax. Offer you a high price. Called TWICE to confirm appointment and price was all set. I was told absolutely!! Drove for an hour to CarMax. Got there and they had no clue I was coming. Then then knocked the price down $2,500.00 saying the had to pay a dealer fee to Chrysler Financial to buy my lease. ALL THESE QUESTIONS WERE HANDELED OVER THE PHONE!!! Get there in person and they basicaly try to screw you out of $2,500.00. Carvana is the way to go. They even come to you!!

I would rate the buying process a 5, the only thing bringing it down is the service department.

Firstly- I’ve bought several cars throughout adulthood from various places (dealerships, buy here pay here, individuals etc) and I have NEVER had a company offer any type of coverage for the car after you buy it. Almost always, once you sign the papers and drive it off the lot, whatever goes wrong is on you to fix. CarMax offers a few different coverages that I have never seen at any other place I’ve purchased from. Including :

The option to find better financing. If you change your mind and find out your credit Union or some other bank will finance your car at a better rate, you can swap out the loan within 7 days.

A 30 day money back guarantee. If you decide you hate the car you bought you can return it within 30 days, assuming you didn’t do any damage to it or drive it an excessive number of miles.

90 day bumper-to-bumper coverage: If anything goes wrong with the car, including things that are normally wear and tear or considered maintenance, they will provide or cover it within the first 90 days, AND if you inform them of a problem during the first 90 days but they aren’t able to find the issue or recreate it until after the 90 days has gone by, they’ll still cover anything you told them about within 90 days.

The CarMax extended warranty plan, other companies have offered these to me in the past and I’ve paid for them. Usually for a couple thousand dollars they offer to cover any mechanical issues if you pay a deductible. The plan I had years ago, had a $600 deductible but when I took the car to get a blower motor and a window motor fixed, I had to pay the deductible twice bc I was getting two things fixed. CarMax’s plan offers as low as a $250 deductible and even if you give them a list of 25 things to fix, you still only pay $250 once as long as you inform them of all those issues on that visit.

These are all great and I’ve needed them all so far. This is far more than any other car sales location has ever offered previously.

As far as buying in detail, I previously had a credit score of 499 and had no intention of buying a car at the time , I didn’t think it was possible. However, I was able to buy from CarMax, entirely in the CarMax app. I was able to shop from all their vehicles in the country and it provided me with 5 different financing offers from 5 different banks. It listed their APR, loan length and the payment as well as down payment if required.

After I chose financing, and a car, I spoke to someone who helped me pay the transportation fee. I paid $99 up front to have the car shipped from Indianapolis to Dayton Ohio. Most places within 1-2 hours away is only $99 for shipping.
I confirmed numerous times that if I had reached the point of paying the transportation fee, I had for certain been approved for financing as long as I had the paperwork they requested, so there was no chance of me losing $99 because of them backing out.

Once I paid the fee I was able to track shipping in the CarMax app. Which took about 3 days and after it arrived, another 3 days went by while they cleaned and did an inspection etc.

I’m self employed and provided bank statements, I’m not the best accountant nor do I make good records but that didn’t seem to cause an issue.

Previously I’ve always spent all day buying a car. It’s usually an 8 hour ordeal, even when I had a good credit score. But most of the decisions were done in the app. All I did in person was provide paperwork, and after I did that I moved onto signing paperwork. All in all, I was only at CarMax about 90 minutes before they brought me to my car, stuck a giant bow on the front and told me not to forget to take a picture.

The service department isn’t awful, but they are slow. I haven’t had any issues getting them to agree to cover things, the issue has always been getting an appointment so they can actually cover them.

Some things I didn’t like, that weren’t forwardly told to me up front: and the reason they lost a star:

CarMax doesn’t “do” tires. My car had a bad strut they were covering. One of the selling points they used originally was that the car had 2 new tires. When only changing 2 tires, the new ones always go on the front which is where the bad strut was and also what destroyed the new tires. They are covering the strut and also the headlight bulb (a high end high voltage bulb that isn’t so easy to change at home) which I assume blew bc the front end was bouncing around, but the tires that the strut destroyed, they can’t/won’t cover and the reason they gave me was bc they don’t deal with tires and don’t even stock them at all.

So far every appointment has had a 3-4 week wait.

During the 90 day period, if you go over 7000 miles, your 90 days ends.

I can’t be too angry about service though bc most places would’ve told me to eff-off.

Checked the CarMax website the morning I took my my
pristine 2020 X5. This was Jan 7th. It stated in XLNT condition I should, with less than 12,000 miles on it
get 59k for outright buy out. Kelly Blue Book, says 61k.
They offered me 56k. This is a hot market for used cars.
When I asked why it was so low they said “ market fluctuations”. Really? How stupid do I look? There are no market fluctuations at this time.
I drove it to BMW in San Raphael and received a great offer, $3000 more. Shame on you Carmax for “getting us in for the kill”…and wasting our valuable time.