CarMax Reviews 

Our experiences at Carmax have been for the most part OK, but recent visit was horrible. First the offer on my very low mileage high optioned truck was extremely low, almost $15K below resale. Their price on the truck I was looking at was $13K above KBB. I asked if I could talk with someone about the huge differences in pricing and they said NO! No idea how they could price their truck at $13K above the original MSRP when new. I won't be buying anything from them in the near future.

Went to sell my car to CarMax on Jan 4, 2022, received an offer of $9500 when it had a trade-in value of $11000-$13000 on KBB. Went back to sell the car on Feb 2, 2022, and they lowered the offer to $7000. That is an insult, and I will never return CarMax. I will never recommend CarMax to anyone ever again.

Have not used Carmax to buy a car, but got an offer from them that was 50% lower than the worth of my car. That is total crap.

I was very excited to use Carmax - I bought a car I really liked, and things went smoothly getting it picked up (1.5 hrs away from me) and signed for. Once I signed, I was pointed in the general directions of the car, and that was it. No one walked me out to look it over, no one even cared if I was OK with anything - nothing. I drove home and as soon as I pulled in my driveway, the engine service light came on. There was also massive amounts of dog hair EVERYWHERE inside, and condensation in the headlamps - which I was told were brand new. So I call Carmax immediately and they ask me to bring it back that day, which I couldn't do as I just drove HOME 3 hours round trip. I was concerned about incurring miles that would go against my 30 day warranty, so they offered to have it picked up from my house and towed on a flatbed. I agreed. We decide to have that done right after Christmas. The day after Christmas (a Sunday), Carmax calls and asks if they can pick up the car that night from me, so it was ready first thing Monday. I agreed. The tow driver called and said he would be there 1.5 hours later. Fast forward 3 hours later and he finally shows up. Not with a flatbed, but a regular truck. The driver said that all mileage readings were digital, and I didn't need to do anything. It sounded weird, but I had taken a photo of the car being hooked up, the driver and my odometer prior to his hooking it up. 6 days later, Carmax says my car is ready to be picked up. I drive ANOTHER 1.5 hours one way to get it (all these trips required TWO drivers, TWO tanks of gas and time off work for TWO people), I check in and they give me my keys and say its "in the parking lot somewhere over there". AGAIN no one walks me out. The weather was awful and I was trying to look it over in the parking lot. I took a picture of the odometer before I even put the car in gear, and imagine my surprise when I got home and compared the pictures to see there is 55 MILES and 1/8 of a tank of gas GONE. I wish I would have noticed in the parking lot. Carmax showed the car being driven 2 miles. So the tow company driver they used STOLE my car while he was supposed to have transported it to them and did who knows what with it. Once I drove it after getting it home, its now making noise it wasn't before. I imagine the driver of the tow company messed it up. After communicating to Carmax, I basically got a "that sucks" type of response. So I told them to take it back. A service manager does call and try to make it right with a "complimentary oil change" and offer to with the car with another like car. He asks me to go online and find something and let him know. So I find another of the same car, just a few miles less - but $1500 more. But I have to apply AGAIN for financing and oh yes, they WONT price match it for my trouble. SERIOUSLY???? The tow driver drove my "new" car more than I got to! And all through this, their attitude was "oh well, sorry". So I took it back. Think they cared? Not one bit. Think they tried to keep my business? NOPE. So they can have the car back and Im out several trip and many hours of travel, frustration and gas. This company could care less. So Im taking my business elsewhere. I know my purchase wasn't a big one, but it was to me. And their attitude sucks. I did NOTHING wrong and Im the only one that got screwed over. I will NEVER recommend them to ANYONE. And fun fact, my son bought a brand new car from them and HE is getting messed over on things now too - imagine that. TERRIBLE company with zero customer service after you sign.

I owned a car outright , had already an offer and booked an appointment to sell. I had all the paperwork ready. I was told it would take 30 mins to get a check.
The outlet in Santa Rosa was not busy several staff members were around, chatting an drinking coffee. In the business centre there were plenty of staff.
The service was between dead slow and stop.
It took an hour and ten minutes to process a few bits of paper.
Be warned that my check was stamped, saying it could not be cashed until title was transferred. By this time Carmax had the car securely behind the barrier and they had my signed transfer document.
I wonder how long it will take for them to carry out a smog test and register the title in their name?
Caveat Emptor.

In selling my 2014 Audi Q7 (a tough car to sell since repairs are very expensive), I was satisfied with and accepted the $12k offer. After waiting 45 minutes on paperwork, I was informed that my 105,000 miles were actually kilometers: I am Canadian and had overlooked that I had changed it years ago. The long-time and super-friendly Carmax supervisor Edna had her team revised the offer the $19k. That kind of honesty and service is why I am posting this review.

i had a car and a truck as trade in was happy with appraisal offer so i accepted. i also requested a truck to be transfered from escondido carmax to kerney mesa carmax which they said would take about six days which ment the truck would arrive on saturday.when i arrived early for my appointment on wed wife and i browse the used cars i noticed the truck i requested from escondido was already there so i asked the salesman if it was posible to make deal on truck i was ready to buy. long story short i drove home in my new truck i even bought their service warranty the whole experience was great knowing i had 30 days or 1500mi to returne truck if i wasn't happy for full refund no questions ask. right at 1600mi in less than 30 days truck would not start i called carmax service dept which you are required to do but they never returned my call.after about 1/2 hr the truck started i drove home and called service dept again they never called back. next morning which is today i called again been 4hrs still nothing! while going thru paper work when i bought truck i found that the battery was (unstable) they should of replaced it.will update still waiting for their call.gonna cancel extended warranty $2369 wandering how that is gonna go. will let you know how it goes. still love my truck buying truck good experience overall.once you sign on dotted lines but getting service SUCKS

Seven days ago, I paid to transfer a 2019 BMW 540i from Bakersfield to the Palm Desert Carmax dealership, based on the specifications, features and packages listed on their web site. If the test drive went well, I was going forward with the deal as the price was fair and within the KBB range I was willing to pay.

Upon the test drive, I realized the vehicle did not contain a key package, which was the Premium Package at a retail cost of $1,950. It was listed in the specs, but did not contain the features typically included with this package.

After speaking with Bill, the Manager, he explained to me that the packages listed on the CarMax websites do not necessarily match those packages offered by the original manufacturer, even though the package names listed in the CarMax website matched identically to the manufacturer package names. It is the buyer’s responsibility to look at the list of features, one by one, to determine if it contains everything you are looking for, as opposed to relying upon the package name itself to encompass all of the items this type of package would normally include. Apparently, CarMax packages and manufacturer packages could differ.

In the end, I passed on the vehicle because the lack of this Premium package reduced the value of the vehicle by approximately $2,000. Bill was not able to reduce the cost of the vehicle, comp a MaxCare plan or raise the offer on my trade-in, due to corporate guidelines. Because of these guidelines, they lost a sale that day and I wasted 2/3 of a day of my time.

However, on a positive note, the staff, including Bill, were very polite and tried their best to remedy the situation, under the circumstances. They do not seem to have the typical used car salesman mentality and Bill did reimburse my transfer fee of $199, along with filling my tank with gas. He also offered to comp my transfer fee up to $1,000, if I located a different CarMax vehicle nationwide.

So, hopefully CarMax corporate reads this post and considers changing their policies to provide more flexibility to their local dealerships and managers to make adjustments to car prices, extended service plans and trade-in amounts, when justified and warranted. A local manager should have this discretion. This was my first experience with CarMax and in the end was not a satisfying experience. I have not decided if I will continue to search other vehicles in the CarMax network or go back to BMW dealerships.

For those considering CarMax for your next purchase, be sure the specs list all of the features you are wanting and not just trust the package names listed to contain everything you would expect.

Horrible buying experience. Very difficult to contact the actual store your buying from. You will need to do this because the national customer service agents will have no idea what's going on with the car, whether its actually available or not as they're system is not up to date. They offer terrible rates on loans so you will want to use your own financing but when you have questions or need them to send something to your bank, you have to wait on hold and have to answer perky agents "how are you doing today?" questions over and over again until you actually find the person you need to talk to. Most dealer ships bend over backwards to sell you a car. Carmax seems to make you work for it for some reason. If I had another choice, I wouldn't buy from Carmax again.

I got an offer on my used car that was $3,000 more than the offer I got from Kelly Blue Book. I expected that when I got to CarMax they would find some reason to give me a lower offer, but they did not. The entire transaction was handled very professionally. Good staff.

I was extremely pleased with my interaction with CarMax. Received offer on line for sale of my vehicle. Went to CarMax location to retrieve offer. I was very honest regarding condition of my vehicle. Even though, I was expecting to get a lower offer after car was inspected. I was very pleasantly surprised when this did not happen. They honored the full amount of the offer, no questions asked. I was on my way in under an hour with check in hand. I highly recommend CarMax.

sold a car to carmax after the local Subaru dealer made an insulting offer. carmax beat it by 1/3.
Everyone at carmax was helpful, friendly and very cooperative.

My Carmax experience is nowhere near as bad a most of what I am reading here, but what I received was not how the Carmax sales transaction was described to me. I bought a 2019 4runner through them, the vehicle is great, everything I wanted. The transaction experience described to me by 3 different Carmax sales employees on the phone, utilizing the online app, sounded amazing. I'd get home delivery, car brought out on a flatbed to my door, my trade in would be picked up by the same flatbed, never have to leave the house during the pandemic.
Car shows up, with the sales guy driving it from the Escondido store to my house. Okay, not that big a deal, but not the way they described the care and delivery of the vehicle to me. The store pushed to have sales complete online, prior to home delivery test drive, then the salesman did the same at my house, before test drive/vehicle inspection. Lets be realistic, not going to buy a vehicle before I check it out, inside, out, on the road. Test drive done, inspect it, I really like it, lets do this. Then the salesman finds something that I've never noticed. The title on my trade in has the middle initial wrong, they say they cant complete the trade in and pick up that day, wont happen until the title gets fixed with the correct initial.
I understand, I'll do that, the salesman assures me that it wont be a problem to complete when its, done, they would have towed the vehicle rather than driving it, and they can still do so once the paperwork is correct. It took DMV a month and a half to get me the corrected title, I called the escondido carmax to finish the tradein transaction, one of their people transfered me to one of the Carmax national call center assistants, who then transferred me back to Escondido, after getting someone from sales there on the phone, and giving them the same info that I gave to them before they transferred me out.
She first informs me that they let her know that I need to bring the vehicle in to the Escondido location, and get it evaluated again, that it cant be picked up as they had assured me during my original home delivery purchase. After hearing my concerns and dissatisfaction, she apologized and connected me with one of the Escondido location's Sales Managers.
He then told me much of what she had said, letting me know that they could no longer pick up the vehicle as had been assured to me, that it was now a completely separate transaction, and would have to be evaluated again. Okay, I understand how that could be the case, but if so, dont assure me that it will all be done from my home, after the title issue came up, just to assure the sale of your vehicle. The salesman could have said, no, unfortunately, you'll have to bring it to the store, but he didnt.
Voicing my concerns about the trade in, of course I'm wondering if I will get the same offer, or will that be different as well, since they've already made the vehicle sale? The sales manager avoided the question the first time I asked, then the 2nd time, told me that he wanted to give me "realistic expectations", as it has been a month and a half since I purchased the vehicle from them, and my trade in offer was given in december. I cant help that DMV is not operating very quickly, what is described as "within 2 weeks" on the DMV website took a month and a half.
So, what my realistic expectations are, 1: Give the delivery and sales experience that you are describing on the phone.
2: Dont make promises to assure a sale, that you are unwilling to follow through with once the sale is final. 3: If you give a trade in offer, and are willing to maintain that same offer up until the sale is made on the vehicle you are providing, you should have no problem keeping that offer intact until the error in paperwork is corrected on the trade in (within reasonable covid expectations) What was promised to me has not been followed through on, the reality of my complete home delivery and pickup sale is that I have to spend approximately 3 hours in public proximity to complete my Carmax Experience.

You would think that with a fixed price on the car you would not have used car salesmen games. You would be wrong. We walked into the dealership with a pre-approved loan from ally through the CarMAX website. 'Hugo' SEEMED NICE. He was not. He runs a check to see if he can get us an offer with nothing down. I ask him 'will we still have our existing offer'. He says' yeah we will just run it again the offer should still be there. He extends to us a criminal offer of 12 percent interest. We say no. He runs it again (we've been there waiting for 2 hours now Typical used car salesman ploy) We wait and wait and wait, finally I go to get my daughter some food. Low and behold when I get back he cant get my original offer to return. Why????? If you get an offer extended from CarMAX, it nullifies your original offer through the CarMAX website. Now let me ask you a question...What do you think the odds are that a guy who does this everyday, knows that the system is setup to do that? Did you know that CarMAX sales guys do get a commission? Since the price is Haggle free.....care to guess what that commission is based on? Hugo knows we've driven hours to get there and knows we paid to have the car shipped from another dealership. In short he has us over a barrel. He sees how bad my wife wants the car. In the end we get new very reasonable financing external to CarMAX. We buy the vehicle. Long story short.....Dont think for one second you can trust CarMAX. Also VA Beach CarMAX charges 400 dollar processing fee.....They make you pay 400 dollars to sit and wait while they play games.

CARMAX DENY AND WONT HELP ANY COVID RELATED ACCOUNTS. EXTENSION IF ASKED ONLY GIVE US TWO TIMES WHICH REMIND U ITS NOT THAT THEY PAYING MY BILL !!!!! I I PAY MY CAR PAYMENTS AND REGARDLESS I HAVE NOT WORKED IN A YEAR AND WHEN I ASKED FOR EXTENSION CARMAX REFUSED .....THIS IS HOW WE IN THIS TOGETHER!!!!???? The BANKS AND BILLION DOLLAR COMPANIES ALWAYS WILL GET THEIR MONEY EVEN IF IS OVER OUR DEAD BODY...AND THE CITIZENS WILL ALWAYS WILL SUFFER. EVEN THOUGH THE ONLY REASON COMPANIES BECOME BILLIONAIRES ....IS THE PEOPLE!! Yes WE NAKE THEM RICH AND THEY LOOK US IN OUR EYES AND FLIP US OFF!!!
If I could give ZERO STARS OR BELOW ZERO I WOULD. BE AWARE OF THE SHADY FINANCE !!!! IF IT IS NOT A KNOWN FINANCING COMPANY U GO WITH (ANY MAJOR BANKS) WHAT CARMAX OFFER IS CARMAX FINANCE AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME WHAT THAT IS. CARMAX SAY IS NOT A BANK!! WHAT???? SO WHAT IS IT???? AND THEY WONT GIVE ME AN ANSWER SO WHO KNOWS WHAT SHADY LOWLIFES IM DEALING WITH CALLED CARMAX FINANCE!!!
I WAS LAID OFF IN MARCH 2020 DUE TO COVID 19
OUT OF WORK ALMOST A YEAR. STILL PAID ALL MY BILLS AND WHEN I ASKED FOR HELP CARMAX SAID THEY ONLY HELP TWO TIMES AND NOT MORE. I TOLD THEM TO TELL THIS TO THE GOVERNOR'S WHO CLOSE DOWN THE CITY ITS NOT OUR FAULT ..SHAME ON CARMAX !!

I get it. The average person with little automotive buying/selling experience or someone who has had a poor experience, can be easily attracted to a slogan like: "The way car buying should be".
Or their "mission" I would also warn that one should not be fooled by this BS either: "To drive integrity in the automotive industry by being honest & transparent in every interaction." They are absolutely, NOT TRANSPARENT! The truth is, this organization has a very low value level for people's intelligence and time. I hand it to them: their model is very non-confrontational (no haggle). Remember- this is where the wolf arrives. So, don't be fooled. You DO NOT have to overpay. And if you're selling, they use a 1-2 punch approach. First a written appraisal. Then once you agree to proceed, they will perform their road test. Which then will result in a reduction in their offer. Even if the vehicle is in perfect mechanical condition. If you're buying, a typical franchise car dealership will likely provide a better deal on a similar used car. They will also provide a trade or buy figure on your car that you can rely on and will often match a Carmax buy-figure. Additionally, a franchise dealer will openly justify their figures on both. Carmax will not. They're snobs.
I say all of this out of my own personal experience. I wouldn't be as frustrated if Carmax did not have such misleading slogans and stated missions.

Do your homework, shop around and be prepared before dealing with these knuckleheads.

I purchased a Nissan Pathfinder 2.5 yrs ago for $12k from CarMax in Portland, Oregon. Something sounded off with the transmission, but they insisted it was fine. It died 30 miles outside the warranty and cost me $4k to fix.

I traded it in at CarMax at CyFair, Texas 2 years later for something with better gas mileage. They didn't offer nearly enough in my opinion, only $2k, but I took the deal and got into a nice little Toyota Corolla. I made sure to get the MaxCare extended warranty this time. The battery died due to a bad alternator, and they replaced the alternator and reimbursed me for the new battery I bought. So far, so good. But then on an extremely hot Texas day, something connected to the AC blower came loose. I heard something come loose behind the dash shortly after I turned it on and I could hear it still blowing inside there like a hose came loose. They called to say they fixed it under warranty, but then said the cabin filter was dirty, and charged me a $47.60 diagnostic fee and $12 for the filter! I asked if the filter caused the failure and they said NO! I refused to pay it and ended up yelling at the poor service person on the phone until she removed the charge. I took the car to my regular oil change place, they showed me the filter, which had a couple of leaf particles on it, and said it has lots of life in it and doesn't need to be replaced. I'll never buy a car from CarMax again. I don't trust their service dept at all. I rate 2 stars because the salespeople were great and the cars were very clean.

I can’t believe this company exists! I had 2 suvs to sell, a 2016 and 2018 with average and low mileage. The 2016 needed tires and had a decent scratch on one door but was otherwise in great shape. The 2018 was in excellent shape. Both still had factory warranty remaining. The offers were slightly less than Carvana but were well above the offers from Kelley Blue Books instant cash offer and the follow up offer from the dealership KBB said would buy our suvs. The dealership turned out to be the dealership we bought both vehicles from and we did every single service with them. The dealership offered just below the online offer from KBB on the 2018 but they were $4000 lower on the 2016, what a scam. Carmax has a great business model and really gives fair offers if you don’t have the time or patience to deal with private sales. I had both vehicles sold to Carmax in about 2 hours from start (inspection and appraisal) to giving me a check (based on the equity I had) and paying for a Lyft on my way out since I didn’t own any vehicles after that. I highly recommend Carmax and the hassle free process they offer. I hope they are always around as this experience was completely unexpected and exceeded all of our expectations!

good sales reps but poorly educated corporate staff.

when client chews you out for the car you dumped on them - and its a lemon- you need to make it right, not repo the car and ripoff the consumer.

cars are rated 2x what any bank will offer for them- so you cant refi like normally you might be able to do. they try to push TRUECAR-- they are behind it-- values as what its worth when the entire lot is worth half of this according to any bank- all you have to do is ask- they will give you the bb value.

custom lugs-no warning, no help.
battery drain issues
fuel pressure manifold issues

coverups by ford
3 tows into the dealership and ford wont give me evidence, despite lawyer refusing to sue on the matter.

now they want over 10K from me and wont remove the debt nor the collections on my credit. need to be sued by some govt conglomerate and set straight.

Im not lying- go and ask a bank what the car FROM THEM is worth- then go look at your loan docs. It wil be around double what the bank quotes you.

Great buying experience. I'm not sure how the selling experience is as my trade situation was not handled directly by them but I heard they offer a decent price with no hassle. I feel like I got a good deal on my new car according to Autotrader and Craigslist prices so I'm happy.