Hey guys, for those of you in the United States who have not sold to or bought from CarMax, I just wanted to write a short review based on my very positive experience there.
Today was my first time selling a car to CarMax, and boy, was I impressed ! I walked into a very large, clean, air-conditioned, and otherwise well maintained building in Oxnard, California.
As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a very friendly person, and asked for my name and phone number. He then showed me to the nice waiting room where I could chill for a bit before an appraiser was available for me. It was busy because it's a Sunday. Hence the short but pleasant wait. I sat down comfortably in the waiting room, and plugged in my laptop, connected to their free, no password, WiFi network, and immediately logged into ... you guessed it - 2Addicts !
About 15 minutes later, my phone rang, and a sales advisor said he was ready to begin the process with me. We talked briefly, he was very friendly and knowledgeable, and answered all my questions about how selling at CarMax works. We then walked to my car on the lot, and he took a brief look at it, just to get an idea of what kind of deal they were getting from me.
He then entered me into their computer system, in a queue (again because it was busy) for appraisers to work off of. We chatted about my new M235i for about 20 mins or so, before I reached the first position in the queue and an appraiser was ready to look at my car. We walked out to the lot again with the appraiser and left her the key so she could turn on the interior instruments and do a short test drive.
About 20 mins after that, the appraiser sent a quote into their computer system. The sales advisor opened it up on the monitor to show me. I was offered a surprisingly high amount for my car. About 2k-3k more than I was expecting (based on Kelly Blue Book values), and about 6k more than my VW dealer had quoted me. In my mind, I was
'ing, but stayed cool.
Here's the best part of the whole thing - they offer you a fair price right off the bat, based on market value, and based on what they bought similar cars for, with no Uncle Scrooging around for every penny. NO NEGOTIATIONS POSSIBLE !!! That is the BEST part ! I HATE negotiating. I'd much rather just have them offer me a reasonable amount and leave it up to me to say yes/no. Of course, I said "I do"
I then gave them my loan account info for the car. They figured out the payoff amount, so that they could do my loan payoff for me, and deducted that from the amount they offered me. So, that was convenient for me !
Within another 15 minutes, they had printed out all the DMV paperwork, which they had me sign, and printed me a check.
The whole process took about an hour and a half, but only because it was a busy Sunday. My friend who has sold to them, on a weekday, said the whole process took 15 minutes.
All in all, I am extremely satisfied with the professionalism with which CarMax operates, and with the fact that they offer a really fair price for your car (at least for mine).
If you're looking to sell your current vehicle, which will be replaced with your new 2er, I highly recommend going to CarMax !