Anyone get a recent Carmax bid?
 

I am thinking about selling them my very good condition 2010 40th. Will be completely stock... no damage outside of some rock chips on the bumper.

Problem is they are 3 hours away. What are people getting from Carmax? I don't want to go all the way there to get a lowball offer.

i know my friend bought a Maxima from there and it was an 09, he bought it for 16,700. I forget mileage, but the carmax specialist did say that their evaluation is more precise then any other company here check out what they do to evaluate your car: How Our Car Appraisers Determine The Offer for Your Car:tiphat:

I think with a phone call you may able to get a ballpark figure by describing your car, but to get an exact amount I would say bring it in. Also do a quick KBB check up while you are at it. :driving:

Did the KBB but I would assume they won't pay me retail but I'd hope they'd pay more than trade in value. I have looked at the appraisal process and it seems fair.

I prob will call them but I assume like you said that they will be hesitant to really give me a figure over the phone.

they pay pretty much what it sells at auction...

Well I have no idea what our cars sell for at auction.

Likely less than the KBB trade-in value.

I used the Black Book values HERE when I traded my Cruze on my Altima and found the average trade to be about right. Take the average trade value and prepare for a bit less from Carmax for a straight sell to them.

They offer wholesale prices. They offered me $27k for my 2012 370 Sport with 2000 miles. I was not happy.

Wow thats shocking considering the positive reviews generally heard. Guess ill go private sale or see if a dealership would buy it back.

Carmax = turn around and bend over.

Damn that's really low.

its carmax, they offered my grandpa $700 for his 91 mercedes with low miles(80k) and in perfect working order but when he sold it to a private party, he got the 2k he was asking for no questions asked

kinda surprising all the responses here, i remember when i was trying to sell off my 2006 cobalt the nissan dealer only offered me $1500 for my cobalt...took it to carmax and they offered me $3000 so i guess everyones experience is different with them.

You have to do your homework, they'll screw you blue if you let em, Z_ealot did his homework. If you are not desperate to sell you win, but don't let desperation/impulse buying bite you in the wallet when you can hold off for an actual fair offer.:tiphat:

You get positive and negative reviews about CarMax's pricing offers. It depends on a lot of things, but you either get a great price or you don't. First, you've got the condition of the car. The closer to stock it is, the easier it is for them to resell. It also has to be in pretty good nick mechanically with as few aesthetic problems as possible.

You then have to factor in timing. If you come to carmax with a RWD sports car in the dead of winter, they will lowball you, because nobody is shopping for sports cars in the dead of winter.

But they can occasionally give higher prices than expected because even if a car isn't popular locally, they may be wildly popular in another region across the country, and CarMax can give you top dollar for it in Baltimore, knowing that it will sell like hotcakes in Houston (just an example).

I guess it depends on which carmax you go to. When I was selling my wife's 2008 Jetta (this was 1 year ago) they wanted to give my $10,000 for it. I thought that was fair, but when I went to the Infinity dealer they gave me $10,500. Hit or miss I guess.

Basically, when it's time to sell, if you're not considering a private sale, go to Carmax first for the appraisal and take it with you. It's good for 7 days and 1000 miles, I believe. Then go get it appraised at dealerships. Why not? Minimally, you'll get the carmax price. If it's too low, then private sale may be the way to go.

Does anyone know if a dealership will just straight buy back a car? I'm not looking to trade it in. I'm assuming they would.

Absolutely. You can sell your car at a dealership. They have a used car lot?

Actually, I'm just making assumptions. I would think so, though.

they do. but they won't pay you more than trade in

They may choose to, they may not. Autotrader has a list of dealers that will.


For carmax, they offer the lowest price a similar car has auctioned for recently, usually right about the KBB "fair" trade in price...assuming the car is in good shape.

It pays to be an alert and comparative shopper, too. A few years back, there were dealerships that ran limited time specials where they would buy any car and beat or match any CarMax price quote, so if you brought them your car and the quote, they would meet it.

CarMax gave me $29k for my '09 370Z (MN6/sport/nav/touring/5k miles) back in May. I was very happy with that...it was right at the "private party sale" value per Edmunds and far more than I could've gotten on trade.

I also sold them an '08 Armada LE with 55K miles on it (bought new in July '07) right around the same time for $25k. I was pleasantly surprised by that price as well and I can guarantee I'll go to them before even considering a trade-in from here on out.

^What do you drive now???

It's simple. If you're considering a trade in shop expect to receive less and if you're not ok with that then sell it private party. They guys need to make money too, they are offering you a service and thus you need to pay for it. I'd say the spread to be expected would be in the $2k range at least.

It's October and snow is coming, you have no leverage, prepare to get raped

Go to autotrader and get the autostrader quote that is what my dealer asks me to do.

I just sold my 06 g35 coupe to Carmax lately and here is what I can tell you. I have a buddy owns a lot sale cars and we put my car on sale this April. Price was same as KBB retail price. Only 2 hits in 2 monthes and both bailed out. After 2 monthes we dropped the price below the KBB value still no bite. In September, I started to take my car to all the dealerships asking for appraisal. From Infiniti to Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Hyndai... I don't have a job so I have plenty of time. The results are very disapointing. They all offered 5k below the KBB trade in value. A side note, I converted my g35 to stock. The car has no accident, paint is in great condition and it runs excellent. So I took it to Carmax at last, surprisingly they offerred me 2-3K above other dealerships. I tried few more car dealerships afterwards in 7 days, no one can beat Carmax offer though it's still below the KBB trade in value by 2k. I was very happy at that point and sold my car to Carmax.

Here is my opinion... Private sale will give you the best $$. But a rwd sports car is not very popular in our region nowadays especially the winter is coming. Even I could offer finance and I had plenty of time to sale it, no luck for the entire summer. If you plan on sale it yourself, you have to be prepared it's gonna take a long time + insurance + tax + maintenance and other headaches. Otherwise if you plan on sell it back to dealerships, Carmax is the best place to go first.

heck yeah i did, but i ended up not going the carmax route and ended up getting $4500 out of my old cobalt which then went towards the down payment on the Z on top of what i had already saved for a down payment...in the end if you have the patience and time to sell private party it is worth it as long as you are fair with your price.

I am trading my 2011 Infiniti sedan in on a 370Z that I ordered. Went to three dealerships and all three including carmax gave me the same price which is trade in.

In Louisiana (do not know about other states), a trade in reduces the sales tax on the purchase price. In other words, I will pay sales taxes on the difference between the new vehicle and the trade in saving me $2400 in sales taxes.

was offered 23k at my local nissan dealership. just sold it privately for 25.6k (including my tire and wheel warranty). kbb value with 35000 miles is 26.6k in "good" condition with my options touring, sport nav etc. I think with the current economy and the time of year in my region I kinda lucked out on what I got. these cars are tough to sell right now. I put it up for sale at the beginning of summer for 28k and I put about 10k miles on over the summer.

2011 Infiniti G37x sedan and 2012 Infiniti FX35. I didn't drive the Z enough to make it worth the payments.

just sold my 2009 sport/touring with 51k miles to Carmax for $19k, the best offer I had at another dealer was a little over $17k

They just offered me 14k for my 09 sport 33k miles. Since it is lowered they said they would have to sell at auction. They can suck my eggs

Yeh that's a blatant lowball, car is worth at least 17k trade or 18-19k private party

My experience with Carmax is that they will generally give around trade-in for a vehicle, but they will nit-pick the **** out of it. They are in the game to make money. I generally don't buy vehicles from them because they tend to sell their vehicles for upper retail, and I can generally get a better deal from another dealer with a little bit of haggling.

On a side not, when I had bought my Z (09' base/sport with 22k miles) from a Mitsubishi dealership, it had come with the Fast Intentions exhaust and the aFe Takeda intake already installed (thank you previous owner!!). The dealer let me have it for $21k because he was having trouble selling it with the exhaust on it. The average customer didn't like the extra noise. Which worked out great for me, but I'm sure the previous owner took a good hit on his trade-in because of it.

On my old car they offered 6K more than anywhere else. I also bought the car from CarMax as well but I don't think that that would make a huge difference, I like them and they're pretty good with customers

Do NOT go to carmax. Some have had good experiences, but I know personally that my parents got $11K for a 2005 Porsche Cayenne Turbo in perfect condition with 90K miles (they took care of it with upmost care). I wish they'd told me, I would've bought it and turned it into an off roader at that price. Or just kept it as it was.
Just didn't sit right that a car that has never been to a service shop once in its life, with 6 pot brakes and crazy horse power and full leather interior sold less than a ford fiesta.
Let us know what you do

Edit: after reading some posts it seems other had better experience than my parents. Still think you can get more at private sale

CarMax is hit or miss, but I always go there to get a quote. This gives you something to compare against.

Out of 6 vehicles I had quoted, I sold 3 there. The most laughable offers was on my GT-R. They offered low $50's I think and I sold it for mid-60's.

I sold a tundra once, and because of some inventory and market issues the time that Carmax pricing was able to respond to, I got an extra 10% from them. Here in NOVA, they have always been ok for me.