The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: sambb on June 14, 2014, 06:25:55 AM
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I have a extra car - a fun car - that i just cant justify anymore. I am not good at selling cars outright, and dont have the time. Is it ok to sell at carmax? I am sure i will get a little lowballed - but the convenience is nice.
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I'm interested to know this as well! Anyone have first hand experience?
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I stopped by CarMax to browse used cars. The sales people are good and not pushy. They asked if I would want a quote for my Explorer. They offered me $4K...KBB says $7,600 for good condition. I sold it on Craig's list the next day for $7K. It was worth the two hours I spent selling it. Even if you listed it low on Craig's list you would still have a better out come.
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I was in the same position wanting to unload an extra newish car. Carmax offered 16K. I sold on my own for 18.5K. They (and any dealer for that matter) will low ball bc they want to resell for a profit. While not free, I've always done quite well with minimal hassle using autotrader.
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Carmax is pretty much a ripoff whether you are selling or buying. People pay for the "convenience" of it, which is not something we are terribly interested in as Mustachians.
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You give up about 10-15% on average at carmax as opposed to selling on craigslist. It may be worth it if you have a relatively new car (worth > 15k) as those are harder to sell on craigslist, but most of the time it is not worth it.
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Never hurts to get a quote and gives you a lower limit for Craigslist lowball offers. I sold a leased car at Carmax for a great price. And because it was a leased car, I escaped having to pay sales tax on the residual they paid to the leasing company.
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I sold a BMW to Carmax a while ago after I'd had it on craigslist for about a year with no takers (tough to sell expensive stuff on craigslist). Carmax gave me pretty close to KBB on it, plus I could buy a Scion on the same day so it was convenient to know that Carmax is a sure thing. So if you have an expensive fun car, Carmax may be a good way to go instead of dinking around for a year. Then again, maybe you live in a high population area where someone may be more likely to bite.
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I sold a BMW to Carmax a while ago after I'd had it on craigslist for about a year with no takers (tough to sell expensive stuff on craigslist). Carmax gave me pretty close to KBB on it, plus I could buy a Scion on the same day so it was convenient to know that Carmax is a sure thing. So if you have an expensive fun car, Carmax may be a good way to go instead of dinking around for a year. Then again, maybe you live in a high population area where someone may be more likely to bite.
I can see that happening...If it's over $15-20K I would want a transferable warranty too.
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Carmax gave me above kbb on the car, and comparable cars were selling for lower
I am very very happy with the carmax offer, can't see how i could do any better in any other circumstance
They are a class act
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Yup, Carmax won't give you as much as you'd get with a private sale in many situations, but they're definitely convenient if you're looking for a low hassle sales/purchase experience.
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I bought our car from Carsense and was happy with that. Sold them a car too, and I think they lowballed me. The car was 13 years old and had $135,000 miles on it so there wasn't much money involved, but I would have gotten more money selling it to somebody else.
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Overall i am absolutely thrilled with carmax as a seller, and would do it again in a heartbeat. So easy, and fair price was received. I have been raving about them - this is the way cars should be sold and bought. No hassles, very professional, able to spot defects and price accordingly, and no remorse on the part of them when they took my car. Whole transaction was 30-45 minutes.
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For me, the couple of times that I have used them, their offers were approximately 20% below what I could get in a private party sale. They were generally in line with what dealers would pay for trade-in. Still, I found the offer valuable in helping to determine a fair asking price. And, knowing I could make a few thousand dollars for my troubles helped motivate me to suck it up and list it on craigslist / autotrader.
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Overall i am absolutely thrilled with carmax as a seller, and would do it again in a heartbeat. So easy, and fair price was received. I have been raving about them - this is the way cars should be sold and bought. No hassles, very professional, able to spot defects and price accordingly, and no remorse on the part of them when they took my car. Whole transaction was 30-45 minutes.
I agree, I would have no issues buying from them. Even the guy that looked over my truck for the quote helped me by detecting a light humming noise in the rear end. I've been trying to locate the noise for a while with no luck. He said it was a common problem on Explorers. On-line said the fix is to replace the rear diff fluid with a higher grade oil.
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My car kbbs at 48k and I'm having trouble getting takers. Looks like I'll be getting over to the nearest carmax ASAP, which is in 2 weeks. Time>convenience>money
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Two years ago I was selling my Mini Cooper and knew I'd get more selling privately. So didn't go to Carmax. Guy responded to Craigslist ad, took the car for a test drive, got into an accident with it, and was a complete douche and would not pay for the damage. (Later - I sued and won, but he then declared bankruptcy so I didn't get a damn dime.)
Took my now dinged up car to Carmax to finally get rid of the thing and in retrospect wished I had done that from the get-go.
Obviously my situation was a weird fluke (I've previously sold a car on CL with no problem), but beware the unexpected risks of selling to unknown parties.
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Never hurts to get a quote and gives you a lower limit for Craigslist lowball offers.
This.
Also, I used a tip from another MMM post and changed the wording of my Craigslist post to "or best reasonable offer". I don't know if it was coincidence but I got a very reasonable offer the next day (much more than Carmax).
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if you have an expensive fun car, Carmax may be a good way to go
Conversely, I have sold $500 cars both via CL and Carmax and I'd say this is another good time to go to Carmax. No offense to those who find themselves needing (as opposed to wanting) a $500 car, but one gets a lot of calls that are things like, "My daughter wants this car but she doesn't have a phone. If you can call her right at 6 p.m. at this number ..." and "Do you want all the money at once?" Well, only if you want all the car at once. And for $500, those just aren't worth navigating through.
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I went from a very un-mustachian gas guzzler with monthly payments to walking everywhere I went and found the convenience + payoff at CarMax to be more than worth it. Not only did they give me 97% of what I had identified as a "best case scenario" price, but they also dealt with the company servicing my loan, meaning one less headache for me.
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My family sold a minivan to them one time. Quick and easy, offer was fair. The amount of effort it takes is worth a little cash imo. Selling cars online is not always fun.
My friend tried to sell a Porsche 911 Turbo Convertible for months online and eBay and just couldn't get any bites. He ended up taking it to Carmax and walked out with a check for $3,000 less than his asking price. I think that's a positive experience as well.
I suggest it for at least getting a quote.
Another time they offered something like $1000 for my Mom's BMW, but we ended up trading it in and got $3000 for the car. Just depends on the situation. Car was super rough, would have probably gotten $400 cash on the streets.
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One of my friends at church has a son-in-law who works at Carmax, and he basically tells everyone that it's not worth selling it to them unless you just really can't be bothered to try selling it yourself since they're going to offer a good bit less than you can usually get selling it as a private party.
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I would get a quote from Carmax and compare it to Kelly Blue Book. Assuming a significant difference, I would try selling it myself. Suggestions:
1. Buff and detail the daylights out of the car. Shine, shine, shine, scrub, scrub, armour all, etc. Put premium gas in it
for a tad of extra spunk at the test drive. Fix anything and everything cosmetic.
2. Put a sign in the window of the car with the price (none of this "best offer" stuff...people will waste your time) and your phone number. If you can, park it in a busy location.
3. List it on Craigslist with the price (close to what you would take). Somewhere between Carmax price and full retail.
4. Close the deal at the buyer's bank. This way, there will be no concern the cash or cashier's check is phony.