r/carmax

Thankfully, I love my new vehicle otherwise I’d be even more angry with the way things unfolded with my recent experience with these slime balls! Won’t go into all the details but to sum it up it was basically lies and manipulation met with careless and sloppy customer service at vehicle delivery! Unless you like being met with multiple blatant lies and arrogance, run the other way!! Driving into their lot is something I wished I never considered let alone do!! There are better options in the Sacramento area for purchasing a Toyota vehicle… Roseville Toyota is NOT it!!

My girlfriend and I recently bought a used BMW m550 from CarMax in Fremont, California for 42k. Six months later we decided to trade it in for an M2. A preliminary online appraisal was for 29k. So we get to the store and we’re waiting around for about 40 minutes while they give it their “official” appraisal. Finally two guys show up, sit down and start talking about how they found a “re-weld” on the frame and were we ever in an accident? No, we weren’t. So apparently Carmax missed the weld and sold us a car with frame damage. The guys seemed pretty nervous and kept talking about how they were going to “make this right” etc, which they said *might* involve a complete buyback of the car at its original selling price of 42k. 

Great. Awesome. And after surveying reddit, it looks like Carmax indeed guarantees against frame damage etc and will generally buy back any car under these kinds of circumstances

Anyway, a week later after “talking to senior management” they get back to us with the “great news” that they are willing to buy back the car at our preliminary online appraisal rate of 29k. Wow. Awesome. I told them no, you can buy back the car at 42k and they said they’d talk to “senior management” again. The next day they come back with the same offer, 29k. I told them they were breach of contract and that I would be taking legal action. 

So am I doing the right thing? Wasting my time? Any suggestions would be helpful. 

To all customers coming to CarMax: please remember to treat your sales consultant with respect. The way you treat people absolutely affects the experience you receive in return. If you come in rude, disrespectful, or difficult from the start, don’t expect priority treatment, fast service, or extra effort.
Sales consultants are helping multiple customers at once, and yes, delays can happen. At the end of the day, we get paid per unit, not by the price of the car, so losing one deal is not the end of the world for us. Respect goes both ways. If you treat people well, most consultants will go above and beyond to help you. If you come in acting disrespectful already, don’t expect special treatment

Hey guys. I’ve had a hell of a time buying a freaking car. I had 2 horrible experiences at dealerships and after a ton of research I decided to go with carmax.

In all my Reddit research I found that Toyota Rav4s, especially those made between 2016-2018 are the most reliable cars. I found one at carmax near me. 2018, 63,000 miles for $24k. It was $4k over my budget but I’d probably pay more than that to not deal with a pushy salesman. I drove it. Loved it. Bought it.

I took it to a local mechanic to have them look it over and they said it was in good condition—minus the front right axel needing replacement. They then gave me the carfax report and that’s where I found “potential odometer rollback”. I bought the car at 62,700 miles. In 2019 the carfax reported it having 63,322 miles. Then in 2020 it said 68,092. Then in 2024 it said 54,854 and then in 2025 it said 59,474 miles for it to suddenly be 62,700 in 2026. The fuck.

I feel so dumb and bamboozled by the whole thing. Everyone in my life who knows about cars is saying to return it. I’m still within my 10 day window to return it for a full refund, no questions asked, but I’m still so upset. I need a car more than ever right now as I’m currently in the middle of cancer treatment and am about to move.

What are your thoughts and/or suggestions?

So I was looking at vehicles and knew what I wanted. I went to Carmax and test drove the one that I had in mind. I was willing to pay a little bit higher price to avoid the brain damage of buying from a traditional dealer.

I used to work at Carmax years ago during the Austin Ligon years, it was a different company then it seems. The standards were relatively high and were taken seriously at the store I worked at.

Anyway it turns out that the vehicle only had one key. Carmax will not provide 2 keys anymore and I was told what dealer I could go to to get the key at my cost. So basically Carmax was making their problem my problem.

So while I was ready to buy the vehicle initially, I stepped back to determine the cost of an additional key. I would have had to shell out 500 dollars for a new fob and programming.

Nope, im not paying the Carmax premium for a vehicle with one key.

So I ended up buying one model year newer with 10k less miles from a dealer about a month later. The vehicle had 3 key fobs. It also was cleaner than the carmax vehicle.

It amazes me how the company went from something special to what it is today!

I've been a long time lurker and just recently started posting here and there.

I recently started following a lot of Carmax posts because before I purchased my CarMax car, I wanted some feedback or some general reviews. I was in between going with Carvana or CarMax.

After I gathered enough research, I decided to move forward with CarMax and bought a 2023 Mazda CX-5 Premium Package on April 22nd, after waiting for 3 weeks for it to get transferred from Georgia to Texas.

First week I had it, I drove it all the way to Glen Rose Texas, as of course I needed to see if anything was going to pop up or how the drive would be. After returning from that trip, few days later I started to hear some movement in the vehicle under the hood.

Took it back to CarMax for them to discover that the engine and transmission mounts were damaged. Apparently prior to it being shipped. After they fix those mounts, the car wouldn't start and so they had to replace the battery as well.

I picked it up the next day. After a week of driving, the check engine light popped on and the car proceeded to drive very rough, and would not let me accelerate over 30-40 mph.

I called CarMax immediately, told them about the issue and said I need to get this car checked out immediately and had it dropped off and they serviced it three days later.

I get a call from the service manager who proceeds to tell me that the engine is completely damaged and is going to need a brand new engine. I literally go What!! How the hell did that happen?!

He goes looks like there were some other issues that the prior owner were more aware of, so my advice is you need to start your whole entire car buying process again because I don't think it would be in our best interest to give you this car back.

I said okay no problem. I ended up finding the another model, darker blue, but it was a Premium Plus instead of it being a premium, but given I was told that I was going to receive all of my money back as well as a tax credit, that should take care of the difference in that car. The only hiccup was that my sales consultant told me they are not able to transfer a car more than $500 or 500

miles.

I told them you guys are absolutely going to cover the transfer fee. He told me he doesn't think that they would be able to do that I told him no problem and we hung up.

Then I called the general manager. I sent him the car I wanted and how much the transfer fee was.

The sales consultant calls me the next day and tells me that we're unable to get you that vehicle because it's over $500 transfer.

My new vehicle is scheduled to be delivered by the end of May, CarMax fully paid for the $999 transfer fee a day before he called. The general manager approved it.

One thing I learned , get the car inspected immediately upon purchase , because why in the world did I just go through that lol

What's the chances the amount they offered online will match when I get into store to sell them my vehicle outright? Its best offer I got compared to Carvana, etc.

Just wanting to kind a know if it's worth the drive?

I purchased a car about 2 weeks ago from car max I was told the car was completely stock with no modifications when I went to take the car in for a safety recall fix they weren’t able to install the safety recall due to a tune installed by the previous owner I would have never even bought the car if I was told there was a tune on it now all there offering is to take off the tune but I don’t like how they lied to me is there anything else I can do to try and get a refund/new car it’s been over the 10 day period.thinking of taking legal action If able to

So I’m currently car shopping (kill me now) and all the dealerships I’m looking at are either an hour away, have terrible reviews, or are no haggle which I don’t love (though I know CarMax is as well). My question is, I’ve seen mixed reviews in the past on cars purchased here and the experience, can you all give me the real deal in your experiences and whether it was worth it? I feel like I don’t want the hassle anymore but I don’t want to get taken, and the MaxCare warranty seems worth it. TIA for your help!

The dealer fee for Virginia is $999.

Could I pay $99 to have a car shipped from Dulles Carmax in virginia to a Carmax in Maryland where the fee is $200 - thus saving myself $700?

any thoughts on this plan?

thanks!

First time buyer here:

I reserved a car that is getting shipped to me soon. How does financing work?

I want to go and check it out/test drive and decide if it’s the car for me. If it is, can I go to my credit union after the test drive and pick up a check? Will they hold it for maybe a day max while I figure that out?

Or

Do I need to just come ready with a check already approved?

I don’t want a hard hit on my credit if I’m not 100% sure I’m coming home with it.

Any and all advice for a confused guy would help. Thanks!

I had a 2024 Honda Accord Hybrid (10,000 miles on odometer) transferred to the Oceanside, CA location. I paid $200 for the transfer. The car arrived on 5/6. Here's what's happened since.

5/6 — Car arrives at Oceanside CarMax to receive post shipping quality check.

5/8 — I call for an update. Rep tells me the car had a software recall and was dropped at a Honda dealer on 5/7. Confirmed this is a legit recall. No big deal, glad they are taking care of that.

5/11 — Call again since I haven't heard and its a 1-day recall at most. Rep says car is still at the dealer. No ETA.

5/12, 10:30am — I call to check in. Rep says car is back from the dealer and now at Oceanside CarMax and that service needs to "swap some parts." Could be up to 5 business days. No specifics on what parts. I pressed her but she didn't know.

5/12, 2:30pm — Call again later that day. Different rep says car is back at Oceanside and needs only 24 hours to be ready. No knowledge of the "5 days / parts swap" from the earlier call. She said she escalated this and someone from the location will call me today because I requested clarity.

5/12, 5:50pm — No callback received (was promised one). I call again. Rep escalates and gets someone from the Oceanside location on the line. He checks with sales and tells me the car is still at the dealer and hasn't come back yet. What!?

So in one day I got three different stories: parts swap / 5 days, 24 hours, and car isn't even back from the dealer even though the previous two calls said the car arrived back. Nobody seems to know what's actually going on.

My main questions:

• Has anyone dealt with a CarMax transfer getting stuck in this kind of limbo where no one can give me consistent answers?
• Is there a better escalation path than just calling customer service over and over?

Hello, I'm going back to work after over a year off and having a baby (long story lol) I've been applying to normal jobs that pay decent ($23-$25 in CA) and not hearing back. I wanted to avoid going back to car sales because of the long hours and wanting to have a normal schedule for my new baby. However, I can't wait much longer and I saw Carmax was hiring. Realistically, are the hours all over the place like car sales? Can you make at least $60k? Do you have to do all the financing paperwork with the customer etc? Thank you!

Hi lol. So this is like me venting in a sense. I was super excited to start working here at CarMax during training they made it seem so easy and that all of the calls will be just you selling a vehicle basically. What they don’t include in training as they are buttering you up is that most of your calls are not like that AT ALL. You’re judge off a metrics system that’s all AI, you’re being watched by aux times, you get told to get the business office involved in most situations just for the BO to be annoyed with you even though you’re getting told TO DO IT.

You’re in meeting after meeting about your performance because you aren’t doing the script right even though you were told to not sound scripted. CEC job is honestly very annoying and I dread going to work everyday is there a way to end this cycle of dread? This job is not hard at all it isn’t, but what is the metrics and the high expectations especially in situations where we are now after tax season so getting calls for people wanting to buy cars is very low. Does this get better, or it is my sign to kick rocks and find a new job?

I am a workaholic but when I start to hate a job that’s different for me, and it also feels very childish to me for me to hate my job so much. For anyone else in this situation let me know because I am on the “looking for a new job” boat.😭

Honestly exhausting working at the CEC now, more work, same pay, more micromanaging. Very Iconic experience

I've been a Store Sales Consultant for 10+ years. So for the customers the best thing to do is to go to the store and just meet with a sales consultant and get an actual business cards so that way you will have a store contact or if someone is recommended carmax to you ask them for the sales consultant information and let that person start with you. Try your best to not start online because who ever helps you will get half of the sale and say you have to come back for another day for whatever reasons now the 2 sales people will get .25 of the sale and if you want to trade in a car also don't be surprised if that person isn't showing much excitement helping you out.

For the tire kickers who just want to look and drive 3 cars to get a feel that's not a good idea. Especially with its all over the place. Know I understand when they are close to along with each other but don't be rude, we don't mind assist you but come to carmax and waste the sales person time. Because most seniors consultant will find a way to stop assisting you.

It's true from all the previous post carmax doesn't truly care much for the sales people. And i will say the carmax formula of the no haggling prices is great but I won't lie and say you won't be able to find a car cheaper else where. But if that's the case don't come to carmax and try to keep our inventory on hold while you browse other places. Also carmax isn't the place when you want a use car but you want it to be in mint condition. It's A USED CAR so it will show some issues with scratches depending on how the owner kept up with the car.

But after working here I would buy a car here but I'll get it checked out in the 10 days and if there's any issue I'll partner with service to what ever addressed. And also carmax will stand behind their product but if anything happens you have to stay consistent and get whatever addressed.

At my store, we started doing accompanied test drives again haven’t had to do it since before Covid. I’m wanting to see if other stores across the nation have put this new policy into effect. If they have, what’re your guys thoughts, what’s the reason behind the change. I loved the Test Drive Alone because a lot of my sales came from being double engaged and selling multiple at the same time. I’m worried to see how this will reflect my sales now.