CarMax

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

This is my opinion of Carmax in South Jordan: The con artist Service Manager lied to me and stole very expensive items off of my car. Over $6000 spent by me now thus far on my car because Carmax did not honor its 30-day warranty and now I need to spend another $5000 due to this and because the service dept. stole my wheels/rims and put damaged ones on that were not intended or made for the car, without telling me. They kept the car during the first 3 weeks of my warranty at their service department supposedly to make repairs. None were properly made and most of the things we brought to the service manager Marcuss attention during the first 30 days were not fixed at all by Carmax. We have had to make the repairs and pay for what the extended warranty did not cover. They replaced my perfectly good and beautiful rims with corroded cracked rims that are for a different car even though nothing was wrong with the rims. They didnt inform us, of course, that they stole the rims from off the car, and they never gave them back. While they had my car there, supposedly to help me, not to rip me off, they stole the wheels and replaced them with broken corroded wheels from a cheaper car model and the wheels had obviously been in an accident. Someone there made a few thousand dollars from this theft. I brought this to Carmaxs attention the day I received the car back after they traded out the wheels, and they completely brushed me off, denying that they switched out my wheels. They also didnt tell me they were putting in a $30 part in one area of the car, when the car required a part 10 times that cost. I was stranded a few times because of this and ended up paying $500 to have the correct part installed months later. Many times in my dealings with the manager during this warranty period he changed the subject from my car to me personally and started issuing personal put-downs. I was only there for them to fix the car theyd sold me, which had a lot of mechanical problems, including even starting. He made me feel like I shouldnt be asking them to honor their warranty. He gave me loaner cars that had mechanical defects and were filthy from off their lot--one caused me to get a ticket because it wouldnt go and then it would suddenly surge forward into traffic. My experience couldnt have been worse, and Im still paying for it in repairs that should have been covered under my warranty, and in parts that I need to replace because they stripped my good ones off after I brought it in for service during the 30-day warranty period.

RY

Ryan May

I cant speak to the buying process, but I can speak to the trade-in valuation process (or appraising your car to sell directly to CarMax). They make extremely low-ball offers and hope you take that trade in value or appraisal offer because they likely make more on trade-ins than they do on the actual cars they sell (because of the low offers). Ive had 2 cars appraised at CarMax. One was an average quality car and on was in excellent condition. On both, they offered lower than other dealerships offered by over 15%. Those dealerships were still offering only about average trade-in value, so we werent getting amazing offers on either car. CarMax just low-balled both offers. They give reasons that are really just smoke screens. Ultimately, they offer much less than the Manheim Market Report value which is what the car auctions (where they get a good portion of their cars) sell vehicles for. Theyll tell you something like "It costs around $2000 to certify a car" which is just not true. It does cost money to get the car certified. I worked for a dealership doing accounting reporting and the cost to certify a trade-in or auction car is $350 -$500 (depending on what needs to be done e.g. air filters, oil change, etc). The issue I have is that they try to cover up the fact that they are low-balling you with reasons that are just not true. If they came out and said "our offers are a little lower because we are trying to make money on your trade-in and minimize our risk should we get a car that is hard to resell". I can accept that. From a business perspective, I get that and can understand even if I dont like the low-ball offer. Its the fact that they say there are "a lot of this particular car on the market right now" and that it costs so much to certify their vehicles. Those are just easy to throw at someone who doesnt understand how the process works and they are just not true. I have a problem with the dishonesty. Offer me whatever you want to offer where it makes sense from a business perspective and let me decide, but I dont need to be lied to. I am happy to revise this review if I am misrepresenting CarMax based on my previous experience, but I seriously doubt they can substantiate the claims made concerning my car or any other car they have made offers on. Im open to seeing proof to the contrary, though.

MA

Matt Warren

If there were ever a time that I wish there were a negative rating to give, this would be it. I was looking to sell my car to CARMAX and I had done my own research about what my car was worth before heading to the store. I did many different comparisons on what my car was worth and found that I certainly wasnt upside down and could most definitely get some money back (even with a low book offer). Now, I know that dealers are out there to make money, and I didnt expect the amount that I would have gotten had I sold it to a private buyer. However, they offered me less than what I even owed on the car (which was about $3000 below all the low book prices). At that point I told the sales rep "no thanks, I wont sell my car now". Instead of him saying "thank you for your time" or "maybe we can work something out", he chose the approach of trying to insult me instead. He badgered me into giving him an answer as to why I was walking away from the deal. I told him that I did my research and that they were low balling me. He then tells me "do you think you can just walk in to Kelly Blue Book and they will give you what it is worth?" At that point I demanded my keys back and left. This is the first and last time I would ever work with CARMAX. I should have known they were going to be shady the second they asked me what I owed on the car before they went to run the numbers. Isnt it convenient for them to offer me almost the same amount as what I owed? I would pretty much paying for them to take my car. P.S. anyone who is looking to by a great used car at a great price, look into Enterprise Car Sales. They treated us right. I am throwing this edit in to also say that I went to Low Book Sales the day after to see what they could do for me and they gave me a blue book value that I was satisfied with. Carmax is stupid for trying to low ball me like they did.