Truthfully the answer is there really is no ‘good place’ to buy a car. Carmax is like any other used auto dealers. The main difference is there is no haggle price and you are not being watched like a hawk with some greedy salesmen.
I however do question whether or not they actually do perform that 125 inspection before selling the car.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/carmax.html
If they were at all really concerned they’d give you how much pad on the brakes are left on the car, whether the tires need to be replaced and instead of focusing so much on the look of the car, we’d have to check the engine ourselves to make sure it’s in good condition. The biggest problem is so many of these cars come and go and it’s hard to keep track of whether or not something happened to the car like flooding or some other accident. But, as someone who hates buying new cars with the potential of it being a lemon and haggling pricing is just ridiculous, especially when the value of the car depreciates once you sign it and drive it off the lot. But if the very low rating on consumeraffairs is anything.. it’s really mostly a wonder if it’s just a site where people vent their frustrations at but a few of them were not properly informed. A cracked windshield review for an example in the consumeraffairs site, you do generally go through your insurance company. Not the dealer. If the crack was there when you bought the car, well maybe you should have looked a bit harder. Car buying is rough as it is, but you are still buying a used vehicle that has been driven and more than likely it has all original parts on it besides the oil changes. Which i do hope Carmax does prior to selling the car.
I also know that many used car dealerships often time sell cars with issues but it’s basically ‘as is’. If there was a transmission leak when the car was sold to a dealer, chances are it’s going to be sold that way. I’d like to think that Carmax is better than any other used dealer and if they are not fixing these obvious problems, then why would consumers trust a dealer that simply wipes away any leaks and put tape on it hoping that it’ll fall off once it’s being driven and the consumer happens to notice transmission fluid on the garage floor. This was never the case with the cars i bought there.
I had what any car owner dealt with, minor repairs. The biggest 2 was a head gasket leak (which was under warranty) and a new BCM module because certain things was not working in the car. The BCM module set me back $1000 but the car wasn’t exactly aging either. This certainly wasn’t Carmax’s fault nor the previous owners. It’s really just something that went wrong with the car. My tires also had bad belts on them which wasn’t really apparent until 5 years after i had the car. The tires did look fine but the tread was looking a bit shallow when the tires were going bad. But again this is normal for any used car. There are times when there are lemon cars and Carmax ends up with them. Hopefully they catch them and get rid of them but unfortunately with all the cars that come and go there it’s not really easy to find the bad ones. I do think Carmax should be more accommodating because it’s really easy to lose reputation when things go wrong and especially when ratings are not very good on consumer websites.
With any car buying, having mechanical experience is always a plus and while buying a newer used car, such as a 2015 can have some pretty new problems. It’s not always the case but at the same time Carmax should really understand that if someone is selling their car that is only a year old, there better not be anything wrong with it. People do get bored with their cars or the cars were just rentals that the rentals generally get booted after a year or two. With that being said, a car that is 1-4 years old is far more reliable than one that is 6+ years. Unless Carmax doesn’t even bother to check the condition of the engine, transmission and the rest of the car i don’t really see any reason to go somewhere else because more than likely any other place won’t even bother to check, they buy the car from someone and then resell it a day after it was cleaned and waxed. This then generally causes a fear of buying from a used dealership and people will only buy brand new and deal with the haggle price.
So is Carmax really worth it? I’d say if their extended warranty covers whatever engine or transmission problems i’d say yes, long as you follow their maintenance schedule you shouldn’t have any problems whatsoever. And tires, brakes or sparkplugs, well these things will go out when they go out. Brakes and spark plugs are easy to fix. Tires, well just check them before you buy the car, chances are they are not all season tires and you will want something with a little more grip anyway. I don’t think many dealers really put on good tires on new cars so it’s really still a good deal in my book and it’s probably around that time the tires on your new used car needs replacing depending on the condition of them. I got 5 years out of mine and the car handled decent in snow. Like with any other place, take your time to check everything over and Carmax generally has friendly, no pressure sales associates. Also you will be responsible for any defects/recalls. I don’t see the need why Carmax needs to do something extra when the car hasn’t been sold yet. If there is a recall, Carmax usually will do it after the fact or you can bring it into the dealer. It’s also a good idea if you are looking at a car at Carmax, find a couple you like and can afford. If something is wrong with the car you like and no other vehicles are in your price range, i might suggest holding off for now until you can afford a few different vehicles. Even the app is pretty good and you can ask your local dealer to ship the car you are interested. You may be out $200 though, so it’s only really worth it if you can’t drive to another dealer.
And unfortunately they don’t hold cars, it’s whoever has the money first. So it’s generally a good idea to keep an eye out. Once you have the money, the more often you visit the greater the chance you’ll find one that you like and maybe the salesperson can help you out with that.
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