Would you buy a car from Carmax?

It seems like Carmax has reasonable prices, and they claim that their cars are in really good condition. Also, they pretty much have every car you can imagine, because they have a vast network across the country.

I read this post about how great their warranty is: http://dougdemuro.kinja.com/the-coolest-unreliable-cars-you-can-get-with-a-carmax-w-1570429114

But I also read this list of reviews about how atrocious their warranty is:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/auto_warranty/maxcare-auto-warranty.html

I bought my GTI CPO from the dealer. I had one electrical problem that the dealer fixed under warranty. I had a few other problems (heat pump, fuel injector) that was covered under a "known flaw" extended warranty.

Anyway, given the options: CarMax with Warranty or CPO from dealer? Or go without a warranty at all?

Here's the thing about Consumer Affairs. People only complain when they have a negative experience, they never submit positive reviews.

You should compare a CPO warranty and CarMax warranty and determine what works better for you.

There are some pretty crappy 3rd party mechanical break down insurance companies out there (I.E. if you blow a head gasket they only cover parts but no labor).

But in my opinon i would buy a car from CarMax, i've brought multiple cars to be appraised to CarMax and they have done very detailed inspections and caught all faults.

If there were two identical cars, one at Carmax & one at VW with CPO I'd buy the CPO. Reason being if it needs to have a warranty repair it will be done at the dealer who knows how to repair the car. Carmax may be OK, but I'd be leery of them repairing a car they have no knowledge about.

Guy I worked with a few years ago bought a Buick from them. It seems it too 3 or 4 tries to get anything fixed. He wasn't very happy with his Carmax warranty. This is just secondhand info, I have no personal experience with them.

I bought my GTI from CarMax. They fixed a few things under warranty and they send the mechanical issues to the dealer, they don’t really do any big ticket items themselves. They did get me a whole new stock intake under warranty when I bought the car because mine was cracked.


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1ashchuckton said:

If there were two identical cars, one at Carmax & one at VW with CPO I'd buy the CPO. Reason being if it needs to have a warranty repair it will be done at the dealer who knows how to repair the car. Carmax may be OK, but I'd be leery of them repairing a car they have no knowledge about.
Guy I worked with a few years ago bought a Buick from them. It seems it too 3 or 4 tries to get anything fixed. He wasn't very happy with his Carmax warranty. This is just secondhand info, I have no personal experience with them.

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:word:

My father in law got a MB C230 Kompressor from Carmax, after quite some time & miles, the fuel pump stopped working, he was serviced three times with just a fuel injection cleaning, before they finally realized by my In-law's free inspection at a MB dealer what was the issue. While prices and warranty can be competitive with Carmax, I agree they do not know sometimes what is the issue on certain cars.

Do you need to take it to Carmax to get service under the Maxcare warranty, or can I take it to my VW dealer?

Carmax charges 3-5,000 over what the car is actually worth.

JSwag420 said:

Carmax charges 3-5,000 over what the car is actually worth.

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and in my experience, will give you about 3k less than what your car is actually worth if you try to sell it to them.

They do seem low on trade in and a bit high on Sale vehicles.

With regards to extended warranty, the Indy shop I take my BMW to speaks very highly of what it covers. They do all of the work on their Euro cars.

The only reason you’d buy a car from carmax is if you’re going to get something woefully unreliable or exotic, and buy the max care warranty.

So I did a search on Carmax for 2015-16 GTI, w DSG and Sunroof. It gave me 18 results mostly Autobahn with a few SE levels. Mileage ranged from 6k-64k. Price: $19k-$26k

I did the same search on AutoTrader within 100mi of my zip:
12 results. Mileage 0k-49K. Prices: $18.5k-$24k and 3 new vehicles $24k-$32k.

In the middle of the pack, a black Autobahn with 35K miles would cost you $22k from Carmax, and a black Autobahn (used, not CPO) with 33k miles would cost you $21.5k from a Mini dealer.

So it looks like you might spend an extra $500-1500 at Carmax. You could probably also talk the dealer down by $500-$1000, whereas my understanding is that Carmax won't budge on pricing. I imagine you would also less in trade.

I guess the extra $$$ that you spend goes towards:
1. Dealing with a large company, and many customers may feel that this gives them a little more security that they will stand behind their product. (Conversely, some customers will feel that they will be treated as a number.)
2. Convenience of being able to get any car you want, at pretty much any time you want.
3. Rigorous Carmax inspection.

I agree with 1ashchuckton. If I had a choice of Carmax and CPO, I'd take CPO. If I had a choice between Carmax and a dealer I know, I'd go with my own dealer. But if I had a choice between Carmax and a random dealer, I'd probably go with Carmax.

I personally prefer a private sale, the dealer always has to make money. Factory warranty has always been enough for me...if the car survives that long you have a good one. Minor repairs down the road are to be expected. All that said, if I couldn't find a reasonable private sale I would just buy from a dealer. Carmax or otherwise.

I worked at Carmax, their warranty is pretty good overall although pricey. You can take the car to any repair shop and the copay is $50 more for you than if you took it to Carmax themselves. TBH the cars are only as good as the previous owner was to it. Yeah they inspect them and fix stuff broken when they come in but not to the extent they advertise IMO.

I'd personally go for a private sale where the owner has previous maintenance records first and get a PPI, but if I didn't want to deal with any of that I'd get one from Carmax and consider the warranty even though you are paying a premium for the ease of no haggling bullshit or sketchy people.

My girlfriend got a 335i from Carmax and she got the warranty and it's paid off so far since several electrical issues arised shortly after purchase and more recently some oil leaks. What would've been several thousand dollars only cost her her copay at our trusted mechanic's shop.

To add to that I'd definitely take it to either the dealer or trusted indy shop instead of Carmax and pay the extra $50, not often but sometimes I heard of our techs making a big mistake on a car they were working on that they weren't familiar with. They'd make it right but not a headache I'd want to deal with if it were mine.

I think Caramax it striving to really provide a quality experience and good pricing. I have had good luck with them but I would take a CPO car from a dealer over Carmax 100% of the time.