CarMax Experience.........

[asphaltgambler]

Some of you know here (past Posts) that I'm looking to buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. Have been looking for a while now, used, with low miles, history, etc. I've looked over a few, tested driven fewer and end up mostly............. disapointed

I expanded my search to the entire country decided to stick with major dealers for obvious reasons. I am a picky guy anyway, but I wanted a specific color combo plus all the above and I 'buy' based on the seller's vibe. Finally found what appeared to be "The One" at a NC Carmax location recently. I called, salesperson answers (woman) say that I'm in Va. close to DC. That I'm looking for a "Cream Puff.

I tell her before we get going that I'm in the business, BMW/Porsche Technician and an enthusist. That I expect this Jeep based on pictures, discription and carfax to be at LEAST 9 out of 10 on a 1-10 scale. She says she hears me loud and clear and is taking notes of conversation.

I could pay $250 transfer fee to get it to the Carmax nearest me (non refundable). I agree only on the condition that she personaly inspects the vehicle, test drive and give me tire measurements. THAT if it did not meet my criteria, no hard feelings, transfer, I would just move on. She reports back to @1 hour later - says it's a 9.5

I order the transfer and tell her based on her report as a Carmax representative I'm pulling the trigger on the fee. She then has a sales guy call my from my local CM who tells me he will be my contact /sales guy. I tell new guy please keep me posted as to when it arrives and gave him the same speech about who am and my expectations.

First week goes by, week end passes nothing. I email guy about status - 2 more days go by. I call........my guy is not working today. I ask Joe Blow sales guy to check to see if my $30K silver Jeep ever made it?? He said wait a minute..................yes it arrived two days ago, passed state and emissions and is ready for you to pick up!!

So make an appointment for this past sat afternoon. It's raining in the morning. I call again to confirm and asked if he would pull it inside to let it dry so I could inspect it. Get there on time. Guys meets me, ask where trhe Jeep is? He said "Oh - outside......I've been so busy with other customers that I have'nt had time...

Me "Really......that busy huh"? we go out in the rain, get in. Wife is in co-pilot, me in the back. He starts it, we get moving 10 ft. wife says "What's that Light on the dash?"
Me I look over "TPMS" he turns the wipers on and the drivers blade rubber is litertaly
completely apart smearing the drivers view. I tap the sales guy on the shoulder and said "REALLY?" ...... are you kidding"?

Guy apologizes.....wife gets in the drivers seat and we start down the road. Suddenly the exhaust note becomes an issue......we have driven a few, this one drones at 40mph like a big block chevy in a '32 Ford, no way can it be stock. Sure enough......................we stop, I get out in the rain and look under the rear, someone has installed aftermarket rear straight exhaust.


After the test drive we bring it in the service lane out of the weather and give it a once over. Sales guy promissed to have someone dry it off so we could look at the paint, body. Comes back about 3 mins later with a squeegee and hands it to me!!

Ok.....ok... so I wipe it down and start inspecting. It's missing the rear cargo cover in side. I look at the sales guy again. pissed.

I tell him lets go back to his office I want to talk to the sales manager. SM comes in and straight away starts making excuses. I tell him if I buy it I want the OE exhaust installed. He refuses. Says that passed Va inspection. I said no it shouldn't - your guy completely missed the wipers. I say I know what's required because I'm a state inspector (show him my license). Not bugding.

I have them fetch the Store Genral manager. Start the entire story agian. He offers to refund the transfer fee, nothing else. I said I don't want the fee refunded, I want the $30k Silver Jeep SRT-8 sitting outside in the condition I was told multiple times it was supposed to be in.

We walked, got our fee refunded. Once home I obtained the email address of most every top exec in Carmax. Sent them each a copy of this story with my email and personal cell. Have heard nothing as of today

[Brando]

CarMax, the way car buying is supposed to be...

Sorry you had to deal with that. They don't exactly make their money on catering to their clients, if you know what I mean.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Every car that I've ever looked at on our local Carmax lot has been dirty and overpriced, some have even had blatantly obvious damage to items like trim, cupholders, etc. Easy stuff to fix if you give a damn. They're also typically a good 10-20% more expensive that other dealers.

Frankly I think they bank on the "ease of purchase" and marketing, their cars and service are average at best.

[Por_sha911]

Contact the authorities in your state and report them for a vehicle passing inspection with glaring violations.

[kaisen]

Tell me what you're looking for and I'll show you what's out there at the wholesale level. Can't hurt. Sorry for your experience at CarMax...... it's tough to be a car enthusiast and be happy with your experience at a car dealer. Kinda like being a food connoisseur and expecting the guy at the window at McDonald's to share your passion for a good salad.

[asphaltgambler]

Yes all good points............. My view is that I thought that their MARKETING business model WAS customer service - ??

[kaisen]

So I thought about this on the drive home.

The first sales girl isn't to blame. At all. She wouldn't know if it were missing the cargo cover, or if one even came from the factory. She wouldn't know if the exhaust was stock. Probably the only GC SRT8 she's ever been in. Wiper blades? Really!!!?? $20 wiper blades and you're bent out of shape??

She's probably looking at the car the way 99.99% of the public would: smells, stains, singes, burns, cracks, dings, dents, paintwork, chips, stars, scuffs, scrapes, etc. And she said it was a 9.5. Was it? Other than aftermarket exhaust (which some would see as a plus), bad $20 wipers (which she wouldn't have tried if it wasn't raining there), and a missing (but replaceable) cargo cover that most people take out and leave in their garage to collect dust. Was it otherwise a 9.0 or higher?

TPMS light? Like a low air pressure light. Would you be upset if it had a low fuel light? How about a low windshield washer fluid light? Probably wasn't on when she looked at it, may have been from transport. Easily corrected, probably with twenty seconds and an air nozzle. And you were upset about this?

However, the toolbox at your local CM dropped the ball on the sales process in quite a few ways. But none on the vehicle itself.

So you just spent a couple hundred bucks of CarMax's money to have a vehicle shipped a few hundred miles all over a few abnormal expectations and a busy/unresponsive salesperson. I'll bet that CM GM is absolutely lit. At you.

If it were otherwise a 9.0 you could/should have bought it and 'corrected' the vehicle offered to swap exhausts on a SRT forum, went to WalMart and popped for new wiper blades, filled up the tires, and got yourself a used cargo cover for less than they just ate in shipping costs.

[nostatic]

This is one reason I like to buy new cars. No issues, no excuses. And a reason I like to find a dealership that gives a crap rather than the one with the lowest price.

[Tobra]

However, the toolbox at your local CM dropped the ball on the sales process in quite a few ways. But none on the vehicle itself.

Eric, this is just not consistent with the facts as presented.

The car had an illegal exhaust on it, they lied and said it would be fine. The car was missing parts, the cargo cover and had non-functioning wipers. They are supposed to check that sort of stuff out, they advertise that they do. They will tell you the vehicle is inspected prior to transferring from store to store, clearly they did not do that. They did not even bother to see if it had enough air in the tires.

Really, they did not do much correctly at all, nothing that I can discern, other than getting the car from point "A" to point "B"

[racer]

IN a situation like this.. who see's the sales commission? the end retail location? the one it shipped from? Just "carmax" corporation as overlord?

It certainly seems like the two CM offices were not on the same page about how the car should be presented.. Or, like most cases, they didn't really give a ****. They saw the buyer as a nit picky prick and weren't going to budge.

Kaisen brings up some valid points and a rational way to look at the actual product you were presented with. Tobra validly mentions that CM folks did drop the ball too.

So.. where does that leave you on the SRT8 Search?

[slow&rusty]

So you are pissed over:
1) $20 in wipers
2) $80 rear cargo cover (jeep cherokee rear cargo cover | eBay)
Is it obvious \ intuitive that the rear cargo cover is missing anyway?

But you got:
1) $250 back
2) $1,000+ performance exhaust system which is obviously 50 state legal and any SRT-8 owner would trade their stock system plus cash in a heartbeat for

These things are known for temperamental TPMS sensors also.

I would say you fared OK, you need to chill.

Yasin

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Every car that I've ever looked at on our local Carmax lot has been dirty and overpriced, some have even had blatantly obvious damage to items like trim, cupholders, etc.

Frankly I think they bank on the "ease of purchase" and marketing, their cars and service are average at best.

That's been my experience as well. The cars are damn dirty with everyone crawling all over them.

People do like the no haggle model. I had a long discussion with a sales person there. Even people from countries where they like to haggle as a part of their culture like it. They don't have to go home to their wives thinking they left something on the table.

I was in there once and they used to have an ad with a guy that didn't know what kind of car he wanted. Just showed up and browsed the computer until he found something. There was a guy doing exactly that. A younger guy, slumming in his sweatpants like a trip out for beer. I was shocked as an enthusiast.

Originally Posted by kaisen

TPMS light? Like a low air pressure light. Would you be upset if it had a low fuel light? How about a low windshield washer fluid light? Probably wasn't on when she looked at it, may have been from transport. Easily corrected, probably with twenty seconds and an air nozzle. And you were upset about this?

I had an 05 Chrysler and this whole system failed on us. Failed in my sister in laws van as well. They claimed it had to do with the batteries in the wheel going dead. ALL of them????

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by kaisen

So I thought about this on the drive home.

The first sales girl isn't to blame. At all. She wouldn't know if it were missing the cargo cover, or if one even came from the factory. She wouldn't know if the exhaust was stock. Probably the only GC SRT8 she's ever been in. Wiper blades? Really!!!?? $20 wiper blades and you're bent out of shape??

She's probably looking at the car the way 99.99% of the public would: smells, stains, singes, burns, cracks, dings, dents, paintwork, chips, stars, scuffs, scrapes, etc. And she said it was a 9.5. Was it? Other than aftermarket exhaust (which some would see as a plus), bad $20 wipers (which she wouldn't have tried if it wasn't raining there), and a missing (but replaceable) cargo cover that most people take out and leave in their garage to collect dust. Was it otherwise a 9.0 or higher?

TPMS light? Like a low air pressure light. Would you be upset if it had a low fuel light? How about a low windshield washer fluid light? Probably wasn't on when she looked at it, may have been from transport. Easily corrected, probably with twenty seconds and an air nozzle. And you were upset about this?

However, the toolbox at your local CM dropped the ball on the sales process in quite a few ways. But none on the vehicle itself.

So you just spent a couple hundred bucks of CarMax's money to have a vehicle shipped a few hundred miles all over a few abnormal expectations and a busy/unresponsive salesperson. I'll bet that CM GM is absolutely lit. At you.

If it were otherwise a 9.0 you could/should have bought it and 'corrected' the vehicle offered to swap exhausts on a SRT forum, went to WalMart and popped for new wiper blades, filled up the tires, and got yourself a used cargo cover for less than they just ate in shipping costs.

If you're paying top retail dollar plus a transfer fee for a car that is "certified" to be in top mechanical and cosmetic condition, would you be happy? One of the justifications for retail pricing is that the car is supposed to go through a thorough mechanical inspection as well as undergo a thorough detailing. This message is a central part of CarMax's marketing - buy a used car that's just as good as a new one.

Wiper blades aren't a big deal, nobody would argue that. But what does that say about the level of inspection that the car underwent and the owner paid for (hidden in the retail pricing). Low air in the tires? Perhaps. But again, why didn't the inspection at the receiving CarMax catch it? Furthermore, you know as well as I do that TPMS systems can be temperamental and relatively expensive to repair. I do somewhat agree on the exhaust, most people not familiar with an SRT would likely not notice that the exhaust system was aftermarket. Coming from someone that has swapped a loud aftermarket exhaust for a stock one, you could have made money on that deal. I traded a Supersprint from my 318ti for a stock exhaust and $500.

[aigel]

I would only sell to Carmax and have done so with great success.

I have studied their lot enough to realize that they have a ton of junk at elevated prices and that it is hopeless to wait for a car that doesn't fit that mold.

I think their business model is volume. They may not make much on each car but turn them fast. Also, most of their sales people appear to be on the job for a few weeks - certainly not being paid well or too worried about their "career".

When buying used, getting it from the first owner with records beats any other way of buying used.

The car in question here may be a model that gets ridden hard and put away wet (I see a lot of guys in their 20s and 30s drive them). It is probably as easy to find a clean one as it is to get a good 5.0 90s Mustang ...

George

[Rick Lee]

I don't believe any of the BS about the 120 pt. inspection anyway. It's pure marketing and any one of us enthusiasts could find plenty of stuff that shouldn't have passed anyone's inspection, if they really even performed one. That's why I'd rather buy a CPO car with a serious, long-lasting warranty. It's been a while since I shopped at CM, but last time I did, they weren't offering much of a warranty. It can take more than 30 days of ownership to find all the little things. I know I haven't used the windshield wipers on my 993 more than about once a year. And I can't remember the last time I used the heat.

Sorry to be blunt here, but it would take some serious effort for a woman to convince me she knows something about the cars she sells, even if she were limited to just one make. CM sells everything, so you know she's not going to know much about anything other than the best selling stuff or whatever she drives herself. Even the male car salemen I've dealt with are rarely enthusiasts on the level of most of the folks here. They're in business to move cars and fast, not ask you to care for their baby and give them first dibs if you decide to sell it later (as most private buyers I've dealt with have done with me).

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by aigel

I would only sell to Carmax and have done so with great success.

+1 have sold them 3 of my cars. Always offered more than the dealer who I was buying the new one from. Never thought about buying a used car from them as I'd rather go CPO if I'm looking used. They do sell Jeep/Chrysler new though (at least the one near me does).

[motion]

So, if I want to unload a newer Mercedes, is Carmax worth a shot? Will they give me wholesale trade-in, or even close?

[chocolatelab]

friend just sold a 2003 hundai to carmax for 6k. he was thinking he might get 3.5 on craigslist.

sounds like a good place to unload a car for sure

[aigel]

You just go there. They give you an offer that's good for a week. No cost to you and usually quickly in 30 minutes time. Then you can think about it and if you like it, take a week to buy a new car and drop off the old one there. There is no risk in doing this. They will pay with a bank draft, so if you need the cash to buy the new car, make sure you time it right.

George

[Radioactive]

I also sold to CM

Dealer offered 13K for Chevy Crew Cab trade in.

Carmax offered 18K!.............. Walked out with a check.