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My CarMax experience today was fairly positive. Took my car there this morning. Wholesale trade-in is about $19K. Car is immaculate with low miles. Needs nothing. The CarMax people were very friendly and casual. No pretention. Waited 20 minutes and had a price of $16K. I wanted to go by the MBZ dealer, so drove to Fletcher Jones Newport Beach MBZ. They were very friendly and professional. Offered me $15K. I thought I might try one more MBZ dealer, so drove north to House of Imports in Buena Park. This place was a complete dump. I couldn't understand anything the various staff said to me, due to extremely heavy accents (I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea). Without even looking at the car, they offered me $13K. Amazing.

I'm going to try to sell it on Craigslist during the next 2 days, and if no bites, will unload it at CarMax.

I will add that while waiting at CarMax, I had a chance to peruse the lot. They have a huge selection of high end cars at the lot in Irvine, and they are all very clean with low miles and have some type of CarMax warranty. The prices, however, were high. A buyer could easily save several thousand by shopping private party, but then there is the financing aspect. I guess cash is king here. For a car like mine, they are offering $16K and will put it on the lot for $23K. I feel its an unreasonable profit margin, but what do I know.