CarMax Experience.........

[notmytarga]

So.... I read it all. Celebratory pictures will be needed.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by 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.

+1. This is especially true when you keep your cars for 10+ years, as I do. For the first 3-4 years, most of the issues will manifest themselves, and these would be covered under warranty.

-Z

[asphaltgambler]

Just picked it up - all is good!!!!! - will follow up mon

[asphaltgambler]

OK................. Mon am - not so good. Because of heavy traffic friday evening, I was only able to test drive it @5 miles. Diff noise is gone - that's good. Check engine light not on. My wife meets me later at the dealership. She gets in and starts to follow me home....................we don't get 3 miles. She calls me and said the check engine light just came back on.

We then have to navigate over 4 lanes of rush hour traffic to hit the next off ramp. Takes us 40 mins just to double back 3 miles to the dealership. They appologized and gave us another loaner, service dept is closed over the weekend and nothing will happen until today.

I strongly feel that the rear oxy sensors are lazy and that is what is causing the C/E light to return, but since it is a symptimatic code, Jeep warranty will not address (I believe)

[asphaltgambler]

Tried to upload pics from my phone but it is the wrong format. Will try to work on that

[Paul_Heery]

Wow. Are you now married to this car? It seems like it has been in their service bays ever since you bought it. I guess you are outside of their "5-Day Money-Back Guarantee". I would not have been as patient as you have been.

[asphaltgambler]

Yeah - we had the opportunity to give it back - still do. Since it has been back at their service dept the day after we bought it the 5 day return and the 30 day warranty are still in place - minus 1 day.

[asphaltgambler]

Update to the update today...............................service writer calls me..............seems they (carmax) checked the cat install from the dealer and the slob that did it butchered one of the oxygen sensors (it has 4). Instead of replacing it - he shipped it. Awesum!!

So instead of taking it back to Jeep - Carmax has ordered two front oxygen sensors and two rears from the dealer and they will install them themselves. now looking like Wed=Thur for pick up

[gprsh924]

Quote de 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.

+1. This is especially true when you keep your cars for 10+ years, as I do. For the first 3-4 years, most of the issues will manifest themselves, and these would be covered under warranty.



-Z

Even if you plan on keeping a car for 10+ years, there is still great potential to save a ton of money by buying a 1-2 yr old car. Obviously there are many variables that can impact the result of this equation.

[asphaltgambler]

So Carmax is now replacing all 4 oxygen sensor and retesting - should get back by Thur - here are a few pics from the web - looks exactly as this. For some reason I cannot convert my actual bitmap images to a valid file acceptable here.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

What kind of mileage do those things get?

[asphaltgambler]

I think 14-15 highway - from my research they are tuned a little on the 'fat' side - most guys use a predator brand tuner to obtain better performance and also better cruise mileage - with their tune the cruise mileage picks up 1-2 mpg. But at WOT picks up @25HP at the flywheel.

I think the standard GC Jeep with the 5.7 hemi is not much better - something like 16-17 highway

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Makes sense - that's actually slightly better than I expected. Neat - enjoy and glad it worked out okay in the end!

[asphaltgambler]

Thanks all!

[stealthn]

Wow highes and lows, sorry i don't anything about Carmax, what is their buiness model?

[asphaltgambler]

I'm in the business..................this is what I know about them: They buy clean, low mileage late model cars for retail, then sell at or just under full retail. The amount of re-conditioning said vehicles depends on the margin that's already established. All trades are wholesale valued based on region - then + OR - $$ figure according to model, color, equipment, number of similar vehs in their current inventory.

The sales guys make an "average" salary with very little % on each deal. The company is large enough where some large bank underwrites their prime (top tier)customers. For less credit-worthy B/A and two other banks offer deals to the lesser candidates. I'm sure that Carmax is getting front end and back end % off of each deal; cumulative. Also, they sell mechanical warranty contracts. They may be large and profitable enough now where that is done all in house, instead of someone else underwriting that.

Their service dept mainly supports the reconditioning / sales, but also warranty work when service contracts are sold and that veh needs repairs.

[asphaltgambler]

Ok - picked the jeep up last night, all is good!! - We live @ 1hr from that location - so we were a little on edge at first but later settled in and enjoyed out 'new' purchase riding into the sunset. Serv dept a little slow and unresponsive towards the end of all this, but overall they handled the issues correctly and did what they should have done.

For me the fit and finish inside and out is as good (or better) than most other comparable SUV's...............and I am very picky. As far as performance the only thing that comes even close is the X5 4.8IS - but at almost half the cost.

Also the ONE thing it does have is adjustable pedal assy (motorized) that can be pre-set per driver. My wife really likes this because she is 5' 135lbs and a 36DD. She always complains about other veh's that her t*ts are about to get caught up in the steering wheel before she can reach the pedals!! - no issue here!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Ok - picked the jeep up last night, all is good!! - We live @ 1hr from that location - so we were a little on edge at first but later settled in and enjoyed out 'new' purchase riding into the sunset. Serv dept a little slow and unresponsive towards the end of all this, but overall they handled the issues correctly and did what they should have done.



For me the fit and finish inside and out is as good (or better) than most other comparable SUV's...............and I am very picky. As far as performance the only thing that comes even close is the X5 4.8IS - but at almost half the cost.



Also the ONE thing it does have is adjustable pedal assy (motorized) that can be pre-set per driver. My wife really likes this because she is 5' 135lbs and a 36DD. She always complains about other veh's that her t*ts are about to get caught up in the steering wheel before she can reach the pedals!! - no issue here!

Well now you're just bragging.

[asphaltgambler]

Yes I am!.............................just one of her really great qualities!!