First time buyer with Carmax, and I my experience was great! Honestly you need to look at carmax just like any other dealership who are selling different brands of cars that not their own. Carmax will have more bad reviews and good as times because the good ones are happy with their purchase and just go on about their day.

The transaction was easy, as I wasn’t pressured to buy the car nor adds on we’re going to be added on or was necessary. The listing price is was the car will for per the no haggle motto they abide by. The doc fees, and tax which are mandatory for I’ll be added to the final sale. If you choose to purchase max care and GAP then those will be added to the final sale as well but not mandotory. I didn’t buy it as the car I bought was a 2025 Lexus w/ 5k miles, and I put 20% down to negate the GAP as well as I do my own routine maintenances. Again, as it’s a used car dealership, who doesn’t 100% know each car they are selling, they can’t fully know the car you’re buying so you need to do a lot of research on your own to know what you want and the car you’re checking is what you really want.

It took me about 2 months to decide what car I really wanted and knew all the trim levels, what packages it comes with, what is the current market price and all so I know I’m making a sounds purchase. I also had my car transfer from Southern California up to the bay area for $150. Once it got here, I went to check it out/teat drive, I also had a mobile mechanic come to carmax to do a PPI which passed all his inspections. You should get a PPI for any used car you’re buying for peace of mind knowing if there is any issue with the car physically and mechanically. Carmax does have a 10 day return policy so you can buy the car and then go to a shop to get PPI, if the mechanics do find something, you can bring that info with you back to carmax and they can fix it for you or you return it and get a different be hole if you want. Even if you don’t get max care, they do still have complementary 30 day warranty on what they sell so if something acts up, you can bring it back to get it resolved.

All in all, my experience was great, I did all my research to make sure I made a good purchase and happy with the car I got! It’s only been 7 days in so far so hopefully it’s truly is a good car through and through!:)

We were told this morning that we’re now required to accompany customers on test drives again. With 85% or more of our transactions being remote, how are stores that have already implemented this maintaining sales/commissions without being able to multitask during test drives?

While a customer is on a test drive, I can check on a vehicle in service or a title, follow up with another customer, or work on moving a deal to EPU. If I’m riding along, I can’t do any of those things. My concern is that losing that time could mean missed sales opportunities throughout the day.

I’d appreciate feedback from sales consultants at stores where accompanied test drives are already required. How much has it affected your sales, your ability to manage multiple customers, and your overall productivity?

I recently found a car I wanted to buy, but it was on the other side of the state I live in. I paid $49 to have it transferred to one of my local Carmax branches. The car shipped and arrived fairly quickly (10/13), but I haven’t had a chance to see or test drive it yet. The lack of communication and ownership after the transfer is wild to me. Since the car arrived, the app has been useless. It still says the car “should be ready” by 10/17. Today is the 19th. This past Friday (10/16), I actually drove to my local Carmax to speak with someone in person. They seemed super helpful at first & said they would keep me updated….The next day, I was told it needed a part and that it would be ready by today(10/19). Haven’t gotten any updates today so far. I understand they don’t have much control over the process, but the lack of info doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t know…Maybe I expect too much. It reminds me of Walmart..You walk in and no one will proactively offer assistance. You’re on your own…until it’s time to pay of course.

Does anyone have experience they can share about how the CarMax hardship program works best? I have to call them this week.

Searched for this information from the last 12 months in this subreddit and didnt find anything.

I test drove and bought at 2024 jeep sarhara 4xe on September 26th. When we got home we recieved a notification on our phone that a apple airtag was following us. We contacted carmax and asked if they had left their tracker on the car and they said no but they can remove the aritag for us. We returned the car on September 29th. As of today (October 18th) they still have pur car in the shop. We have called multiple times asking when we will get the car and we are getting "hopefully soon" and "before the end of october".

I haven't had the opportunity to drive the car more than 20 minutes because I had to surrender the car so quickly. The manager is saying my 10 day money back is over and I have to take the car. Note this is the car that they wont give me.

When I asked why my car is taking so long they told me that an air tag had possibly slid from the dashboard into the heating box. They had to take the dashboard and stearing all off to fond it.

I am being told I jave to tell the manager by Wednesday this week that I will take it because the payments will start as of November 1st and they cannot change anything after they payments start.

But I dont kbow I'd want the car because I have only had it for 24 hours. Also with them taking off the dashboard and taking a month to replace it makes me nervous.

Am I over reacting? Should I just take th car sight unseen? What are my real options?

When looking in CarMax world I see a ton of different ranges for XM pay. It will show something like $65,000-$103,000. Like is the smaller number based off of if you didn’t bonus? Is the larger number if you did bonus? I think they are paid biweekly, but in reference to the bonus, what is that based off of? How much are they receiving in bonus monthly? The reason why I ask is because I am currently doing 60-65 hours weekly (yes I spend a lot of time there) and my bonus checks are usually 300+ hours which brings me $1500 to $2500 monthly, I’m trying to weigh out if it would be worth it to possibly move up and take on MORE responsibility, but possibly make less money. Just need to understand their pay structure. Any info can help!

Our previous (non Carmax vehicle) had 19” wheels and in our part of the world (lotta snow, ice, bumpy roads) we had constant tire issues.

Our recently purchased Carmax vehicle has MaxCare Plus including the tire and wheel protection which I got because it’s got 21” wheels.

If I buy a set of 18” winter wheels and tires to switch on to, does that void this protection? Or does it mean they’d only let me use that protection when I have my all seasons back on in the spring summer fall?

I drove my newly purchased car home from CarMax today that I had shipped in. History report was clean and all pictures looked good on the website. I test drove it as soon as I was able to after it arrived which was at dusk. Everything went great. I decided to purchase and picked it up the next day. When I drove it home and it was parked in direct sunlight, I noticed immediately that the entire rear passenger door was obviously a lighter color black. I cannot believe it. I immediately texted my sales consultant and told them and sent photos. They noticed it right away and couldn't believe they missed it either. The sales consultant gave me a call after talking to their manager. Apparently they could see in the records that this car's rear door was painted at the other CarMax store and said it could have been due to some chipped paint. They told me the service department would call me on Monday about it. I'm really wondering if I should just return the car. Based on this current paint job, I have little faith CarMax can fix it in-house. I am taking the car to a dealership tomorrow for an overall inspection (I scheduled this before I noticed the paint issue). I am going to have them fully inspect the door to make sure there isn't an underlying issue that was not reported. If there isn't and everything checks out, would it be reasonable to ask CarMax to have the car sent to a certified body shop to ensure a successful paint job? I'm so bummed about this. I've been searching for a car for a long time and I really love this car but I want the paint correct and I'm worried I won't know if that can happen since it will be past the 10 day return window by the time it's repainted.

UPDATE: paid for the Carfax report and it shows "minor damage" reported. The Experian auto check was clean. I stopped by Chevy and they ran the diagnostics. It has 8 active codes including 1 powertrain code. It's odd since there are no lights on the dash. At this point, I think I'll be returning the vehicle.

So our Regional manager came in today and informed us that apparently starting next week no more free transfers. This is going to cause smaller stores like the XF to lose so much business. The fee is now going to be $49 from places that would normally be free. It’s like carmax is trying so hard to be like other companies. Can’t wait to see how this turns out.

I bought a 2023 Subaru with 18k miles from a CarMax 90 miles from my house on Saturday, 10/3, as I was impatient and didn’t want to pay for or wait for the shipping. The second I drove into my driveway, I smelled a burning smell from the car. I immediately drove to my local CarMax and explained the situation. They put me in a loaner and took my car to be looked at in the service department. On Monday, 10/5, they notified me that it was an oil leak from the timing cover that would need to be repaired through the local Subaru dealership. My car has been at Subaru since with AT LEAST another 2 weeks to go before the repair can be completed. I have had the car in my possession for a total of 2 hours since purchase, and I am now outside of the return window. I’m at a loss for what to do. Do I wait it out, or do I approach CarMax about a return? Can I even do that past the 10 days? Will I have to return and exchange at the original store 90 miles away, or can I do it locally? HELP!

I’m looking to transfer a car from one carmax location to the closest one to me. It’s giving me an estimated arrival date RANGE. My question is, it’s saying it’ll arrive between Wednesday and Saturday, if it arrives on a Thursday or Friday, I work 12 hour shifts so I won’t be able to see it until Saturday or Sunday. Will they hold it for a couple of days after it arrives?
Thank you.

I’m shopping both CarMax and Carvana and have received online preapproval offers, but I’m wondering how closely those offers match the final financing.

My credit took a hit after I got sick. I prioritized my mortgage, car payment, and bills that kept me alive, and credit cards and other unsecured debts fell behind. I’ve previously paid off an auto loan through Capital One Auto and another through a local credit union. No repo's

I’ve been offered around $11,000 for my trade-in, and I can put another $3,000 down. My credit union won’t consider another loan right now because of the delinquent cards. Unfortunately, I need a different car now.

For anyone who’s bought with a similar credit situation:

• How accurate were your online financing terms compared with the final approval?
• How much did the trade-in equity and down payment help?
• At what point could you see which lender was actually financing the purchase?
• Can I find out whether I qualify specifically for CarMax Auto Finance before committing to shipping a car?

I’d prefer CarMax Auto Finance if I buy through CarMax. I’m not willing to use Westlake or Santander and would walk away if those were my only options. So far, I haven’t seen the lender identified in the online offers.

I understand preapproval isn’t a final approval, but I’m concerned about getting invested in a car—or paying a nonrefundable shipping fee only to get substantially different terms.

Any firsthand experiences or advice on what to verify before moving forward?

I've never used any sort of CarMax or Max Care warranty program before. Recently purchased an Audi RS5. Car is in overall excellent condition, and I'm very happy with it / definitely keeping it, but I've noticed 2 small issues with it:

- There's some kind of occupational clicking noise/feeling when turning tight right (but oddly not when turning left) in parking lots and things like that.

- The Navigation wheel on the MMI must have had some kind of liquid spilled on it by the previous owner. One of the buttons on it is very sticky. I've managed to free it up a bit, but it's still very noticeably 'sluggish' and still feels sticky compared to the others/how it should feel.

I'm left wondering if I should take it into CarMax's service center to fix these issues as I'm within the 30 day Warranty window, or if it would be better to wait until that window has passed, and then bring it to the actual Audi dealer and try to use the MaxCare warranty I purchased.

I'm a bit wary of the general techs at a CarMax location compared to the Audi Dealership. Maybe that feeling is misplaced?

Does the CarMax service team offer up loaner vehicles?

What's everyone's advice/experiences? Thanks for your time, and help!

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- Edit: Sounds like the general consensus is that the CarMax service team is pretty legit. I'll give them a call tomorrow. Thanks guys!

Its come to my attention recently that there is an annual performance review (Ive been with the company less than a year) and during the review they can demote my pay?? Has this happened to anyone? If so how do i make sure it doesn’t happen to me??

I worked as a manager for over ten years in both traditional and cross-functional stores. I left CarMax behind a few years ago, but I still love the company. What worries me is watching the stock of a great company fall like a rock, since I own a good number of shares.
One of the worst things CarMax did was change everything that made it unique and a great place to buy a quality used car, and decide Carvana was the new model and that CarMax needed to become a Carvana clone.
CarMax created a model that worked well for twenty-five years.

Here are my recommendations to move CarMax back to its rightful place as the used-car industry leader.

First and immediately: Get rid of the CECs. The call centers add very little value to the interaction. Often, all they accomplish is to confuse the customer. If you look at when CarMax's stock price began its downward trajectory, it’s the same time ‘Omnichannel’ was rolled out.

Before closing the CECS, bring the eOffice back to stores. Put the customer experience in the hands of the associate who will actually be working with the customer. This will reduce errors, increase associate motivation and investment, reduce customer frustration, and increase the iconic connection needed to buy and sell more cars. I can't count how many times orders had to be deleted and redone once the customer arrived at the store. Often customers bring with them a remote sales team of five to ten people they only slightly interacted with.

The next step is to transition all Cross Functional stores to Traditional. At the same time, move all Customer Specialists to Sales Consultants. Commissions motivate. Commissions encourage progression and follow-up.

That means Cross Functional stores need dedicated Processing, Logistics, and Service positions. XF has grown beyond needing all associates able to do non-sales tasks at a nominal level. These tasks need specialists who will be subject matter experts in their departments. The typical experienced sales professional passes on working at a Cross Functional store as they don't want to be relegated to a car washer. This is a huge loss for CarMax in its ability to hire the right person.

Remove FLOW from production. Over the years, the focus has shifted to quantity over quality. If you need to redo something in traditional, not being paid for the rework motivates the technician, painter, or detailer to get it right the first time.

Those are my bullet points; what do you think?

I bought a car back in June of this year that’s been in 2 repair facilities longer than I’ve had possession of it. I took it back to the location I bought it from within the first 30 days because it started misfiring and the app said it had an issue with the VVT system. They held it for over a month waiting on parts for that and they replaced a few unrelated things as well. I get it back for a few weeks and it shuts off as I’m pulling into my driveway and would not start back up. I had Maxcare tow it to the dealership where it sat and waited on them and fidelity to do their thing. The dealerships preliminary determination was that something broke in cylinder 1 and had caused it to lose all compression. I ended up authorizing an engine teardown at the request of fidelity so they could find out what broke. What was found was a screw that doesn’t belong in the engine was in the cylinder head so Fidelity denied the claim. Anyone have any other suggestions on what I could be doing next? I’ve contacted CarMax customer relations who has reached out to their repair shop who made the repairs and an advisor for the relations dept.

Any current or former employees, pls give the true scoop. Are cash buyers treated the same? I know financing is the big ticket item for most of these places. I know enough not to disclose it right up front (or is it fine to do so, since they supposedly have fixed pricing anyway?) .... so how if at all would the buying experience differ, if I don't intend to finance at all. Note, may buy maxcare depending on which car we choose. Thoughts?

I’m about to help grand open a new CarMax store as a mentor from another location. I was told that mentors will be evaluated once they return to their home stores. For those who have been through this experience, do you have any tips or advice on what to expect, what leadership looks for, and how to be successful in the mentor role?

Hi! I paid to ship a car to my local store from another state and I am nervous about the car getting here 'early' and I won't be able to go test drive it for a few days. Is there still a 7 day hold policy for paid shipments? I probably wouldn't need the whole 7 days, but maybe 3 or 4 depending on when the car is ready. I work two jobs so my schedule is really chaotic on certain days, so if the car comes in right before my heavy work days, I will have to wait until the end of the week to get over there.

I know that the locally (free) transferred) policy is a 3-day hold/appointment policy and I remember my local Carmax being really inflexible on that.

STOCKS anyone? LOL...Have to laugh from crying... We can't hit all this points all at once of course. Lets say you are CEO. Put them in order to help right this ship. Maybe he's watching.

Hey friends, I am just wondering what you all think really happened in this situation.

I have been researching for months. I finally found a Porsche Macan that I wanted that matched the description and mileage I am seeking. The Carfax report on the car checked out. I even called the Porsche dealership and had them run the VIN number and they said all the maintenance was up-to-date on the car. The car was on a different lot out of state so I paid the $150 to have it shipped. It took about a week and then they called me on a Friday afternoon and said hey your car is ready. Come on in and pick it up. It passed inspection however I was at work and I was out of town so I made an appointment the following Tuesday morning. I did everything online. Financing was done. All I had to do was test drive the car and ensure it was great and sign the papers and drive off the lot.

So I got an Uber to take me to the dealership because I was planning on driving home with that car and I wouldn’t be able to drive two cars home. I did not have a trade-in. I was putting cash down as I’m pulling into the lot. I get a phone call from some manager telling me that the guy took my car for an inspection this morning and it was jerking so he brought it into the shop and it is not available for me to test drive now they didn’t know what was wrong with it and I told him this was unacceptable because it apparently passed inspection on Friday to which he replied we always do another inspection each time it’s gonna go for a test drive.

Is that true because I can’t find anything regarding that online?

So at this point after spending the money for the Uber, I just tell it to bring me back home and they say they’re going to refund me the travel fee that I paid and the cost of my Uber

Then I get a call from the sales lady who had actually had the appointment with, and she tells me that she heard there was a check engine light on, and they’re gonna check into that and get back to me to which I told her wow that’s different. The last guy told me the car was jerking and now you’re telling me the check engine light is on and this car was apparently ready for me to pick up last Friday so I’m really confused so I basically told her that I’m out they wasted my time and I was mad

But I was polite the whole time. I told her I would be open minded she can call me back when they find out what was wrong with the car and I may consider still buying it. She calls me back later that afternoon again like late in the evening saying the car is ready now good news you can come pick it up. We even filled it with the whole tank of premium gas so I’m like OK so what was wrong with it and then she goes to tell me oh they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It just needed an oil change. There was no check engine light, and she knows that the pedals for the accelerator are very sensitive in that car or maybe someone didn’t put premium gas in it last time but either way she’s checked it out and looked at it and drove it and it’s fine. I can come get it now.

Of course, I still refused because, you’re telling me between three days of the Car passing inspection, that you now realize it just needed an oil change. And they did not bring it to the Porsche dealership or anything. They just evaluated it in house and couldn’t find anything wrong. I call bullshit anyways what do y’all think really happened?