I want to write about my experience with CarMax because I got a lot of mixed reviews.
First, I started at a dealer. I figured out exactly what car I wanted (I was pretty sure, Honda Fit all the way!) and knew I wanted navigation. I could get a brand new Honda Fit Sport, no navigation for about $17,000 at both dealers. One had a gray car, one had a red car, both waiting to be sold to make room for the 2015 models coming out soon (btw, they skipped 2014, so 2013 was still the new car until 2015 comes out).
I talked some to both dealers, wasn't ready to pull the trigger. I was hoping to wait for a used with navigation, but I was starting to lean toward just getting a new one with zero miles to save me heartache in the long run. I would be the ONLY owner and if something fucked up, it would be my fault (or a defect) and it would be under warranty. I was still looking around, and needed to get my current car appraised. I looked up the value online several places, knew my car in the condition it was in was worth about $2000 to a dealer, $3500 to a private sale. I was willing to let it go for $2000 ONLY, and was hoping for something more. I was expecting to be utterly lowballed (remember, CarMax will A. buy your car even if you don't buy from them and B. has no haggle pricing. they can't up my price for my new car to make up for a good price on the trade in)
CarMax offered me $2500 and a certificate for 7 days that it would be valid for. I could go get it appraised elsewhere and come back. I'd also looked on their website and found an orange, 2011 Honda Fit with Navigation. I had to have it. It was one state over. I talked to my salesperson about it, and he said because it was only one state over they could ship it here for free. So they did. No fee, no contract, no obligation to buy and I still had my trade in certificate. Only problem? It would take 7-10 days. What happens to my trade in value? As long as nothing changes, they'll reappraise it and give me the same price. Yeah right. I was totally expecting them to try and knock $500 off because they knew they had me with the other car (except I already knew I would laugh at them and leave to never come back if they tried)
My new car comes in, we get my car appraised again (I'm totally in love while we're test driving) and get the price back.... Gave me the exact same value, and a new certificate. I was impressed to say the least. Made an appointment for the next day to come back and make everything official. I also purchased MaxCare, their warranty. I almost didn't, but decided that for a 5 year 75,000 mile warranty it was actually a good price (I won't say great) and gave me some peace of mind that if the AC shit out (like mine did a few months ago) that I wouldn't be out $1200. And if it never did, well, that's how insurance works. I never felt pressured by my salesperson, he switched my MaxCare around and showed me all the prices in a nice little matrix so I could pick what I wanted.
Now, on to financing. I'd heard that used car dealers really make their money on the interest for their loans. That may be true, but my freaking bank would barely give me a loan. Applied by myself, got $6,000 and a 5% interest rate. Cosigned with my mom (perfect credit, has purchased and paid off multiple cars, owns a home, between the two of us we make over $100,000 a year) wouldn't even cover the $17,000 I was asking for. Counter offered with 3.65% and $13,000. And we thought that must be as good as it would get, my mom was going to pay the difference as a downpayment. I was livid! I bank with these people, I give them my business. I understand that I myself may be a risk (I look WAAAAAAY over leveraged, but it's a numbers thing and school debt. I'm fine) but my mom has perfect credit and could walk into any bank where she is and get a $100,000 loan if she wanted. On a whim, I put in a cosign application at CarMax. Can't get any worse can it? (I didn't really want to keep hitting my credit report with requests, but fuck, I wanted to know!)
You wanna know?
Financed the whole thing (about $16000 with my downpayment, but adding back tax, fees, and MaxCare) for a 1.95% APR and don't even need income verification because her credit is so good! Are you SHITTING ME.
If CarMax is making money gouging interest rates (like I've read elsewhere) then I don't even care. I'm paying them almost HALF the interest rate and a lower monthly payment because of it.
My salesguy basically said my bank must have unusually stringent policies because we got a great rate.
Oh, and the best part? I was approved in 5 minutes. I started the bank process Friday afternoon. Got a call late Monday with my crappy counteroffer (the original) got my mom on the phone and applied again (on Monday) got a call yesterday (Wednesday) around 11 am with that new, also crappy counteroffer. Accepted it (tentatively, obviously) and she didn't have if they needed any paperwork so she had to send off AGAIN to their underwriters that I accepted and WAIT for them to get back to me before she could set a closing date. To her credit, she is VERY nice and helpful and understanding, but I don't even care at this point. I still haven't heard back from them about the paperwork (I'm calling her as soon as she's in this morning around 9 to tell her not to worry about it). Again, CarMax took 5 minutes. I'm trying to get my mom up here, make plans, buy a goddamn car and they take over a day each time to call me back. AND WITH A SHIT INTEREST RATE AND NOT GIVING US ALL THE MONEY WE REQUESTED. (okay, that sounds bad. I requested $17,000 for a $16,998 car)
Fuck my bank.
Tl;Dr - Love CarMax
Also, I love my Honda Fit and will probably post a review soon. It's zippy around town, but doesn't get to speed as satisfyingly fast as my 6 cylinder.
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