CarMax

Their online inventory is pretty up-​to-​the-​minute which was a plus. I love the no-​haggle price and the fact that no one is hovering round you and being pushy. In fact quite the opposite. Someone will walk by you every 15 minutes or so just to ask if you need help with anything or have any questions and they keep it moving. Customer service from the guy who helped me with my purchase, to the lady accepting my down payment, to the lady going over my paperwork were all friendly, polite, and professional. I thought the no-​haggle price would be higher since they do help people with bad credit. I purchased my car and freakin love it!!! Everyone I spoke to said I got a great deal and a great car. This tells me that I was not ripped off and I am extremely satisfied. I would highly recommend to my friends and the experience was so easy that I will definitely buy from here in the future. Best car purchase experience ever hands down!!!

On January 17, 2016, we went to CarMax to check out their inventory. I had already browsed their website and saw many vehicles that I was interested in. You can hold vehicles online and schedule appointments to test drive. We entered their sparkly reception area and we were immediately greeted by Nick. He offered to assist me and pointed me to the direction of the cars. He suggested that I look around the lot for 15 minutes or so and then he would come out and allow me to test drive any car that I was interested in. All of the cars on the lot are unlocked. While my kids sat in corvettes, l ventured towards the more practical vehicles… As promised, Nick came out 15 minutes later. He asked which vehicles I was interested in and pulled up all of my options on the computer. We drove around the lot in a golf cart and located the first vehicle that I was interested in. I have always wanted a Jeep. The Jeep Patriots were within my price range and were readily available. There were several colors to choose from and the mileage was low. I had been pre-​approved for financing prior to coming to the car lot. I test drove the vehicle and liked it. My pre-​approval price was not enough to cover the taxes and fees of the purchase. I did not want to pay said taxes and fees. I told Brian Nick that I would contact the finance company and request an increase of the loan amount. I contacted the finance company and received the increase. Nick was off the next day,(and unable to do my paperwork) but set me up with Brian. I arrived the next day after work for my appointment with Brian. He was very nice. Brian was no pressure, he offered financing through the dealership and a few other upsells which I politely declined. He accepted my position and we moved forward. He never pressured me or made me feel like I needed to reconsider. He went over all of the paperwork with me and then we waited for the finance guy «Alfred» to finalize his part. Brian went to have the car washed, cleaned and gassed up. Brian and I sat in the waiting area chit-​chatting while waiting for the paperwork to be finished. About a half hour later Alfred came out with the final paperwork. He took his time and went over all of the paperwork with me. He was friendly and patient. He gave me copies of all the documents and Brian stated that the car was ready. I was in and out of the dealership in less than two hours! I have purchased several cars and have never not spent the entire day at the dealership. I could not believe how fast and stress free the process was. I love my car and am grateful that I was able to obtain it so easily. Thanks Nick, Brian and Alfred great customer service is very important to me. I felt like my business was important to CarMax. I appreciate all of the help that the three of you provided!

I’m stuck between a 2 and a 3 on this one but 2 seems to be more accurate once you weigh the pros and cons.
We made an appointment for 4:30, and were 10 minutes late. Totally our fault, but we checked in and were told we’d be helped in just a few minutes. Around 5:15 (con) Derek finally comes over and tells us that he’s actually scheduled to be on the phones until 6 (con) and can’t actually do our appraisal (con), and would find someone else. That’s fine, but why make us wait THAT LONG? And why were we scheduled an appointment with him if he wasn’t even available?
We finally get someone named Ian to do our appraisal on my husband’s 2006 Scion TC. Ian, while very nice, helpful and accommodating (pro), gave us such a low ball offer (CONNNNN) on a car in perfect condition (no accidents, literally everything checked out well) that we just had to walk out. The offer he gave us wasn’t even half of what the car is going for on CraigsList.
Private sale it is, then!

Tonight 01÷21÷16 my wife came looking for a new vehicle (why? I’m still trying to figure that out) anyways we came to look at a Chevy & the (nice lady Tammy) that was «helping» us could not tell us NOTHING about the vehicle. How many airbags does it have? How many cylinders? What’s the Horse power? You know things dealerships usually know & it’s usually on the window. But not Tammy, all she kept saying was I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know… My next question was going to be… Does this take gas or jet fuel? But I left it alone. I know they have a lot of different cars that come & go on this lot, but damn can you just read the sticker on the window to me if I’m going to pay 30k for this thing? I like Carmax, just not happy with their I don’t know team.

Excellent experience selling our car here. I was expecting the usual low ball, insult your vehicle aggravating hassle. We were offered a fair price, given a week to think about it, and were able to complete the transaction with absolutely none of the usual shenanigans. I would go so far as to call the entire transaction a pleasant one. Would not hesitate to buy or sell a car here again; as a matter of fact, we were so impressed we’re thinking of getting out from under the payments on our new car and buying a nice used car from them! Best auto buying/​selling experience we’ve ever had. A refreshing surprise!

I can’t imagine a better opportunity to go car shopping! I spent hours on multiple occasions looking at touching sitting in trying to figure out type, model, brand, accessory any and all things to look at first hand! My wife and I finally bought two incredibly beautiful cars at a phenomenal price with no extra charge for test driving any car as much as we wanted with no pressure to buy.

I will start out with the positive. :) The financing experience was excellent and seamless.
Prior to getting to the finance point, I did have to wait 45 minutes while the salesperson tried to locate the car that was transferred from Roseville and I did not appreciate that.
Prior to the 30 day expiration of the warranty there was an issue with the car and I took it in for service. WORST experience ever! Checking my car in for service was fairly quick but it took over an hour for the loaner vehicle to be brought around. I was there 90 minutes total just dropping my car off. My appointment was for the next day and when I followed up I was told my car wasn’t even looked at!
I usually take my car to the manufacturers dealership or Carmax in Roseville and will more than likely do so going forward!

I walked into CarMax in South Sacramento on Thursday, they greeted at the door dealt with Dave and trainee Brian. I knew exactly what i wanted no push overs that I had to deal the whole process took about an hr maybe an hiccup. I handled it came back on Saturday walked away with the car i wanted. Customer service was excellent from start to end I recommend CarMax highly if you want no hassle of talking back and forth with a sales manger staff is very knowledgeable… Thanks agian to Dave and Brian.

Gina you are amazing!!! My mom went in looking for a car and you spent all day with her. She came home with the car and decided she wasn’t comfortable in it. The next day she went back and again you spent hours helping her find the car of her dreams. She loves it very much and your patience was very appreciated. You are the best! I can’t thank you enough for the attention and respect you showed my mom. You rock!!!

Went to CarMax to sell my car. We were met by Erica B. She met us at the door and immediately got us set up. Our experience was amazing! Erica answered all of our questions, had the car appraised and had us in and out in under thirty minutes. Erica was so helpful, polite, energetic and professional. She is a true asset to the company!
We have purchased a car from CarMax in the past and will continue to do so.

I made an online appointment to look at a specific car but also wanted to look at trucks. Natalya helped with all the trucks, in and out of them, the features too, then we looked at the car. I loved it and wanted it, but also wanted to look around a bit. Although I didn’t buy the car from them, the experience was great, no hassle, no haggling, and none of that dealership game of «hide the price» and try and make money off of you. I will return there because they provide a «no pressure» experience and they have very, very good prices.
I visited 4 dealerships after Carmax and a salesperson bad mouthed the way the prices aren’t negotiable, and he said they were too high, but he could not offer a better deal. He couldn’t offer the same quality of car for the same price. I may have bought somewhere else, but CarMax earned my future business and if anyone asks me where to shop for a car, I’ll tell them to look it up on line, make an appointment, get pre approval put into the CUDL system, and go to CarMax.

I am never shopping anywhere else! The sales associate, Ian, was polite and quick to answer all of our questions with no pressure to buy. The payment process took less than thirty minutes and we were on and off the lot within 90 minutes with a beautiful Chevy Equinox. I highly reccomend starting your search with Carmax.

TRY GOING ANYWHERE ELSE BUT HERE! When you need their help, they will neglect you.
I don’t even know where to begin with this review, but I will preface by saying that I am extremely disappointed with the service (or lack thereof) I’ve received from CarMax and completely regret my purchase. In July 2015, the car I had for 10 years officially croaked after going through a routine of dying every week and giving me massive headaches. I was so excited to purchase my new pre-​owned, certified 2013 Ford Fiesta from CarMax. I took it for a test-​drive and it drove well, it was clean, and felt brand new. Although the car was practically brand new, the CarMax dealer offered me the extended warranty through CarMax, assuring me that it was a great deal. For an additional $ 1500 my car would be covered under this extended warranty and if anything went wrong with the car, I could bring it in to be repaired right at CarMax. Right around 2 months of owning the car, I left my house and tried to start my car and it wouldn’t start. I tried jumping it and nothing worked. I should mention that this was on a VERY important day for me and I missed an event I was supposed to attend. When I called CarMax, they told me they couldn’t bring my car in for 2 – 3 weeks for repair since they were «backed up» with other vehicles. When I said that was okay, but I would need a rental car in the meantime, they told me that they could not give me a rental car until they diagnosed the problem and determined it was not my fault. However, they would not accept the car for diagnosis for 2 – 3 weeks (which I could not wait) and they would not pay for the tow unless they knew the problem was not my fault. How backward is that? I asked what they recommend I do and they said to call Ford directly since my car was young enough to be covered under manufacturer warranty. I called Ford and they towed my car to their dealership. When I asked them for a rental car, they said CarMax should cover it since I had their extended warranty. In the meantime, I had no option but to get a rental car at my own expense. After Ford had a diagnosis and let me know that the problem was indeed a mechanical failure and they would be fixing the car as soon as possible, I called CarMax to let them know the problem was not my fault and to ask if they would cover the cost of my rental car. CarMax refused and told me it was Ford’s responsibility. When I called Ford, they told me it was CarMax’s responsibility and that they only cover rental cars for their «luxury vehicle owners.» Ford fixed my car after having it for a week and after calling each company back and forth regarding who would cover the rental car cost, the CarMax manager agreed to cover the rental fee «just this once.» She then told me that if this ever happened again, CarMax would offer me a «loaner» vehicle free-​of-​charge even if my car hadn’t been diagnosed yet and that the CarMax employees I spoke to should have informed me of this during my previous calls.
Four days after picking up my car from Ford, the car would not start again. Again I tried to jumpstart it, but it was an electronic/​engine issue. I had to pay to have my car towed to Ford because CarMax was still 2 – 3 weeks too «backed up» to be able to take me. I called the manager at CarMax because we had spoken only several days earlier and I was sure she would remember our conversation, which she did. While talking to her on the phone, she told me CarMax would not get me a loaner car because I did not go «through them first.» She said the only way I could get a loaner car off the lot was if I had my car towed to CarMax first and then they would tow it to Ford. I told her that made no sense — why would I tow my car to CarMax when they have no space or time to look at it rather than just sending it directly to Ford? Even if Ford diagnosed the problem as not being my fault (which again, it was not), CarMax refused to give me a loaner car and basically lied to me in their previous promise.
I have never dealt with such a sleazy company that avoids taking any responsibility for their problems and takes ZERO pride in their customer service. They will butter you up a ton to get you off of the lot with one of their «12-​point inspected» overpriced cars (however good the inspection was in my case), but the moment you try and use your warranty, they will find a million excuses to avoid helping you. Buy from anywhere else! Avoid CarMax at all costs! One more thing… CarMax has a deal where if you are unhappy with your car, you can return it in the first 30 days — no questions asked. Unfortunately, my car did not begin having issues soon enough, otherwise I would have returned it in a heartbeat.

I have had a horrible experience dealing with CarMax (Stockton Blvd, Sacramento); especially so with Barbara in the Service department.
The short story:
Your experience with CarMax, chances are, will be shaped by 3 people: 1) The salesman, 2) the service receptionist, and 3) the technician.
While your car buying experience will be slightly better than in other places, if you need something to be fixed within the 30-​day «warranty», be ready to enter limbo. From personalized attention during the sale, you will enter oblivion while trying to make the warranty valid. The people who sell you the car and the people who deal with fixing the car will not be the same, and most things will be lost in CarMax personnel miscommunications. By looking at the reviews in Unilocal,you have a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance you will enter oblivion and you will dragged through a long waiting game; a game with a lot of time investments on your side, and very brief instances of attention from service receptionists that have to «manage a large volume of calls».
My recommendation: You can buy a car there without price haggles. However, get your guard up for everything else. Be sure to look at every little corner of the car and do not trust that the 100+ point check is good enough. If things are not completely OK, no matter how small, back down from any deal. The 30-​day warranty is an unethical game where your patience will be tested, and eventually, you will be defeated through long periods of time waiting on the phone, and sitting at CarMax offices.
While I had a pretty bad experience with Barbara, who tore her own card in front of my face, after a little research on the web, I have found that making you wait is the normal modus operandi of this company. Check out these reviews:
The longer story:
Unfortunately, the salesman that sells you the car is not the same person that you deal with in the service department. So, if you get assurances about how things will get done if something needs to be fixed, everything will all disappear at the moment you start dealing with the service receptionist. Now, the service receptionist (they call themselves managers) is not the person who fixes the car, the technician. So, when you travel to CarMax and you deal with the receptionist, whatever problems you state will be haphazardly written down and given to the technician. The technician will report to whatever the receptionist wrote, but you will not speak to the technician himself/​herself, you will constantly deal with the receptionist (if it is Barbara, she will claim she doesn’t know anything about car repairs).
The receptionist in cordial terms will tell you that you need to call her to set up one appointment after the next. Good luck. While you are able to interact with the salesman via email, be ready for a long telephone voice mail experience after that. I have called Barbara oh-​so many times and she never answered the phone. The 3^rd time I traveled to CarMax to get problems with the car fixed, Barbara recommended me to just call once and leave only one message, that the more I called the higher the chances she just will skip all of the remaining messages. The 4^th time I traveled to CarMax, they still haven’t requested the right parts for the car and other issues have to still be «evaluated» (in my case, there is no way to stop air coming out of the AC into the feet area of the driver’s side).
If you explain the inconvenience of having to leave work frequently to spend your time getting the warranty covered, Barbara will explain to you that there are many other occasions in which the parts that CarMax orders are not the correct ones (as if a «happens to everyone» comment will justify why they can get the right part for your car). Basically, Barbara will explain to you the way CarMax does things wrong with many of their customers to make you understand why you are spending so much time with them.
If you try to make Barbara understand that not because it happens to many customers it is right, she will hurry up things and hand you, again, her card asking you to call her. I explained to her that she hasn’t answered my calls and I have spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get to her. I told her I couldn’t leave with just a «call me» because nothing gets done. She then said, «well, don’t call me» and ripped her own card in front of my face.
I talked to Jamal, who presented himself as the Service Manager and asked me to explain what was going on. He assured me he would get a loaner car so I didn’t have to do so many trips back and forth, and assured me I would be assigned another service person after Barbara ripped off her card in front of my face. Nonetheless, I am back to square one. Barbara just called to tell me I would be scheduled some time in the future. I told her I had assurances from Jamal that I wouldn’t have to deal with her again. She said that there’s no one else to do that.

CarMax is better than your traditional car lot, but not by much. True, the selection is broader, the sales process is transparent and the sales people aren’t as pushy, but there is still a healthy predatory-​salesman vibe. Perhaps it’s because their employees are used to traditional sales methods, or perhaps they are on commission. Whatever the case, it’s a balance between the new and the old approach to what is many people’s biggest purchases in life.
We came in seeking a replacement for my mother-in-law’s car after a wreck. We quickly discovered that absolutely nothing on the lot fell within our $ 5000 price range. Maybe this was our naivety. Cars at that price that are still reliable are hard to come by. But CarMax doesn’t carry anything below roughly $ 9000 before taxes and fees, making this not the first choice for those seeking lower end vehicles.
We were tracked down by a sales guy who was friendly enough. He sat us down at the computer and talked us through various options. It was all low pressure talk, but we did still get the vibe that he was pushing for our purchase. It felt like browsing their website online while someone was looking over your shoulder and commenting.
On the plus side, CarMax is totally transparent about vehicle histories and repairs. What you see is what you get. That in itself puts them heads and tails above Earl’s Car Lot down the street.

Bought a car at the Roseville location a couple of days ago. The SUV had under 15 000 miles on it, practically brand new. On the way home from the lot, the wheel well broke off into the tire, destroying the plastic wheel well. Comes to discover under tge car was duct tape holding thr pkastic wheel together as a temporary mwasure.
We stopped by at the South Sacramento location cause we live in elk grove and they gave us a loaner mini van until the repairs were completed. The mini vans back end was going out and vibrating horribly.
If Carmax is selling and loaning cars to this caliber, makes you wonder the statue of their integrity. I have an extra star cause the buying experience was a breeze, and I purchased 2 cars in the past without problems. Seems their quality is deminishing. I wouldn’t recommend carmax anymore.

Sold my car to CarMax yesterday and it was very cut and dry.
I made an appointment for the afternoon and even though I was almost an hour late because of traffic the entire experience took less than 60 minutes.
Here is a quick rundown of the process for anyone interested who might have questions:
I walked in and approached the front desk. They put me in the «appraisal queue» and invited me to have a seat. A few minutes later an employee (I think his name was Nick) came out and explained the process to me. He walked me outside and asked a few questions about the car, then put a cone on it. Next we went inside and he introduced me to the appraiser who offered to let me come on the test drive. I declined and opted to stay in the air conditioning. He drove the car and checked it out, then did some research and gave a price to Nick who then sat me down and went over the info. It was completely correct. It was like the appraiser looked at the car for 10 minutes and knew everything I did after 6 years!
The price offered was lower than I wanted but I didn’t want to spend the next 6 weeks with headaches from people on Craigslist lol so I took it. They had me fill out some paperwork, cut me a check and I was on my way,
I appreciated the honesty and straightforward nature of the employees and the process and I would recommend bringing a car here to sell to anyone who doesn’t want the headaches and just wants the cash. It may not have been as much as I was hoping for but I know it’s worth it in the long run. Even if you don’t take the offer the appraisal is free and good for 7 days so it’s definitely worth an hour of your time.

I feel sort of embarrassed saying we bought a car at CarMax, it totally has that WalMart vibe going for it, but rest assured, if you hate the car buying experience, CarMax is actually the right way to go.
I have a friend who owns a used car dealership and he actually told me to go to CarMax first to get my SUV appraised, he said they could give us a better price. When they came in well over my anticipated price I immediately said yes!
The way CarMax works is through a no-​haggling process. You drive up, park in an appraisal spot and walk in. They take it from there! You meet with an agent who asks you about the car’s history and you get to tell your story. Mine was pretty short, I love my SUV but it’s older and we need something more economical.
Freddy was our agent and he did a great job of no-​nonsensing us. He sent us out on the lot to browse the available cars and trucks. The great thing about CarMax is that the sales people aren’t allowed out on the lot and all of the cars are unlocked! You can browse and sit and ponder and peruse as long as you like. We had a good idea of what we wanted but it was nice to just jump in and out of various vehicles without having to commit to a certain style or make right away.
Obviously, we found what we wanted pretty quickly and just walked back in (about 30 minutes later) to get our appraisal value. It was extremely fair and over what I thought we would get. Again, no haggling allowed, so there’s no sleazy back and forth with a creepy finance guy in the back. We drove off the lot with our new car and CarMax even gave us a better rate than our Credit Union gave us.
We had scoped out cars online before we arrived, and I also knew my trade in’s value before we arrived, so we had the numbers before we walked in. I think the whole process took 4 hours total. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and you don’t have to feel greasy when you’re done because everything is up front. We were told they only make $ 150 from each sale, no matter what the make of the vehicle is, which is impressive because we purchased a higher end vehicle and I was worried on the upsell we might be offered. We did purchase a warranty on our vehicle and Freddy even showed us work orders on similar vehicles to see if the warranty was worth the extra cost. Hopefully we won’t need it, but if we do, I hope it pays for itself.
They have cute things like a kids area and a coffee, water and tea bar as well as vending machines and TVs. It’s very clean and I felt all of the staff members were very prompt and professional. Freddy even sent our new car back for more cleaning because he felt they didn’t do a stellar job the first time. That was a nice touch!
I really liked the experience here after a really, erm, «yucky» experience buying our other car from Maita Subaru. I would come here again for a trade in and used car buying experience!

My friends and I came into CarMax looking at cars. My friends were really the ones who were seriously looking for a car. I helped them browse around looking for what they were really wanting.
As you walk into their facility you will be greeted by someone. A very nice guy said, «Hello», and asked if we needed any help. We told him we were just looking. He told us that the cars were unlocked and that we could step in and check them out.
As my friends and I were looking around… there were sales people walking around and asking if we were ok. They did a good job of letting us browse around. I saw a few cars that I like and will be back to check out a fun toy to drive on the weekends. Lol. I feel a little middle age coming on. Lol.
Inside their facility are monitors that you can browse cars that way. I believe it shows cars that can be transferred. Pretty cool set up.
Oooooh! Nice bathrooms, too. Clean and shiny. Love it!!!
Minus a star for the lot had sooooo many cars that on some cars… you really cannot open the door to get in. Lol. You would have to move several cars to get to the one you wanted. I am sure they will be moving them. Must had a shipment come in or something. Lol. We will be back soon…

I haven’t bought a car from here yet so this review basically is on the facility and location. I am not sure how the service here is but this place is huge with almost every type of car you can find at a normal dealership. You can see CarMax right off freeway 99 and in the evening the parking light is lite up with hundreds of lights.
I am deciding to buy a SUV but not sure what type. Instead of me going to a dozen dealerships trying to make the decision I came to CarMax. The vehicles here are not locked so you can roam around the huge lot climbing in and out of the vehicles as you please. Unlike at other dealerships you have to have the salesperson go inside to get the keys which can take days for them to get back. At CarMax one sales person came by once to ask if we needed help and left us alone instead of annoying us by following us around. I am sure they were able to hear us inside on their monitors if we were looking for help.
After going to CarMax and trying out a few SUVs we have decided on what type/​model we want but now just deciding on when to purchase it.