Carvana v CarMax v Vroom

[MC Rider]

A private sale will always be a better deal than selling to one of these outfits. I think the attraction (at least for me) is the convenience of using them. Sold cars both ways, and using Carmax was far less hassle, not to mention quicker. Giving up a small percentage was worth it to me, and I'll do it again.

I'm with this. I have done private sales and buys without much problem. But if you have a vehicle that might be hard to sell it could take months. So, I'm glad I traded that Ducati, it was for sale on the dealers web site for 6 months.

 

[jollystomper]

When it comes to buying cars, CarMax gets great reviews. Carvana not so much. Many, many complaints. Our state even had to suspend their license for some franchise last year because they couldn't get the owners the title in order to register it. People were driving cars for nearly a year unregistered, and if they had to sell it, they couldn't.


No such complaints from CarMax.


The other buyers complaint you see for Carvana is that people get cars with a lot of undisclosed defects, despite the "inspection." Apparently what makes selling so great (online, and a quick look over) sometimes trickles down to the buyer. I.E. nobody ever really checked it out. Looks like Carvana depends a lot on the CarFax kind of services, which are not reliable if, for example, somebody has their car repaired "off the grid" after an accident.

+1

We have bought cars several times from CarMax. Never any issues. They also have things like warranties. The local CarMax has a service area that is one of the nicest I have every seen, like one of those "remote offices for rent" places.

Carvana is definitely for the seller. They seem to hope the buyer will not want to deal with the complex resolution process to address any post-sales issues.

A private sale will always be a better deal than selling to one of these outfits. I think the attraction (at least for me) is the convenience of using them. Sold cars both ways, and using Carmax was far less hassle, not to mention quicker. Giving up a small percentage was worth it to me, and I'll do it again.

+1

While personal anecdotes do not statistics make, I know of more folks involved in private sales that ended in is bad situations than folks involved in sales to CarMax or Carvana having issues with them.

We have never sold any of our autos. We run them until they are totaled or fall apart and are worth more in parts, or donate them to charities or family in need.

 

[Beer-man]

Had a great experience selling a car to Carvana and had an even better experience buying a car from Vroom. No dealer could come within $3k of the deal I got. One very honest dealer said their overhead and commission was way to much to even try to compete.

 

[Texas Proud]

Had a great experience selling a car to Carvana and had an even better experience buying a car from Vroom. No dealer could come within $3k of the deal I got. One very honest dealer said their overhead and commission was way to much to even try to compete.

I have heard 3 car salesmen say they cannot match CarMax... one was for my purchase back in 2014... but, they were close enough that with the tax savings on a trade in I did not lose that much...

 

[DrRoy]

Two years ago when we sold a car, CarMax offered $24,000, but we sold it with an online ad to a dealership for $27,500.

A private sale will always be a better deal than selling to one of these outfits. I think the attraction (at least for me) is the convenience of using them. Sold cars both ways, and using Carmax was far less hassle, not to mention quicker. Giving up a small percentage was worth it to me, and I'll do it again.

$3500 was not small to me, and well worth the modest effort of the private sale.

 

[JoeWras]

A year ago I bought a 2011 Honda Odyssey private sale and saved about $2500. I inspected it myself. Probably won't do that again. I'd suggest an older car needs to get up on the lift for a proper inspection.

Knock on wood, the engine and transmission are going strong at almost 8k miles. I will have to get a bunch of suspension work done, however. I missed that, and probably could have squeezed more concessions out of the seller.

It was generally a good experience but I'd still rather buy from CarMax, but CarMax doesn't sell vehicles that old or with such high mileage (over 200k).

I might sell these old cars we have ourselves since their value will be so low. But I don't know. The process is a pain in the ... Maybe just donate them.

 

[Out of Steam]

I sold a 14-year-old Camry to them in 2020. I don’t remember exactly but I know it was over 100K.

Carmax will buy older cars to send to auction, but won't give more than a dealer would in trade. I got an online estimate from them on a car with 170K+ miles recently and it was quite low.

 

[Out of Steam]

Knock on wood, the engine and transmission are going strong at almost 8k miles. I will have to get a bunch of suspension work done, however. I missed that, and probably could have squeezed more concessions out of the seller.

It was generally a good experience but I'd still rather buy from CarMax, but CarMax doesn't sell vehicles that old or with such high mileage (over 200k).

I might sell these old cars we have ourselves since their value will be so low. But I don't know. The process is a pain in the ... Maybe just donate them.

My wife and I test-drove a car at Carmax last week. When I went home to compare pricing, I thought they were $1500 or so high, which isn't huge on an almost $30K car. Decided we liked the high trim level, but the optional turbo engine was probably unnecessary (Subaru Outback).

While I'd prefer not to buy new because I'd like to be driving an EV before too long, and history says I won't sell a new car for 8-10 years, I hesitate to pay over 2/3 of the new price for a four year old vehicle.

I'm having the same issue as you with where to sell a car too old/with too many miles to go on the lot at a new car dealer. In addition to my being tired of pulling camping gear out of a car trunk, my current car requires suspension work that's not worth it for me to pay for. I would also insist on replacing the head unit to have Apple Carplay.

 

[Fermion]

My wife and I test-drove a car at Carmax last week. When I went home to compare pricing, I thought they were $1500 or so high, which isn't huge on an almost $30K car. Decided we liked the high trim level, but the optional turbo engine was probably unnecessary (Subaru Outback).

While I'd prefer not to buy new because I'd like to be driving an EV before too long, and history says I won't sell a new car for 8-10 years, I hesitate to pay over 2/3 of the new price for a four year old vehicle.

I'm having the same issue as you with where to sell a car too old/with too many miles to go on the lot at a new car dealer. In addition to my being tired of pulling camping gear out of a car trunk, my current car requires suspension work that's not worth it for me to pay for. I would also insist on replacing the head unit to have Apple Carplay.

If you think you might switch to a EV in a few years, maybe look into a 2 or 3 year lease on a new car?

 

[Out of Steam]

If you think you might switch to a EV in a few years, maybe look into a 2 or 3 year lease on a new car?

One issue is that I have started driving my car a lot of miles again, over 7500 miles since July 1st. Since I might overrun even a 15K mile a year lease, the leasing numbers aren't great compared to buying.

Since I don't see myself going over by more than 3K miles a year, I'm still open to leasing.

 

[Cayman]

CarMax - offered me the highest price for an 11 year old convertible with rust damage. We were in and out of their facility w/ a check in the amount they originally offered me in 20 - yes 20 minutes. No quibbles, seamless. Great experience.

 

[BeWealthy]

Just for grins I requested an offer from CarMax for my 2000 GMC Jimmy with 240,000 miles, history of 2 fender benders, ABS not working, oil leaking, etc. Drum roll...$100. It's gotta be worth more as scrap. I guess that's not their core business.

 

[RetMD21]

Vroom gave me the best price but I sold it back to the local dealer for 97% of that. Close enough for me

 

[Texas Proud]

Just for grins I requested an offer from CarMax for my 2000 GMC Jimmy with 240,000 miles, history of 2 fender benders, ABS not working, oil leaking, etc. Drum roll...$100. It's gotta be worth more as scrap. I guess that's not their core business.

From what I was told by one of my DDs friends who has a dad that works there... they do auction off cars they do not think they want on their lot...


They just want you to buy from them...

 

[ERD50]

From what I was told by one of my DDs friends who has a dad that works there... they do auction off cars they do not think they want on their lot...


They just want you to buy from them...

I'm certain they do. I traded in an old car, an odd model, and as long as it ran they gave me $700 (IIRC).

I just did a search, nothing under $9,599, only 7 cars under $10K, all tiny things. Four of those are 2013/2014 Smart Cars, a 2013 Fiat, a 2013 Ford Fiesta, and a 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage.

And, at least using their filter only for miles (all else open) which only goes to 150,000 miles or less, and then 140,000 miles or less, there are:

66,821 cars 150K or less, and
667,65 cars 140K or less, so that would mean only 56 cars with between 140K and 150K miles, out of over 66,000 cars - so they sure seem to draw the line, and sell those off at auction. Unless their filters are wacky.

-ERD50

 

[Golden Mean]

... Carvana put my car on their site for $4.5K more than they paid me, but I knew that would be the case, they are a for profit business. ...

@Midpack, how long did it take them to relist it? I just sold them a car and would like to see if they list it and for how much. Did you just keep searching for your car on their site to find it?

Thanks

 

[tbis]

Sold a car last year to Carvana. Got a pretty decent price for it and it was painless. Honestly, I think they were so desperate for inventory at that time, they were offering very competitive amounts. A year later and they were offering half what they gave me.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Totally agree with your findings. I skipped CarMax last time as it just wasn't worth my time to sit there for an hour. The other one I have had very good luck with is Autonation. They own dealers around the country. They paid several thousand more than other options on a nice car we sold a few years back. Extremely easy, online, and then drop the car at a specific local dealer where the check was waiting.

If they were offering me a thousand dollars more than the other outfits, I'd do it. A thousand dollars for an hour for waiting sounds like a good deal.

 

[EQMAN]

I got quotes online from both CarMax and Carvona and went to the dealership I purchased the car from originally. The dealership and CarMax were the same price. Went to CarMax and did the deal. Took about an hour to get check in hand.

 

[FLJim]

To all of you who sold cars, why were you selling them? I have sold a few cars to private parties (quite a few years ago) and because they were "excess" vehicles. Lately I just trade them to the dealer as a credit on a new purchase. That saves 7% sales tax on the trade price, which for my last trade-in was $2,100. So the dealer gave me $30K, Carvana would have to have given me $32,100? Maybe I have been doing it all wrong. Which is why I read these posts, so that I can learn a better way!

 

[RetMD21]

I got a very low trade in offer compared to online sale so the tax issue was insignificat in comparison.

 

[TrvlBug]

... ...Lately I just trade them to the dealer as a credit on a new purchase. That saves 7% sales tax on the trade price, which for my last trade-in was $2,100. So the dealer gave me $30K, Carvana would have to have given me $32,100? Maybe I have been doing it all wrong. Which is why I read these posts, so that I can learn a better way!

This is not an option in all states. My state/county's 9.75% tax is assessed on the TOTAL vehicle price before any trade-in.

 

[Golden Mean]

To all of you who sold cars, why were you selling them?

I sold my 6 spd Elantra because I was getting tired of the manual trans. Also, Hyundai told me not to park it inside anymore because it could burst into flames...

That saves 7% sales tax on the trade price, which for my last trade-in was $2,100. So the dealer gave me $30K, Carvana would have to have given me $32,100? Maybe I have been doing it all wrong. Which is why I read these posts, so that I can learn a better way!

Yeah, I saved tax on $12k doing a trade-in instead of a separate sell and buy. Nevada only taxes the difference on a trade in. We also have no state income tax... or rain.

 

[CaliKid]

If they were offering me a thousand dollars more than the other outfits, I'd do it. A thousand dollars for an hour for waiting sounds like a good deal.

In my past experience they pay less. It wasn't worth an hour of my time to find out what they would do here. We all value our time/hassle factors different.

 

[audreyh1]

CarMax greatly exceeded our trade-in offer. It was a low value vehicle anyway.