They do drive it. They have driven all my vehicles at least around their large parking lot, maybe less than a 2 minute drive. Their "inspection" takes about 5-10 minutes in total. My thinking is they have a team of mechanics and a basic paint shop on site so they accept a certain level of issues which won't cost them too much to fix.

 

I can look past a missed detail too, that wasn't the main issue. The problems with the ones we saw included missing and damaged interior trim, and a shifter that was literally about to fall into the console because the part it was fitted into was broken. Just very poor pre-sale prep.

 

sold my subaru outback with a bad transmission (disclosed up front of course) to carmax a few years ago with good results as well. no pressure to buy from them at all!

for me, i came off the street cold, no appointment or previous forms filled, and they inspected/test drove the car thereafter ("yep the trans is bad"), gave an offer which was surprisingly competitive despite the trans issue, i accepted, and off they went with my title before producing a check.

the wait for the check to be produced did take some time, like over an hour! perhaps it was right before christmas as there were lots of folks selling simultaneously.

 

I tsold Carmax my BMW 328i in late 2020 and my mom’s Jaguar F-Pace a few months ago. It took forever with the BMW and they screwed up paying the car off which caused me to get a late payment on my credit report. Somehow Carmax had the wrong banking information and it was a crazy ordeal. The car only had two payments and I regretted not just paying it off first since I had the cash. We got it straightened out but I’ve never had a missed/late payment on anything so that was frustrating.

The Jaguar was much smoother. I set the appointment and got the trade in value offer online. We drove up there and we were done in thirty minutes. I set the appointment on a Thursday evening and it went so much smoother than it did with my BMW. They offered the highest trade in value by $3,000 to $5,000 depending on the day I would check. Both times they did a test drive and inspection. They still have that piece of junk Jaguar sitting on the lot too. 😭

 

My father sold his vehicle to them and the price and experience were very good. It only took about 2 hours max from coming in and then having a check.

 

I've sold two cars to Carmax in the last couple of years and made an appointment each time. We were in and out in probably 30-40 minutes each time. I'm not sure if the appointments helped or if we just got lucky.