My old roommate had her heart set on a '01ish Accord coupe and her parents sent her to Carmax. I told her she was nuts to go there, but agreed to go with her to help in the process. She had a '95 Civic Coupe that was in pretty good condition with just over 200,000 miles on it and they offered her $650 for it. This is the type of car you see selling on craigslist all the time for $2,000-$3,000 as a simple beater.

I laughed in the guy's face and told him we were out of there but he insisted that he would "make us a deal that we couldn't refuse." I asked him how he planned to do that since Carmax prices are non negotiable and he asked us to go to the lot and look at Accord Coupes with him. Reluctantly, I agreed because my roommate wanted to.

We get to the lot and they had 99-01 Accord V6 coupes with 70-100K miles on them, leather, alloys, etc, selling for between $16K and $19K. I almost started laughing and told the salesman that there were no deals to be made when he quoted us at least $1,5000 less than value for her car, and these coupes were marked up a good $3000, at least.

He went into the "no haggle pricing" speech and told us about the inspection process, and pretty soon we were walking away without another word.

Carmax is a SCAM covered up with good marketing!

 

You can't expect much trade-in on a car with 200K + miles on it, particularly an inexpensive car like a Civic, despite the Civic's generally low depreciation rate. If they were selling Private-Party or Retail at $2000-$3000, then $650 is probably a fair trade for it. Even many super-reliable Toyotas and Hondas, with 200K+ miles, are at or near the end of their useful lives, and people aren't going to pay....or trade......much for them.

It seems to me that your friend's main problem is that she may have simply held onto her old car too long, put too many miles on it, and let it get too close to the end of its useful life. Many people do that.....they hold onto an old car for years and decades like it is gold, then wonder why it isn't worth much on a trade. That's fine for getting your ultimate money's worth out of an old car, but it can really complicate things and make it expensive when trading for a much newer (or brand-new) car, as you both found out.

In general, on trade-ins, I've found that perhaps the best way to do a trade-in is to have a car that is not more than about 4-5 years old, a moderate number of miles, and as close to cream-puff condition as possible. Trade it in during the first couple of years, and you lose too much in the steep initial depreciation. Wait longer than about 5 years or so, or put too many miles on it, and its value starts to ultimately get too low, and then it may cost too much to trade up. In general, a vehicle age of 3-5 years is probably the best time for a trade-in.

In fact, with a old 200k mile car like your roomate's, a better choice than trading would (maybe?) be to simply donate it to a charity or auto-training school. Some of them will come with a tow or flat-bed truck and get it for you, have all the necessary paperwork there, and give you a tax receipt for it.




Here, I agree.....you have some points. At least some of what you and her had to go through was simple B.S. I would have asked to speak to the sales manager or General Manager about it.

9-10 year old Accords, even with 50-70K, which is considered very low mileage, are probably not worth 16-19K (and that's assuming the odometers have not been altered, which is much harder to do with the electronic ones nowadays than years ago with the old cable-operated ones). And, like Saturn outlets, a price is either negotiable or it isn't. If it isn't, then salespeople who attempt to play around with it (and don't adjust other things like the dealer-processing fee, a legal fee in some states, to compensate) are probably violating dealer and company policy.

 

Mike, I know what you mean and agree. The sad part is that so many people don't know anything about buying a car and thing that a "reputable" establishment like Carmax is the only way to purchase a used vehicle. When she told her parents she wanted a new car they simple said, "Well...I guess you should go to Carmax."

As it turns out, I helped her sell the Civic for $1800 and buy a '00 Accord Coupe V6, Blk/Blk leather, alloys, CD, and spoiler for $11K from a private owner. It had just over 100K on it and had been perfectly maintained, plus with it being a Honda, there was little to worry about. Not only did she save a lot of money, but she also got a lesson on how to correctly buy and sell a used car.

 

I agree with mmarshall, $650 is a fair trade in price for that Civics. Think about how much it will cost the dealer to sell that car or how much is it worth in wholesale minus the labor cost of the dealer to sell the car to a wholesaler.
As far as the new Accord is concerned, a $3000 mark up is not unreasonable, both party knows thats not the final price and thats $3000 can be knock off easily.

 

Typically I would agree with you but Carmax has a "no haggle - the price on the window is the price you pay" policy.

 

I see that some people are outright defending Carmax here. To those who think I may be *****ing and complaining because Carmax didn't give me a fair price, this is not the first time they low balled me. Years ago I had a 99 Audi A4 with 25k miles on it. I was getting quoted 10-11k from dealerships and the kbb value was 11-13k. Many dealerships were telling me to go to Carmax so I did and the price they gave me? 8000. I decided then I would never go to Carmax, but for some reason I was convinced after several salespeople from multiple dealerships told me I could get the best price.

 

so you were able to "confirm" that the dealerships are able to see what carmax was offering you? that part sounds very interesting to me, making it seem like they have agreements between them

i am not defending any side, i have never been to carmax before. but i know 3 friends who was able to get better trade in prices from carmax after going to dealerships

 

that was pretty much my experience with them as well....IMO they are a total waste of time. I will never go there again.

they don't give you anything close to KBB trade-in (they used to beat it).....then they sell cars for almost new car prices....I seriously have no idea how they stay in business!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Carmax is a joke, I went there once and they offered me 14k in 2006 for a 2005 explorer xlt fully loaded with every option that was not even 7 months old with 11k miles on it. f em

 

I have had three cars being appraised by Carmax and other dealers and two out of three times Carmax had a much higher offer and the other one was about the same as the dealers.

 

Isn't $11K pretty expensive for a '00 model? Might just be the area that you're in, but around here you can buy a loaded 75-85K mile '03 or '04 V6 coupe (next generation) for that kind of money...

 

here is my evaluation of whats going on. BTW carmax does suck in general, but I'm been getting decent trade-in values in the past...

When you have a rare car like a S5 for example, you go to Audi first to get appraisal for example, they offer you "X" amount. Then you go to MB, Lexus etc. Depending on the dealership they might want to sell your car there, sometimes they would call Audi dealership and ask how much they would take for that car. Obviously this dealer will offer you less than Audi, and your appraisal continues to drop in value... This is my observation. Maybe carmax called Audi and they offer less than what they offer you. I think this is very possible. In this economy, I don't think Carmax wants too many high-end cars like yours. This observation comes w/ 5 yrs of car business mind you.