CarMax Appraisal Quote?

[puma1552]

Quick question - if you go and get an appraisal from CarMax to sell them your car, do they put your appraisal into their system?

Reason I ask is in case you go to one location and don't like the value they give you, could you go to another location and receive a different value, or would the second location have a copy of the first location's appraisal via a national system?

I haven't had them appraise my car yet, but there are two locations on opposite sides of town so I was thinking if I got a low ball offer at the first one, I could swing across town and see what the other store would offer.

 

[maflynn]

Quick question - if you go and get an appraisal from CarMax to sell them your car, do they put your appraisal into their system?

I would think.

Reason I ask is in case you go to one location and don't like the value they give you, could you go to another location and receive a different value

Yes, if the other location is perhaps a little more hungry for you business they may very well offer you more, even though they see your prior trip and appraisal.

 

[2298754]

They do log it into the system.

CarMax is a great tool to appraise your car, but they can low-ball like crazy... especially if you have a "rare" car that isn't popular.

 

[maxsix]

CarMax is a very organized professional business. Like any other, they're computerized. You cannot game CarMax, they didn't get to be a national large scale operation by being asleep at the wheel

 

[Gregg2]

I use (abuse?) CarMax to get me a ballpark number for negotiation with a dealer. Each time I have done this, I have gotten as much or more from the dealer. Last time I used a web site (can't remember which one) and got a higher appraisal than from CarMax. This web site works with dealerships. It was so easy! I went to the dealer, showed them the printout, they checked the car to see if I'd described it accurately, and gave me the trade in value I was quoted. I was astounded at the figure, thinking ahead of time it would be several hundred less.

 

[puma1552]

They do log it into the system.

CarMax is a great tool to appraise your car, but they can low-ball like crazy... especially if you have a "rare" car that isn't popular.

see ive often heard they will offer far more than any dealer (of course you have to weigh that against potential tax savings trading in, if your state does that).

any idea how long they keep it in the system?

considering bringing in my 5.0 just to see but being winter i dont want to shoot myself in the foot when i might actually get more in april/may. that would suck if they gave a lowball offer now and then come april/may gave even less just based on the fact they have todays low ball in their system when they otherwise may have offered a good bit more if i were not to bring it in now

 

[2298754]

see ive often heard they will offer far more than any dealer (of course you have to weigh that against potential tax savings trading in, if your state does that).

any idea how long they keep it in the system?

considering bringing in my 5.0 just to see but being winter i dont want to shoot myself in the foot when i might actually get more in april/may. that would suck if they gave a lowball offer now and then come april/may gave even less just based on the fact they have todays low ball in their system when they otherwise may have offered a good bit more if i were not to bring it in now

I think the quote expires in a week or something. So you should be fine down the line in a few months!

 

[puma1552]

well i know the appraisal is good for seven days, but maybe they keep the appraisal in their system longer?

 

[fieldsphotos]

They store your appraisal for longer than the week it is valid for, but I do no know how long it is actually stored for. We had my mother's SUV appraised there once, but then she decided she wasn't quite ready to trade it in. We took it back a few months later (I don't remember exactly how long), and they still had the appraisal in the system, although they did re-appraise the vehicle. I actually think the 2nd appraisal was higher, since the first happened during a huge spike in gas prices that was killing SUV resale values. By the time we took it back, gas had settled back down and folks were buying SUVs again, so we did better.

How well you do with appraisals from them depends highly on whether they are able to sell your car on their lot. I got a really good offer for a V6 Jetta that was almost $1000 above what I was seeing online. I later saw it on their lot. But we got killed on a different car later because we had installed one of those hitches for small things and they couldn't sell it on their lot that way. So it was several thousand lower than what we were hoping for.

I do love using them for a "bottom" number when I go to trade in at a dealer. Its a great negotiating tool.

 

[puma1552]

just did an appraisal here, this place is a joke.

car clean trades - in winter - for $25,900 according to NADA, $24,300 according to KBB. clean retail is nearly $30k.

i printed every comp in the area - including one sitting on their own lot - and they retail upper 20s all day long. right around $29k.

the one on their lot had similar mileage but was a year older (2013 vs my 2014 which makes a big difference when the cars are that new), no brembo pack ($$$), no comfort package, base interior, and actually had cheesy aftermarket seats spliced into the wiring harness (yuck) and that was listed for $27k firm no haggle, which means my much better optioned, more desirable, newer car would EASILY be listed for at least $28.5, if not $29.5 as its a much better car. i bet theyd list it at $29.5k all day long.

their offer? $21k flat and the guy who did the appraisal wouldnt even come out from the back to discuss it, wtf?

wanna make a whopping $8k off me on a single transaction? screw yourself, i threw the appraisal in the trash on the way out the door. wanna buy a wasted auction beater? go use your time and resources and go find one, good luck. you cant have mine hand delivered on a silver platter for auction price, sorry.

i dont get it - its like you couldve offered me $25k and made $4k on it easy, like that isnt enough? well then you can make ****ing zero instead. you can make some money, but im not gonna take it in the butt when i dont have to.

sad thing is people allow themselves to be ripped off left and right when they dont have to. if people didnt alow this to happen, it wouldnt. $4k would be MORE than generous enough, let alone 8 grand? lol.

people are ****in greedy as ****.

 

[fieldsphotos]

just did an appraisal here, this place is a joke.

car clean trades - in winter - for $25,900 according to NADA, $24,300 according to KBB. clean retail is nearly $30k.

i printed every comp in the area - including one sitting on their own lot - and they retail upper 20s all day long. right around $29k.

the one on their lot had similar mileage but was a year older (2013 vs my 2014 which makes a big difference when the cars are that new), no brembo pack ($$$), no comfort package, base interior, and actually had cheesy aftermarket seats spliced into the wiring harness (yuck) and that was listed for $27k firm no haggle, which means my much better optioned, more desirable, newer car would EASILY be listed for at least $28.5, if not $29.5 as its a much better car. i bet theyd list it at $29.5k all day long.

their offer? $21k flat and the guy who did the appraisal wouldnt even come out from the back to discuss it, wtf?

wanna make a whopping $8k off me on a single transaction? screw yourself, i threw the appraisal in the trash on the way out the door. wanna buy a wasted auction beater? go use your time and resources and go find one, good luck. you cant have mine hand delivered on a silver platter for auction price, sorry.

i dont get it - its like you couldve offered me $25k and made $4k on it easy, like that isnt enough? well then you can make ****ing zero instead. you can make some money, but im not gonna take it in the butt when i dont have to.

sad thing is people allow themselves to be ripped off left and right when they dont have to. if people didnt alow this to happen, it wouldnt. $4k would be MORE than generous enough, let alone 8 grand? lol.

people are ****in greedy as ****.

You always have to remember that Carmax never negotiates on anything. Period. That is their deal. They give you an offer, and if you don't like it, don't sell your car to them. Easy enough.

Like I said, I have gotten extremely good offers from them and very bad offers from them. It's a bit of a crapshoot since you never know what they will wholesale and what they won't.

So now you will just have to get offers from other dealers or try and sell it yourself.

 

[puma1552]

i immediately went to a dealer afterwards and got a trade offer for $24.8k plus whatever the tax savings is on $24.8k, probably around $2k. and they will do close to $2k under invoice on the new car id been working on with them so good numbers all around. fair deal for both and plenty of meat on the bone for them to make money on both sales.

literally $6k difference from carmax on the trade with the tax savings...definitely wont bother making the 35 mile drive across town to carmax again. they can go buy trashed auction beaters all day long...if they want my car they need to pay my price, just the same as i need to pay their price - contrary to belief, the seller determines the market, not the other way around.

unrelated to carmax, any "no haggle" or "best price" dealer in general is usually a pretty bad price and usually 5 minutes of emails with another dealer will always undercut them...ive found "no haggle" dealers to basically prey on the uninformed or people who are way too spineless to even request a simple email quote elsewhere, basically people who allow themselves to be walked all over. we have a crusty vw dealer in town against 5 other volume vw dealers, for the hell of it i shot them a quote request and their "best price" was $600 more than the initial offer at the other dealer im working with. i told them what the other dealer offered and that i was open to negotiate and they told me to just go buy it at the other dealer cuz they wont budge. seems like a stupid business model but i guess thats why theyve always been the crappiest little crusty dealer in town and always will be? its actually surprising they stsy in business, lol.