wiesman02

I'm considering selling my atomic orange 2008 vette, z51, chrome wheels, 1lt, 30k miles, 6 speed manual. If I want to circumvent the hassle of a private sale and sell to carmax, how badly would they lowball me ? I'm curious as to a range. Any ideas before I waste my time.

John harlen

Seriously? It's carmax. They will offer you as low as possible, for maximum profit.
And the person who test drives it will probably take it and drive the **** out of it.

MelAnn

Naw, they'll offer you a nice price.
It's not their job to make the biggest profit they can. They're in business to be nice to people.

Tonylmiller

Just to give you some numbers, they offered me $27k and they had one for sale just like mine at $35k.

Take their offer and add a few thousand to get the market value of your car.

MikeERWNC

KBB Trade-In Fair is what I have always gotten... 3 Times.

I looked a KBB before going and that is exactly what they offered.

BWF07

See what comps are selling for in your area. Then look at KBB or the NADA and see what they show for a trade-in value. Lets face it CarMax is a business that is built on profit. They are not going to give you what you can get in a private sale and you know they will not give you retail. So go in with some figures in mind.
It is going to come down to just what your bottom line is.

mcandrew67

My Fiancee just traded in her 2012 Kia Optima fully loaded, KBB trade in excellent condition was 18,500, Carmax offered her $20,000
She went to the 1st Hyundai dealer for her Genesis Coupe and he offered her $16,000 We left
2nd Hyundai dealer matched Carmax and she got the tax savings of about $1200, so essentially she got $21,200.
The Hyundai dealer has her car listed at $22,000

I have sold numerous cars to Carmax and always got a fair deal from them.
I think if it is a low mileage clean car in excellent shape they do pay top dollar for it.
Just my personal experience with them.

hawkgfr

They offered 36 on a 12000 mile with ilt manual...not bad at all..



Look at the prices the are selling them for and expect about 4k under that on average. apples to apples mind you.

brewcitygymratt

The only reason to sell a car outright at a dealership is if your time is more valuable than money and making 15-20% less on the sale doesn't matter to you.

I have sold many cars/trucks, a harley and my Lund boat online using autotrader/boat trader or ebay. I've helped friends, family members to sell their vehicles as well. It's really very easy.

Using autotrader I sold a car to an out of state buyer in less than a half hr after posting an ad. The most annoying thing about selling online is once in awhile you will have a no show when someone said they were coming down to check the sale vehicle out. That's a minor inconvenience when you consider how much more you will make selling to the general population.

When trading a vehicle they will manipulate the price of the vehicle being purchased as well as trying to force backend adds like warranty and gap on the buyer to offset a good trade in value.

boraxman

Probably not as bad as some dealers but they are in business to make money

l8-apex

I've sold 3 cars to CarMax, with mixed results. One was at a 'fair' trade-in value, one was about 10% below what I thought a fair value (not an expensive car so I just sold it anyway), and one was about 15% more than I expected (very close to retail price).

I thinks it's a mixed bag; sometimes they surprise people with very high offers. It just depends on the demand for the particular car at the time, the numbers they currently have in inventory, etc.

It takes less than an hour, and you may be surprised with a high offer. Just don't be offended if the offer is low. I thinks it's always worth the time to see what they offer.

Top_Fuel

That was my experience, too. I got a great price for my low-mile '09 from Carmax. Yeah...I could have held onto it for months and tried to sell it myself...weeding through the dreamers and Corvetteforum lowballers. I may have gotten another $1,000 out of it. Instead I walked out of Carmax in 20 minutes with a check in my hand and zero headaches. They turned around and sold my car 2 months later for the price I paid for it new.

Just go to the Carmax website and find some C6s similar to yours that they have for sale. Subtract about 15%...that's roughly what they are going to offer you.

noz34me

Probably varies by area, but where I live they give auction value. They look at what cars are bringing at auction, and there you go. That's if they don't ding you for tires, paint, dents, etc.

not08crmanymore

When you sell your car to Carmax or a dealer or anyone in general who's intent it is to turn the car over and sell it for a profit,of course you're going to be "lowballed".You are selling it wholesale under these conditions,not retail as if you were selling to your neighbor.A few thousand difference for sure. Do you want to sell it retail or wholesale??Make up your mind and do it.Can't be both.

ClipperFan

sounds like a nice car, how much do you want for it ??

not08crmanymore

BRAND NEW 2013 1lt COUPE's Have BEEN SELLING FOR 39.9. So your 30k 08...24-25 trade in maybe.retail for 28ish.maybe...

fairlydangerous1

Here in Arizona they will give you "dealer auction" and that's it! They put it on the airwaves and what ever bid comes in within a few minutes is it. Now, that being said, they will give you more if you are willing to pay a few thousand more for your new car you are trading towards.

ck9887

I just transferred a car from another CarMax to my local CarMax with the intentions of buying it when it gets here...

It's a 2008 JSB 6spd 3LT with 32K miles. The CarMax sell price was $31,998 which seemed to be a great deal considering similar vehicles at CarMax were selling for several thousand more. That being said, I would imagine CarMax paid somewhere around $27K-$28K for the car.

JCGRCYA

I looked into selling my 07 C6 to them a few months back. I was not too excited with their offer so I decided to list it on my own. It sold in under a week for $5K more than what they were offering. It just depends how valuable your time is.

jr3

Carmax or any dealer is not supposed to give "retail" for cars. They are supposed to buy at wholesale prices so they can sell at retail prices. Thats just the way their business works.

Some people kinda get mad or accuse them of lowballing because they want to get more for the car. The dealer doesnt want to put to much in the car and end up getting stuck with the car. If they buy at wholesale prices at least they have a good chance to get their money back if they end up having to dump the car at a dealer auction at a later date.

If someone wants retail for a car it would probably be better to do a private sale.