CarMax Dealer Fees
CarMax, the largest used car retailer in America, and on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For 2005 through 2018”, has introduced “no-haggle” pricing to the majority of the used car market in the US. But, when the sticker price is coming in a few thousand over KBB listed price, is your car buying experience really so hassle-free?
CarMax sells one to six model years old vehicles on the used car lots and at CarMax.com, and they offer a limited 4,000 mile or 90-day (whichever comes first) warranty on every used car that they sell. This warranty covers the engine, transmission, and drive train during your first few months enjoying your new ride.
Take note of the fact that the CarMax used vehicle you are purchasing is not Certified Pre-Owned. The dealer will almost certainly be adding in a charge for a 125 point inspection being performed prior to you purchasing the vehicle, but that in no way means that your vehicle is Certified Pre=Owned.
CarMax also offers an extended warranty that you may purchase at the time of the purchase of the vehicle only. This extended warranty is also called the MaxCare Service Plan. Interestingly, the warranty isn’t actually sold or serviced by CarMax, but by a 3rd party. Another interesting point to take note of is that 27% of the used vehicles sold by CarMax have open safety recalls on them at the time that the sale closes.
The open safety recalls are due in part to the fact that the manufacturer has not authorized CarMax to perform the recall repairs. Yet, in the haste to transfer ownership of the vehicle to a used car buyer, the vehicle is both purchased and sold with a potentially lethal safety defect instead of scheduling and seeing to the completely free safety recall replacement or repair service.
Although it is illegal to sell new vehicles while they are under a safety recall, the same is not true of used vehicles. You need to run the VIN on the vehicle yourself to check for such a recall, do not simply trust the word of the dealership to inform you that your vehicle is under recall.
As far as vehicle sticker price is concerned, CarMax will typically slap a price tag onto the vehicle that may appear to be a good deal. However, get ready, because when you buy your used vehicle at CarMax, you’ll soon encounter the CarMax dealer fees, such as:
The Transfer Fee
When you find the used vehicle you want online, the terms of use, CarMax Customer Service will cite, state that to move the vehicle you want to buy from CarMax to the CarMax you’re currently standing inside the offices of, they charge you a transfer fee. This fee can range from $1 to $999, but it is typically somewhere in the $100 to $400 range.
And, the clincher, if you purchase that vehicle or not, you are responsible for paying that transfer fee, and it is due at the price that CarMax determines it will be at the time of transfer. Although CarMax states that you may return the car hassle-free within 7 days, the transfer fee is not refundable.
You will also see a Processing Or Dealer Fee. This will be added somewhere to the financial documents. These fees are to “cover the cost of the sales paperwork”, and are another $100 to $400 on top of the sticker price of the vehicle.
In addition, the MaxCare Extended Vehicle Warranty noted earlier? The standard 6-year, 125,000-mile warranty is anywhere from $1,000 to $3,800, on top of the sticker price of the vehicle. You will also need to factor in the deductible for every warranty repair, ranging from $50 to $500, depending on the type of repair necessary.
In the long run, it is advisable to sit and do the math before you sign on the dotted line and drive that vehicle off of the lot. Although it may seem just a few thousand dollars off of the KBB price guidelines when you see the sticker price, once you factor in the CarMax dealer fees, the equation is likely to appear much less attractive. Take your calculator, and take your time reviewing the financial agreements before you sign on the dotted line.
Hey, how’s it going? My name is Dan, and I used to work at the biggest dealership in the country. And now I teach fine folks like yourself how not to get F•••ed when buying the car. In fact, in this video, I want to talk about that specifically.
You click the thumbnail, if thumbnail did not explain what I mean. I’m going to go over detail.
So if you ever bought cars or sold cars to CarMax, then you know exactly what I’m talking about and what kind of absolutely hideous process you have to go through only to realize that you are going to get absolutely taken advantage of to the max. You will be taken advantage of when you’re trading your car and or selling your car.
You will be taken advantage of when you’re buying a car because you’re not going to get best prices anywhere. The prices won’t even be competitive. They’re not even going to be close to anything like you would typically expect.
So just so you don’t think that I am pulling this out of my A•••? Let me show you some examples. So here’s a car. Infiniti 2014 premium for seventeen thousand dollars. I’m calling it seventeen hundred and ten thousand miles. All right. So if you wanted to buy infinity, you go to CarMax.
And I went to their Web site and they searched nationwide. Nationwide. This is their lowest price car at the time that I saw this.
Now.
What if you do one that paid that much? Let’s say you were familiar with Internet in general and you’re familiar with Craigslist. eBay. AutoTrader. And just any other place besides CarMax. Let’s check out a card that I found 2014 infinite UK-EU fifty with sixty eight thousand miles. Guess how much is it? Just take a wild guess. Fourteen thousand dollars. Fourteen grand. For the car, that’s less miles and the better car. Are you serious? How do people even go to car, Max, and do any business with them? I checked them out and they’re between eleven and eighteen billion dollars. That’s net worth. Are you kidding me? It might have. Is this my dreaming? Is this real world? Is this real life? Have I been abducted by aliens? And am I in some kind of a simulator who goes to CarMax to sell their car and buy cars? We’re not done just yet. There’s more. Check out this car in upclose. Do you see the front bumper? That is not a factory color. You don’t get factory colors that her two different colors. If I’m not mistaking the bottom part, there’s not a shiny as the top part.
That means bottom part that’s not painted at all is just black plastic. I’m a little bit familiar of bodywork and car painting, so to me it looks like only top part was painted. So if the bumper is painted wrong, what does that mean? That means this car has been. In some kind of by accident or it hit something or whatever. Or maybe somebody stole the bumper. You know what we’re just gonna go with? Somebody stole the bumper of this car. They put a different bumper on, but they only have 90 percent of the paint to paint the bumper. They couldn’t afford extra 75 cents to finish the bumper. Oh, my God, I can’t even can’t even. We’re not done just yet. There is more. Check out this car. Nineteen thousand dollars for eight thousand miles. Are you freaking kidding me? We’re going down in Miles. We went down twenty nine thousand miles and we’re up to nineteen thousand dollars. Let’s see if we wanted to buy something. Like this car right here. What can we find on Craigslist from a private party? Check this out.
Shebab.
2014. Same infinity queue 50 also premium seventy one thousand miles. Twelve point nine. We’re just gonna call that thirteen thousand dollars. Thirteen thousand dollars. Are you freaking kidding me? Who in their right mind goes to CarMax? If you went to CarMax, can you please explain me why I. I have an idea which I’m going to talk about right now and like next 30 seconds. But why does anybody go into CarMax? It blows my mind.
Let me get ready for this. This this this is this is just crazy.
People think they’re going to say five, six, seven hours by not going to Craigslist or eBay or just selling the car themselves. They’re going to save maybe a day, you know? OK. You saved the day. But you lost 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 thousand dollars on the trade in. Do you get paid five, six, seven, eight thousand dollars a day? What do you do for a living?
Ok, here, here’s the here’s the worst part. People think they’re going to make that money back. How are you going to make that money back when you do the same thing again or when you buy a car from CarMax?
Their cars are more expensive than anywhere else. This is the biggest gripe that I have with CarMax, actually, not even CarMax. This is America. You can have any business model you want. You can sell kicks and balls. If somebody wants to get kicking a ball, you know what you might have. You might have a business right there. Here’s my problem. How are people going to this dealership and not negotiating for their best price? Guys, dudes, I’m talking to you right now mano a mano. Like I don’t do do this very often, but sometimes I like I want to just grab somebody by their shirt and be like, come on, dude, what the hell are you doing? SNAP out of it. You’re you’re the man of your house. You’re supposed to provide the roof for your house, food, best living conditions, best education for your family.
Best living conditions doesn’t just mean clean house and paid for bills. If you are getting skimp and you’re being taken advantage of for thousands of dollars, you’re not just. You’re not just taking money away from yourself. You’re taking money away from your family. And I’m not trying to be like, oh, super like, holy S•••, let’s just get real.
That five, seven thousand dollars that you got taken advantage of. That could have went to your family. That’s the bottom line. That’s the bottom line.
Now, if you think about this a little more, let’s say you’re just in a hurry and you want to sell a car to day. Well, post it on Craigslist for a lower price. Have a competitor competitive offer. And guess what? Somebody is going to come to your doorstep and they’re going to be more than happy to buy your car. Maybe you’re not selling a really cool car, really expensive car. Maybe you’re selling something cheap. You know how many people would love to have a cheap car? You know how many first time drivers there are? You know how many people there are just they’re just low income. Their car just broke their piece of S•••. A hundred F•••ing Oldsmobile just blew up. They would love to have your car. And most importantly, banks will finance your car. You owe money on the car. Not a problem. Your lease in the car. Not a problem. You’re upside down on the car. Not a problem. You can have your car being sold through a bank or a credit union, whatever you want to somebody else. As long as that person has, you know, is approved, that’s not even your job to worry about as long as they’re approved. They’re going to buy your car. You won’t even have to worry about that person. That person’s money at all. What do you think? Somebody is going to come to your house with a pitchfork and steal your frozen pizzas? Hello, this is America.
If you don’t have a gun, how are you protecting your family? That’s like a whole different topic. But people are saying, I don’t want anybody to come into my house. You have a mailman that comes to your house every day. Get yourself a pair of F•••ing balls and do the right thing. First, take care of your family, how you’re supposed to, because if you’re being taken advantage of, you’re the head of the house. Your family’s being taken advantage of. That’s number one. Number two, do the right thing and sell that car to person in need or sell the car to person that really wants it on Craigslist or whatever, wherever your friends, your family, your co-workers. You know how many people need a car? They’re just not advertising that they need a car. And here’s like one of the worst things that I have ever seen in it, like I’m a heartless bastard, but this S•••, like, really F•••ed me up. I see older people, people who are like, you know, 50, 60 years old, going to sell their car to car, Max, while their nephews, their kids and their grandkids could use that car. I’m not saying give them for free. This is not North F•••ing Korea. Don’t be giving away S••• for free. So that car to them. Why would you sell a car to a multi billion dollar company when you can sell it to somebody else? A person they need.
All right. This is then I’m signing out and they’ll see you on the Internet.
