Warning Car Max Scam

My wife went to buy a car for our son. Decides on a car from Car Max. They buy it, including the extremely overpriced warrenty. which I told her not to. If that is not bad enough I check what they bought in accessories. This is after she brought it home. Noticed they included more accessories then what the car actually had and charged for them when compared to the price for this model without them. Of course when I caught it they gladly reduced the price. I wonder why? possible investigation and lawsuit. Not the point how many cars are being priced for accessories over there where the consumer does not noticed they are not on the car. My wife didn't and if they get caught I am sorry will glady reduce the price. Even if it is one car out of a hundred or 500 the amount of cars they sell nation wide could get them a hefty little bundle. I will not even go into at the moment how she already had a problem with the car in several thousand miles and how they screw you with the warrenty and repairs. I will leave that for another topic. Beware if you shop for a car there. I discovered this after she brought it home and of course when we went back they wanted to redo the contract perhaps to cover all this, but I still have the original paper work showing how it was not represented right.

Lee J Buividas

 

Carmax is about the biggest illusion there is: that of a fairly priced used car from someone who won't screw you. Their cars are generally priced above market, and they will also hit you with every aftermarket item they can, all with a friendly smile.

 

Well I think I found my simple solution to being told for four days there would be no charge for a repair on the vehicle. Ony to go over there and be charge 89.00 for diagnostics, especially since I was told there would be no charge for anything. ExRIGuy they use nicenest to screw you. There is a girl that went through hell to get her car fixed there and finally she had to picket them. You might remember the story in the paper. She has a detailed account down to the minute on this web site. It is unbelievable story. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff184759.htm Her name is Kirsten

Well I am going to give them a couple of weeks to either refund my 89.00 or buy the car back and I will have my own detailed report. I will find others that have been ripped off and maybe even Kirsten and Picket them again with the press out there. I am so pissed I can't stand it. I have always bought Toyotas new and they are the best cars we have ever had and still have including my 15 year old land cursier that has had very few problems with 190,000 miles on it and we have always been treated great at the dealerships..

A very angry

Lee j

 

You're much better off buying a certified used car from a dealer. I will never go to CarMax for a car. NEVER

 

I've had good luck selling cars to them. Both times I've gotten more than I was expecting and just about what Bluebook was saying the cars were worth. Buying cars though I go to a dealership.

 

I agree - between me and relatives we've sold them 4 cars - all above what I was offered to trade it (some significantly).

 

Well it looks like its okay to sell them the car, just don't buy from them !!

 

I found they are good for looking at a variety of different cars from different manufacturers (Honda vs. Mazda vs. Toyota, etc.). Then when it is time to buy, go to the dealer and get a better price for a certified used.

-Jim

 

Well after talking to my Lawyer brother I decided if I don't hear from the main manager by next Monday I will file in small claims court. This is of course not about money $89 but principle and I want it on public record. No out of court settlement just court after I file. I can't wait to see their $500 an hour lawyers dealing with this after all the hell they have caused us. This is not about a single incident but a series of incidents. All well documented in writing and a time line.

Not a single return phone call from any of the top managers after I left over 20
messages over the last week thru today. interesting Best fortune 500 company to work for maybe!!! worst I have ever seen on customer service!!!! them being nice all the time is not a license to screw the customers. Criminals do it all the time.

Lee j

 

We had an interesting situation when we went to try and sell Carmax a car. They lowballed the offer because they said we had "rust on the bolts that attach the radiator to the car" and the radiator was about to fall off. They made it seem like we were lucky they were offering ANYTHING for the car. When we were leaving, my husband opened up the hood to look-our bolts holding on the radiator were PLASTIC!!! No rust there. But here's the clincher, my friend had sold Carmax a Jeep Wrangler a few weeks earlier and she had been told there was rust all over the frame and it was a huge safety issue. Man was she mad.

 

When my 16 year old son was looking to buy a car with his OWN earned money.. we went to Car Max... He went to test drive a car.. they would not let him test it..which was not a problem so my husband did. The salesman started talking to my husband. My husband said..I'm not the one you need to talk to..you need to talk to my son he is the one purchasing the car with his own money. The salesman informed my husband the my son could not legally sign the contract.. that was not a problem..we knew all this. When the salesman realized that my son was paying CASH he totally blew the both of them off. I guess they get a bigger commision when you finance the car. When we went back in after our test drive the salesman NEVER came back to us. Their loss. My son got a really nice car at another used car dealership for a fair price and paid cash. Actually got a better price because he was paying cash and not financing! Car Max..never again!

 

For most people there is no better deal on a car than to just keep driving the one they have! I have met very few honest car dealers.

 

So how old do you have to be to buy a car? I bought my first car with my own money at 17. Title was in my name. I'm assuming this is a carmax rule since they're dealing with minors?

-Teak

 

But there is still the sales contract. I would imagine one would have to be of age to sign that.

 

Car max really does stink.
I tried to sell them 2 different cars.
2001 honda prelude with 9800 miles
and a 2003 honda civic with 4700 miles
They offered me $13,800 for the prelude, basically a brand new car. And if you knew me and how well I keep my cars, you would know the car was spotless. Needless to say I kept the prelude, sold it myself for $20,800 in a week. I had people calling from New Jersey to buy it sight unseen (I posted pics and video on my website). As for my civic, I traded that in when I bought my Camry for $14,700.
I also test drove some cars from them once. I drove 3 cars.
1) Mazda miata - during test drive the head gasket blew and oil was spraying all over the place
2) MR2 Spyder - That car bounced like a freakin' hippity hop toy. It was if it had no shocks at all in the rear and all of the gauges had indented letters with paint. All of the paint had rubbed off so you could hardly see the gauges
3) Acura TL - Greasey hand prints on the interior head lining, smelled like an old basement and the engine compartment was filthy.
I walked out after that. I will never go back there, what a rip off that place is, not to mention I can easily haggle a price far far better than their "set' pricing system.
Stay away from CarMax. They also ripped off my brother. But thats another story.

 

We looked at a Camaro SS last year. The frame was bent. It appeared that it had, at some point, been jacked up incorrectly and the entire frame was bent. It took us about 5 minutes to notice this-you would have hoped that the people inspecting their cars would have been able to see it.

We have also seen several cars on the lot that have been painted on the front or back bumbers-hmmm. Wonder what that might mean. The answer the people at carmax gave us when we asked was that they paint the front (or back) ends when there are small chips on the front ends. Riiiiight.

It is a great place to go "try on" different cars, and can be a great place to sell your car to (had an old rusting prelude w/ 155,000 miles on it-they gave us almost double blue book-must've gotten the guy on his 1st day of work). I would just never buy a car from them.

 

I just bought a new car and wanted to share the news about a local company my coworker told me about. It is Consumers Automotive. They took care of all the negotiating for me. I paid them a flat fee and they did everything. I never even had to step foot in the dealership. This company even had the car delivered to me at my office. The best part is they got the car for me cheaper than any price I had been quoted when I was doing all the shopping myself. If you a looking for a car I have to say this is the way to go. If you want more information just check out the web site. WWW.consumersautomotive.com

 

No viral marketing around here, no sir.

 

There's no real reason to ever go to CarMax. CarMax was built on the premise that a certain segment of people don't want to haggle or engage in any form of human conflict to purchase a vehicle. In the new age of the Internet, it's ridiculous that anyone in this category would still feel the need to shop there. It literally takes 10 minutes to go online and get a half-dozen quotes on new and used vehicles to compare prices and understand market value...no conflict necessary. CarMax preys on the weak and uninformed, assuring you you're getting a 'good deal' and no-haggle price, when in reality, you're paying a premium just to avoid talking to a commissioned sales rep. Your best bet is to figure out what car you want, print out online quotes for 2-3 of them, then walk into a dealership where you can find a certified pre-owned vehicle and tell them to beat the price. You'll pay a bit extra for the certification, but it usually includes a warranty along with it. It's that simple and it's a much safer bet than rolling the dice at CarMax.