I feel like CarMax is only ever a good idea if you simply want to sell an extra car you have and don't want the hassle of trying to sell it private party yourself. But if you want to trade it in for something else, the money you save on only paying taxes on the difference in value between your trade-in and the new vehicle would save you more money than you'd ever get from CarMax.
So from my experience working at a dealer, modified vehicles will net you less money than stock. They won't be able to certify them and have to sell them as an as is specialty vehicle (at least we did). Even if they don't ding you on it you will not get any significant bump in value for mods. You will never make your money back, so depending on how difficult it would be to do so it would probably be better to return it to stock. Though I would get a few appraisals of it in its current condition and look online at some appraisals for a comparable stock vehicle.
back in the day you are absolutely 100% correct. now .. not so much. as I said in my post wifeys car was a 2015 Escape with 72k on the clock. they offered us 8500. Car max offered 15k. that more than made up for the taxes we would have saved. by about 1500 bucks or more. My car was a 2019 Escape with 32k on the clock. 17 was offered as a trade Carmax offer was 23k a full 6 grand more. taxes were a lot less than that. I am on the road so I can't give you the exact amount over but it made it well worth selling to carmax.
Oh, definitely. I can't think that is the norm, though. I mean, I have done online offers from CarMax and they were not even as high as what a dealer was going to offer me. So, I don't really think your kind of success is very common. But if you're convinced that CarMax could possibly give you a great offer, then go ahead and get one. It definitely can't hurt at all. But I wouldn't sell it right there until you've gone to a dealer and gotten their offer, too. Dealers you are going to trade it into and then also buy a car from can also be very flexible and come up quite a bit in value when they know you're a serious buyer, too.
That's what I did expect I left the Wildtrak rear springs...not messing with that again!
Online offers are always going to be low. Take it in and let them do an appraisal they give you an offer that is good for a week or two. That gives you time to see what the dealer will offer and you can work the numbers from there. At this point in time it is ALWAYS worth taking it in and getting their offer. With the price of new outpacing people’s ability to pay used car prices are going to go up for awhile IMHO.
Yeah, that's probably what the problem is. I've heard a mixed bag about CarMax, but the couple of times I got online offers from them I was like, "This seems even lower than I've heard about. Doesn't make sense." I'm not even sure why they have an online process if they're just gonna lowball people with it. In person sounds like it's more effective.
Who at a US dealership is going to notice that unless you volunteer that information? lol
I didn't take anything off for them, I took it off to sell. When I took it in to trade it had everything on it. I left the tonneau cover on since I didn't want to deal with it. I left the swing out tool box in since I cut the drop in liner out around it to install. They really didn't even look at my truck much. They saw it had great oversized tires, took the key to check the mileage an for a CEL. Never drove it.
I just traded my ranger in. The dealer asked me to get it as close to stock as possible. They didn't give me anymore with or without all the stuff that was on it.
True. This is what we did when we sold my wife's car in the thick of the used car boom. We didn't need a third car, and didn't want the hassle. Carvana gave bought her 2015 Dodge Dart for only $550 less than what she paid for it sixe years prior.
Exactly!
For the reasons above... Plus there are some very good deals to be had at the moment. A few dealerships within an couple of hours drive have an abundance of F-150s on the lot, there are lots of mark downs, and they are motivated to sell. Once I set aside my time drive up there and strike a deal (or not), I want to get rid of my current car and take home a new one immediately. I want to strike while the iron is hot, and not be sitting with two truck in my driveway while I try to squeeze every penny out of my Ranger by selling privately. My work and personal life is way to busy for that.
