Buy sell CarMax

[A 2]

I’ve sold 5 vehicles to CarMax In my time. The last one was my gladiator sport S. They purchased it for $39,500 about 6 weeks ago. Like all my vehicles ive sold them, I checked to see what they were selling for. It usually takes about 3 weeks. I’m guessing to clean it up, do safety checks and what not. They listed it for $39,900???? Two days later it was sold. Strange.

The last vehicle I sold about 6 months prior was a 2017 F250. They marked that one up $6k.

I wonder what happened to the gladiator. Car market bubble crashing?

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[GOCAMPN]

I'd almost bet an employee bought it.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

I just bought another Mustang from CarMax. They are moving cars at such a high rate that they will take little to no profit off some vehicles to make money another one. They bought my 2017 mustang 5.0 with 62,000 miles on it for $30,000 and sold it for 30,900 but I bought a 2016 Mustang 5.0 convertible from them for $33,000 with 30,000 miles on it. The market is wild and crazy right now. I only paid $29,500 for the 2017 2yrs again with 19,000 miles on it. 2yrs later I'm making money on it after putting 40,000 miles on it. They know what their doing.

 

[am1978]

They only made $1,800 off my 2018 JLU Sahara.

 

[MPMB]

You also have to consider the kickbacks from financing. And how many times do customers get upgraded to the TruCoat? Or if it's actually "bought" or transfered to another CarMax dealer that has better economic situation.

I haven't researched CarMax structure, so I don't know if the employees are salary or base + commission, etc.

But with my lone experience with them, it has a feel of volume... like a Costco but vehicle-only.

 

[A 2]

Yeah, whatever Carmax‘s business structure or what the market is doing, I was happy that i sold it for $39500 and bought it 15 months and 23k miles earlier for $42,400 (B4 TTL).

 

[A 2]

I'd almost bet an employee bought it.

May Be. There are a few JTs listed locally. They must turn them fast.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

You also have to consider the kickbacks from financing. And how many times do customers get upgraded to the TruCoat? Or if it's actually "bought" or transfered to another CarMax dealer that has better economic situation.

I haven't researched CarMax structure, so I don't know if the employees are salary or base + commission, etc.

But with my lone experience with them, it has a feel of volume... like a Costco but vehicle-only.

Carmax salesmen make no commission on sales,they are on Salary or hourly depending on what dept you work in. My buddy works at the one in Pineville NC that's close to me. You can get a good deal on a vehicle though through them by having a car transferred from another place like you mentioned. A car like I bought would sell for around $36,000 if it was 1st listed at the Charlotte NC store. I was going to buy a blue one they had that had slightly more miles on it but someone put it on hold before I could get to it. It was a 2016 Convertible with 36,000 miles on it listed for $35,000. I had mine transferred from Mississippi to NC and it was listed for $33,000 and that's what I paid for it. I even was able to work out a refund on the $349 transfer fee by complaining about the resonator being cut out of it.

 

[869 KPH]

I sold them a Saturn SL2 with a self-changing oil system about 10 years ago for close to 4K. No strings, didn't buy anything from them. I will never understand why or how that happened. They even told me at the time it was too old for them to sell themselves and it would head to auction.

 

[Hootbro]

The process and cost to take in a trade in and make it ready for resale cost them more than $400. They lost money on that one.

 

[steveorama]

Carmax salesmen make no commission on sales,they are on Salary or hourly depending on what dept you work in. My buddy works at the one in Pineville NC that's close to me. You can get a good deal on a vehicle though through them by having a car transferred from another place like you mentioned. A car like I bought would sell for around $36,000 if it was 1st listed at the Charlotte NC store. I was going to buy a blue one they had that had slightly more miles on it but someone put it on hold before I could get to it. It was a 2016 Convertible with 36,000 miles on it listed for $35,000. I had mine transferred from Mississippi to NC and it was listed for $33,000 and that's what I paid for it. I even was able to work out a refund on the $349 transfer fee by complaining about the resonator being cut out of it.

Do the consultants no longer make spiffs for each sale? Back in the day IIRC, I interviewed to work there when I had lost another sales job and during the interview I was explained more or less that it was a salaried position, and for each car sold it was like $100 regardless of the price of the vehicle. There was no pressure to sell a more expensive car this way. Carmax wanted the better customer experience or review so this would get customers into the car they actually wanted/could afford and be happy vs upselling. Not to say there are not upsells though. As a consultant you could also make additional spiffs by selling the extended warranties or financing apps. I ultimately took another job so I have no idea how any of that actually would of panned out.

 

[Slojo]

I had a friend work at a Carmax. It is pretty straight forward with sales. He became very knowledgeable with all kinds of cars so I thought that was cool. Because he had a lot of knowledge he was a good salesman, could steer people toward cars they'd probably be happy with. If you do your research and are patient you can get a decent deal without a hassle. One of their strong suits was shipping cars around at decent prices but that hasn't been the case for about 6 months. Local stores want to keep inventory.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

Do the consultants no longer make spiffs for each sale? Back in the day IIRC, I interviewed to work there when I had lost another sales job and during the interview I was explained more or less that it was a salaried position, and for each car sold it was like $100 regardless of the price of the vehicle. There was no pressure to sell a more expensive car this way. Carmax wanted the better customer experience or review so this would get customers into the car they actually wanted/could afford and be happy vs upselling. Not to say there are not upsells though. As a consultant you could also make additional spiffs by selling the extended warranties or financing apps. I ultimately took another job so I have no idea how any of that actually would of panned out.

No incentive on a car anymore. He said it's base hourly rate so no one is fighting over who's handling a customer anymore. Basically you get raises and you can make some money working there but they give everyone quarterly bonuses based on sales but it's sales as a entire group so everyone gets the same. I guess they are trying to create a more team environment. He gets some nice quarterly bonuses though but he gets pretty mad when he may of handled the sales on a certain number of cars and another person may of only handled half of what he did but gets the same bonus.

 

[Slojo]

No incentive on a car anymore. He said it's base hourly rate so no one is fighting over who's handling a customer anymore. Basically you get raises and you can make some money working there but they give everyone quarterly bonuses based on sales but it's sales as a entire group so everyone gets the same. I guess they are trying to create a more team environment. He gets some nice quarterly bonuses though but he gets pretty mad when he may of handled the sales on a certain number of cars and another person may of only handled half of what he did but gets the same bonus.

Are they not getting money per car? I think it used to be $100 each sale on top of salary.

 

[steveorama]

No incentive on a car anymore. He said it's base hourly rate so no one is fighting over who's handling a customer anymore. Basically you get raises and you can make some money working there but they give everyone quarterly bonuses based on sales but it's sales as a entire group so everyone gets the same. I guess they are trying to create a more team environment. He gets some nice quarterly bonuses though but he gets pretty mad when he may of handled the sales on a certain number of cars and another person may of only handled half of what he did but gets the same bonus.

Interesting, this was like 12 years ago for me so I imagine quite a lot could change.

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