Carmax Appraisal Guys - Worth it?

I'm going to clean up my 2011 Accord LX 5-speed 153,000 miles and try to sell it. Is it worth it to not do Craigslist? Using KBB values;

Dealer trade is $4,200.

Private Party is $5,600.

Where does Carmax land? If they are going to give me $2,500 I don't even want to waste the 2 hours for the appraisal. If I can get closer I am willing to take a discount. Any experience?

List it here, I think there were a number of folks on this board looking for 5-speed accords just a bit ago. Your's is newer but still in same price window.

I will list it here. I might be interested in a quick sale. I gots lots on my plate.

Carmax will low ball you pretty hard. They will offer less than wholesale. If you are curious, I think you can try givemethevin.com. Allegedly, he will bid $100 more than carmax.

I would guess they'll be close to dealer trade price. I have used them a few times, once I used the offer to get a dealer to increase the price of my trade in (from $1000 to $1250), once to sell a car so I could buy my grandmother's at a discount price, and then to get rid of my grandmother's car fast when the trans went out (7 years later). The only time I felt money was left on the table was the second time, but it still covered the rest of my loan and the purchase so it wasn't bad. In the last case I would have had to fix it to get max value out of it.

They are experts at giving you not quite what you were hoping for.

Also, every time I took a car there, it was about 30 minutes for the appraisal.

slowride wrote: They are experts at giving you not quite what you were hoping for.

So is Taco Bell. I feel like this represents 90% of every retail transaction I've ever experienced.

LOL! So true.

Avoid them at ALL cost. Like someone else already said. They will lowball you hard and sell it for high profit themselves.

Sine_Qua_Non wrote: Avoid them at ALL cost. Like someone else already said. They will lowball you hard and sell it for high profit themselves.

I don't think they are making a huge profit on a car with 153K. Most likely just going to auction.

I sold my Mazdaspeed 3 to them and their offer was higher than dealer trade in, and higher than the shiny happy people on craigslist.

For me it only took about 20 min to do the appraisal, and there is no pressure. It really doesn't hurt to have them do it. I have heard of cases where they are higher, and ones where they are lower.

I forget what the mileage cutoff is but it's either 120k or 130k and they will send it straight to auction. So more then likely you'll get a low offer...

Yeah - I'm 20 minutes each way - I will might take a pass.

Devilsolsi wrote:

Sine_Qua_Non wrote: Avoid them at ALL cost. Like someone else already said. They will lowball you hard and sell it for high profit themselves.

I don't think they are making a huge profit on a car with 153K. Most likely just going to auction. I sold my Mazdaspeed 3 to them and their offer was higher than dealer trade in, and higher than the shiny happy people on craigslist. For me it only took about 20 min to do the appraisal, and there is no pressure. It really doesn't hurt to have them do it. I have heard of cases where they are higher, and ones where they are lower.

It's all about location from what I have seen. They like to move vehicles around a lot to maximize sales in certain areas for cars that sells well in that specific area. I was car shopping back in October. A guy drove his 2013 Toyota 4Runner loaded to the gills to be appraised. They offered him $33.5K (I asked him before he took the deal). Two weeks later, it was finally in their inventory for $47k

It sat for 2 weeks and was finally sold in Atlanta.

mrjre42 wrote: I forget what the mileage cutoff is but it's either 120k or 130k and they will send it straight to auction. So more then likely you'll get a low offer...

It's not so much an absolute cutoff as it is a miles per year thing. They like the cars with < 10k per year the best. A 2011 with 153K is probably going straight to auction, and in that case I would expect an offer to come in accordingly.

Any dealer would likely send it straight to auction, so their price would reflect that. I think you'd be better off going private party with that one. People are always looking for used Hondas.

Maybe it's an isolated incident, but Carmax offered my brother a very, very fair price for his five-speed, needed-paint Nissan Altima. How good was their offer? I told him to accept it on the spot and walk home. (Okay, really, he sold it to them a day or so later and got a ride home.)

I think they offer a great value for cars they can put on their lots but are definitely on the lower side for anything with accident history, above average miles or just too old to inventory. I believe they run a huge auction and move a very high volume of cars but I don't think they make a large profit from it (could be wrong).

Have a 2014 RAV-4 with 20k? You're probably getting a great offer. A 1998 330i? Probably not so much.

I always bring my cars/trucks there prior to any dealer negotiations and/or listing it online just to get a baseline, but I have yet to actually accept one of their offers.

Cobra is right. I've sold a few cars to CarMax in the past.

If the car has a clean Carfax, is in nice shape, and can be put out on their lot after running it through the wash, they'll offer you book value trade in price.

If the car has any accident history, forget it, they'll offer you pennies on the dollar.

If the car has mechanical issues that you don't think are worth fixing, CarMax might make you a good offer, or not. It just depends.

What's the deal with this givemethevin thing? Is this nationwide or only in specific areas? I've never heard of this before.

Try Carvana. I've read things about them where they will arrange pickup for the vehicle.

I sold carmax my old chevy truck for about a grand more than the toyota dealer was gonna give me on trade and a couple hundred more than what I found to be trade in value at the time. They are a business, they figure out what they think they can sell it for and subtract their overhead. It doesn't cost you anything to find out what they offer and it only takes about 30 minutes. You also don't have to clean it up first, deal with a bunch of calls, texts, emails, loading pictures, answering stupid questions and meeting no shows and people who will try to lowball you. I hate selling cars. Could I get a little more money if I was willing to do all the work, sure but there are no free meals, it's a lot of extra work for a little extra money.

Vroom.com is another one that will do the full appraisal online based on your photos and send a truck to pick it up. On my car they beat carmax and a few local places by close to $1000 on the value.