Carmax

Ashley and I went car shopping this past weekend to replace my 2000 Toyota 4Runner. I really like the look of the new 4Runners, but I promised myself I would never buy another due to the treatment by my local Toyota Dealer (Rice Toyota).

We decided to check out the new Volvo XC90's. Our local dealer had a handful on the lot, and they were ready to sell, but they would not come off the MSRP price. I can fully understand this because the XC90 is so new and much like Acura sold the MDX Volvo wants to hold down the inventory and cash in on the hype of the XC90 by selling above or at MSRP. As expected they would not give what I wanted for my 4Runner and they even suggested to take it to Carmax to see if they would offer a better deal on my car.

After lunch I headed to Carmax. Once I arrived I was greeting by an eager salesman. I then explained that I want to have my car appraised; he jotted down some info on a white tag, and then grabbed my keys to hand off to one of the many appraisers waiting for something to do. In the meantime I went with the salesman back to his cubical to wait. He took down my info and logged me into the computer system. Curiously I asked him to check his inventory for a XC90. A few keystrokes later the search yielded nothing. I then asked him to see if he had any Land Rover Discovery's. All at once the system came back with a page full of them. But the only one that caught my eye was a 2003 Java Black one at there Richmond, VA Store.

After reading over the specs., which were lacking, he told me he could send a message to one of the salesperson's there to do a walk around. And I could ask all sorts of questions for them about that vehicle. After inquiring about Bi-Xeon headlamps, heated seats, homelink, and the overall condition of car a half hour later the salesperson in Richmond responded stating that it had everything I asked about, and that it was in excellent condition.

I paid Carmax $150 to have the car transferred to Greensboro. Upon arrival, which was estimated at 4 or 5 days I would have the opportunity to test drive and inspect the car. I went home that evening and started to do a little research on the car. I got the VIN number off Carmax, and punched it in on Carfax to check out the details. Everything looked great except that a ?Major Car Rental Company? in upstate NY registered it. I also learned that it was bought by that company in October 2002, and sold at auction on April of this year. I really hated to hear that it was rental. Because people do not generally do not take care of rentals.

I received a call from Scott at Carmax Monday afternoon to let me know that the Rover had arrived. After work I rushed over to Carmax to check it out. Upon my first inspection the overall care of the vehicle was better than I expected, but after the test drive I noticed after closer inspection that the paint had those dreaded swirl marks much like my black 4Runner. And that the hinge on the back door was rusted. It was as if it had gone through a rough winter up north. I also noticed that there was what looked like salt residue in the threshold of each door.

I decided to take it home and let Ashley look it over. The first thing she pointed out was that it did not look like the lights were Bi-Xeon and she was right. It also did not have the heated seats they said it was supposed to have. After sleeping on it I decided that it was not what I wanted so I called the next morning to let Scott know I was planning on returning the vehicle. He said that was fine and to be sure to ask for a sales manager when I arrived to return it.

The next day I drove it back to Carmax, and saw Perry to return the Discovery. He was very understanding and promptly began drawing up the paperwork for the return. One bit of proof on the rental thing. When I was getting the keys ready to turn in I noticed that one of the spares had a Hertz #1 key chain attached to it. Too funny. After I finished signing the paperwork I followed Perry to the service area to pick up my car. Perry told me that the did not expect me to return the Land Rover so they inspected, rotated and balanced the tires, changed the oil, and cleaned it inside and out of my 4Runner. I tried to offer him money for the work they had done on it but he would not have of it. He said that was their policy, and thanked me for filling up the Rover. I really liked the experience at Carmax and would for sure go back. To bad I could not score the car I wanted.

Comments

[Andrea]

I just bought my GMC Jimmy at Carmax about 9mo.s ago. It's been to the service ctr twice. This 2nd time something is so majorly wrong with the main computer that they're going to have to send it to GMC because they can't fix it. They gave me a new Explorer rental, loved it! Then they called and said the rental only covered 4 7 days. So they gave me a "loaner". I put my foot down on the minivan they tried to stick me in. I ended up with Chev Tracker, it's like a gocart. Mixed emotions. Waiting for the bill.

[Mike]

I have now bought two vehicles at Carmax in Houston. The first being a '99 Tacoma 4x4 that I bought in 2002. Only had one problem with it which was the A/C compressor clutch...which luckily is a cheap fix that I did myself. The second vehicle was a 2004 Mitsubishi Montero Sport. We traded my wife's '01 Civic in and got way more than we had expected. The bad thing about the Montero Sport is that it too was previously a rental car, but with only 9,000 miles a lot of my fears were lifted. So far we've had no problems with it. I will go back to Carmax again. So far I haven't been steered in the wrong direction and the sales people aren't the type you see at regular dealerships.