We recently decided to buy a car. Like most people, we are rather averse to dealerships, so we thought we'd give CarMax a try. First, we went to their web site: Carmax.com. There we browsed online through the listings. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted. In fact, we were pretty sure we wanted either a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry. We'd been researching cars for quite some time and had pretty much decided that due to reliability, engineering and customer satisfaction polls, these two cars had good reason to be the top two most popular cars sold in the United States. We learned right away though, that CarMax doesn't sell Hondas so that left us looking at a Toyata. In all honesty, we'd thought about the Prius, but decided it was just too small for us. But, since we were still looking to buy something that wouldn't break the bank, we didn't look at any of the pricier models and focused exclusively on the Camry.
CarMax had more then twenty Camry's listed right there on its web site. The no-haggle price made it easy to pick one we liked, which turned out to be a blue one with all the basics, which meant power everything and a few niceties like remote key locking and sensors up the whazoo.
Once we had one we thought we liked, we were given a closer view. We saw pictures of the actual vehicle and liked what we saw. We were given a complete list of what came with the car and used the little on-line calculator to figure out what our monthly payments would be under various scenarios. Within a mater of a couple of hours of talking it over, we were convinced this car was for us. It should be noted that we considered taking time out to go over to a dealership to look at some Accords, but after some more discussion, we both realized that we liked the Toyota cars we'd seen on the road and had been passengers in with others that owned them, more than we did the Honda vehicles, so we said forget Honda and decided to get more information on the Toyota.
We sent a sales rep an e-mail asking some questions about availability and how long it would take to clear us financially. He wrote back within ten minutes and told us the car was available immediately and he could clear us financially within a couple of hours. We spoke some more privately and then called him and gave him our information. He called back a couple of hours later and told us we were ready and when did we want to come pick up the car.
We drove over the following afternoon. The lot was clean, fresh looking and inviting. There were a lot of customers eyeing cars and sales people assisting them. We met first with the sales guy from online and on the phone, signed the usual stuff then were taken back to talk with the financial guy. We made our choices and had things signed within ten minutes. The price was exactly what they'd advertised on thier web-site. And that was that. I might mention that we did have the option of test driving the Camry, but we both knew we were going to buy it, so we didn't bother. In hindsight, that was probably a silly move on our part, but as mentioned, we've both been in Toyota's so often we knew what we were getting and weren't surprised in the least when we got in the car and drove it home.
While we waited for the guy to go get it and bring it out front to us, the sales guy explained everything there is to explain about a new car and then some. By the time we got in the car to drive away, with a full tank, we felt like we already knew our new car.
In short, we found every single aspect of purchasing this car through CarMax to be a pleasure. The only thing we weren't too crazy about was the interest rate on the loan. That was the only thing about the whole process that we couldn't nail down before driving over to the lot and that we felt a little uneasy about afterwards. Could we have done better at a dealership? We don't know and likely never will. But we still feel we bought our car at the right place.
We would heartily recommend purchasing a car through CarMax to anyone considering buying a new car, especially if you already know what you want and are familiar with the prices others are charging.
We've had the car for a week now and just love it. A review of the Camry will come after we've had it for at least six months. But so far, it's exceeded our every expectation.
Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/buying-car-through-carmax-review-255987.html
CarMax had more then twenty Camry's listed right there on its web site. The no-haggle price made it easy to pick one we liked, which turned out to be a blue one with all the basics, which meant power everything and a few niceties like remote key locking and sensors up the whazoo.
Once we had one we thought we liked, we were given a closer view. We saw pictures of the actual vehicle and liked what we saw. We were given a complete list of what came with the car and used the little on-line calculator to figure out what our monthly payments would be under various scenarios. Within a mater of a couple of hours of talking it over, we were convinced this car was for us. It should be noted that we considered taking time out to go over to a dealership to look at some Accords, but after some more discussion, we both realized that we liked the Toyota cars we'd seen on the road and had been passengers in with others that owned them, more than we did the Honda vehicles, so we said forget Honda and decided to get more information on the Toyota.
We sent a sales rep an e-mail asking some questions about availability and how long it would take to clear us financially. He wrote back within ten minutes and told us the car was available immediately and he could clear us financially within a couple of hours. We spoke some more privately and then called him and gave him our information. He called back a couple of hours later and told us we were ready and when did we want to come pick up the car.
We drove over the following afternoon. The lot was clean, fresh looking and inviting. There were a lot of customers eyeing cars and sales people assisting them. We met first with the sales guy from online and on the phone, signed the usual stuff then were taken back to talk with the financial guy. We made our choices and had things signed within ten minutes. The price was exactly what they'd advertised on thier web-site. And that was that. I might mention that we did have the option of test driving the Camry, but we both knew we were going to buy it, so we didn't bother. In hindsight, that was probably a silly move on our part, but as mentioned, we've both been in Toyota's so often we knew what we were getting and weren't surprised in the least when we got in the car and drove it home.
While we waited for the guy to go get it and bring it out front to us, the sales guy explained everything there is to explain about a new car and then some. By the time we got in the car to drive away, with a full tank, we felt like we already knew our new car.
In short, we found every single aspect of purchasing this car through CarMax to be a pleasure. The only thing we weren't too crazy about was the interest rate on the loan. That was the only thing about the whole process that we couldn't nail down before driving over to the lot and that we felt a little uneasy about afterwards. Could we have done better at a dealership? We don't know and likely never will. But we still feel we bought our car at the right place.
We would heartily recommend purchasing a car through CarMax to anyone considering buying a new car, especially if you already know what you want and are familiar with the prices others are charging.
We've had the car for a week now and just love it. A review of the Camry will come after we've had it for at least six months. But so far, it's exceeded our every expectation.
Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/buying-car-through-carmax-review-255987.html
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