I absolutely agree with your complaint and share your disgust and shock at CarMax's brazenly deceitful "appraisals." Almost exactly the same thing just happened to me! Even the next-door part!
I was the first and only owner of a 2005 Subaru WRX with roughly 40k miles, and I never had any accidents in that car. Except for minor door dings, it was in excellent shape, with almost-new tires plenty of brake-pad left, well-maintained fluids, etc. Trade-in blue-book value for excellent condition was $14, 200, and private party value was $16, 790. Blue-book certified-pre-owned retail price was $19, 480.
I first took it to CarMax of Plano, TX, where they said that there was frame damage that clearly indicated an accident, so they appraised the car at $10, 000. Anticipating my shock (understandably), the CarMax salesman said, "Now, I'm not trying to scam you or anything, so let me get the mechanic to show you what he showed me. Are you sure you've never been in an accident?" I told him absolutely not. He asked me again, more sternly, as if willing me to say, "uh, wait, sorry, I was wrong, I must've forgotten or lied about a frame-bending accident": "Let me ask you again -- have you ever been in an accident?" Sheesh! I'm not a little kid who needs to be taught not to fib. That's certainly no way to treat a customer, let alone the irony of essentially accusing the customer of lying to the salesman, who is himself a lying con artist.
The CarMax mechanic pointed to a golf-ball sized dent/dimple in the middle of the passenger-side sheet-metal rail that runs the length of the underbody. It's clearly a dent from either running over debris or possibly from when I tried jacking the car up to change a flat. In any case, it's hardly a defect significant enough to knock $4, 000 off the value of the car. The small dent in that side rail had no impact whatsoever on the structural rigidity and/or crash-worthiness of the car (IMO, obviously), and at any rate, it certainly wasn't noticeable from the interior of the car.
So off I went to the Subaru dealership in Plano, which is literally next door to CarMax on the same street, W. Plano Parkway. You'd think that Subaru mechanics should know what they're looking for in a Subaru, and whaddyaknow -- they really liked the condition of my WRX. And so they appraised it at (and I therefore sold it for) $14, 000. That's a whopping 40% more than CarMax's "appraisal, " if you can call it that. |
Date
411 days ago by Your Salesman 
398 days ago by Will 
279 days ago by Michelle 
