Auto tradeIn- Carmax, Carvana, or dealer

[davidsa]

Spent the last month selling a vehicle private party. Done with that. Need to trade one on a sedan of some type

Dealer is simple but confuses trade with purchase price.

For those that have used Carmax or Carvana can you describe the process and give it a thumbs up or down on the process/experience

thanks

[okskeetertzx190]

There is also KBB cash offer on their website.

[I fish 4 Bass]

Carvana was good for me. Better deal than Carmax and local dealers. All electronic communication had me a little concerned, so I sent message asking them to call me. Explained everything. I was in and out in 15 minutes. I elected to arrive at the facility rather than pay a $290 fee for residential service. Facility was half hour from my home.

[breeves2245]

I've used Carvana twice. Both times very good experience. Their purchase price was better than Carmax and local dealer.

Ranger Bob to Carvana.jpg

[djb750]

Spent the last month selling a vehicle private party. Done with that.

Horrible isn't it!!! I'm doing the same thing right now on autotrade's private seller exchange. Nothing like having a conversation with the person that wants to steal your vehicle from you.

just reinforces the fact that whatever you have, there's someone out there that wants to take it from you!

sorry I don't have anything to contribute to the actual question you had, but good luck to you and I hope one of those works out for you.

[mdbasser]

Just took Mother inlaws vehicle to carmax. Vehicle had slight damage to front facia. Filthy interior. Carmax made extremely fair offer. Didn't sell yet. So can comment on that process. But for offer. Took less than 30 minutes to access. I will say vehicle has very low mileage.

[Yakalong]

About 8 years ago sold a car to carmax. They offered like $900 more than dealership so I sold to car max. It was pretty easy.

[Jeff La]

Sold to to carmax and would do it again if I need to. You won't get top dollar but it was worth taking the cut to not have to sell it outright.

[Triton 186]

Carmax

[Keoweefishing]

Have had very good experiences with Carmax. Fair price, walk out with a check in hand.

[davidsa]

Thanks for all the replies. I visited a dealer this afternoon and walked away with new to me vehicle and old gone to dealer. I had the carmax price from about 2 weeks ago and ensured my net deal gave me the same. Knowledge is power. the offered me 2100 less then Carmax initially. In the end, they dropped the price of car I bought by 500 and gave me 1600 more on my trade.

Likely could have sold person to person for another $2k but the pain I could not do.

[Rangerdeepv]

Carmax was great twice.

[billproxs]

CarMax offer me $26,000 for my truck, sold to private party in one day for $35,000. I always sell outright. of course my trucks are meant condition.

[fishin couillon]

For the first time we sold our car to Carvana. I'll give it .....experience was great and easy.....had to do everything over the internet.....my closest Carvana was 1.5 hrs away so we had to drive the car there.......we chose the time and set it up.....even called to let us know if we wanted to be their earlier we could and took it.....the minute we pulled in the parking lot to time we left was no more than 15 mins. They had the paper work and check waiting.....signed papers, got check and left........didnt have to deal with the public want to see your car, test drive, etc, etc.......I'd do it again in a heartbeat, it was so simple.

[OdingyNBugs]

sold my 2014 Tundra Crew to Carvana in 2021. 98k mileage and got 26k. Only owed 2k to the bank. it was my favorite truck. Driving a 21 F250 XLT diesel now.

[wrat]

we used "we buy any car" and it was great from arrival to leaving check in hand was about 45 minutes, we got slightly more than we expected as well

[Okie74133]

The one certainty is to realize that whatever carvana, carmax, or any other similar outfit is willing to pay you will be substantially less than what you could sell it for privately. I'm not a fan of absorbing a loss so they can make a profit, but to each his own.

[angleiron]

Why would you sell it outright and not get the tax credit towards the new car by trading it in? If you are getting confused by the dealer lingo then make it simple...you negotiate the price of the car, then you negotiate the trade-in value...all separately and then do the simple math.

[Okie Poke]

I've sold two on CarMax recently and both transactions were simple. Make your appt, have original owner present with title, and in 30-45 min, generally, you will receive an offer. If you accept, you can do the whole process within a 2-hour period. Much simpler than the few extra dollars you will make on a third party sale. The hassles that become makes it not worth the extra money for me, period. CarMax always gave me the best offers among other buyers.

[Javelin389]

I've sold to Carmax 3 times and all 3 were easy transactions.