CarMax
Dont know if its a ripoff, but might be deceptive advertising Beware! Nationwide Web Listings

I dont know if this is a rip off or not, but I think it surely is at least "overblown claims" bordering on Deceptive Advertising.

I am looking to purchase a "Third" car for use by my daughter.in looking we found a very nice 2002 model for what I thought was a decent price.

On their website, Carmax states that they have a "National Base Price" for vehicles. For example, in this case, the price for the vehicle is listed at $12,998 with 32K miles.

Carmax also has listed their "Final No Haggle Price" whic, in the case of this vehicle, is $13,147, after adding their "Processing Fee" of $149.

They then list a "Blue Book Retail Value" from the July- August edition of Kelly of $14,605 and, doing the math, CarMax then lists a "savings" of $1,607.

That's a fair savings, I thought.

So I asked my rep for the VIN and pulled the CarFax report on the vehicle and see that it has had two owners and milage seems OK. So no problem so far.

Just on a whim, as recommended by the rep, I check Kelly Blue Book's website at autoweb.com. Lo and behold, Kelly Blue Book July - August edition for my zip code gives the Suggested Retail Value of this model, WITH THE EXACT OPTIONS AND MILAGE, as $12,680. They also state that "this suggested retail value assumes that the vehicle has been fully reconditioned and has a clean title history. This value also takes into account the dealers' profit, cost for advertising, sales commissions and other costs of doing business".

Wow!

Also, states Kelly, "The final sale price will likely be less depending on the vehicle's actual condition, popularity, type of warranty offered and local market conditions."

So, where is the $1,607 savings? Where did the original Kelly Retail value come from?

Doing some due dilligence, I look up three more Carmax cars (And notice that they are begining not to state ANY Kelly values on some of their listings). I find that the Carmax stated "Blue Book" prices range from a low of $963 dollars different (on a subcompace economy model) to a whopping $3160 dollar difference (on a "luxury truck" model).

Doing some more math, the Carmax "No Haggle Price" is always above the published Kelly Blue Book price on Kelly's website on all three vehicles.

So, since there are often company representatives lurking about here on this forum, I pose to you some questions:

- Where did you get the Kelly numbers that you advertise to show "Savings"?

- Why do you recommend consumers look at Kelly in the first place if the numbers dont jibe?

- Where is my "savings" if I buy a vehicle from you at above the price that YOUR OWN REFERENCE (Kelly Blue Book) states is the price for the vehicle IN MY OWN ZIP CODE?

- How can you expect me to trust your "No Haggle Pricing" when there is such a large difference between your stated price and Kelly's own published price FROM THE SAME EDITION OF THE SAME BLUE BOOK?

I dont want to hear about the "value added" by all the inspections and title searching and detail and tune ups and refurbishment that you do to the cars. This is what attracted me to you in the first place, but if you are going to inflate pricing, then Im going to haggle or go elsewhere.

Im sure there are lots of others who would gladly hand over an extra Two Grand to you for the priviledge of driving one of your Certified Quality Inspected cars (which my mechanic can do for me at $60) and Clean Title Guarantee (which I can get from CarFax for $24.95).

So Carmax, show me the money? Where does that $2000 go?

Im still thinking about buying from you. Why should I believe anything you tell me if you so inflate your reference prices and any simpleton can simply check your numbers on the web and discover that...

There aint no savings at all!

Lou
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.

Company: CarMax
Country: USA
State: Nationwide
Site: carmax.com

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