I went to carmax today hoping that I could sell my 2003 Ford F-350 diesel truck for a fair price, and avoid having to sell it myself. I owe nothing on the vehicle and recently began driving a company vehicle, leaving my ford sitting in the driveway. I arrived and was greeted by a sales person named Bob. He was very professional and courteous, and actually enjoyed his customer service. I was told all of the usual procedures about how they value the vehicle and I was told it would take about 30 minutes or so to complete. I had previously researched the kelly blue book trade in values linked on carmax website, and also looked at nada value, as well as current listings on auto trader for trucks like mine.
The nada trade in value for a loaded lariat 4 wheel drive, 4 door truck like mine was about $22,000. The value on Kelly Blue book was $18500. Quite a difference, and the retails were about 3,000-4,000 over the trade in. My truck is in very nice shape, meticulously maintained, and looked over often to ensure no defects or mechanical problems. It is a sharp looking truck. After researching I felt like I could expect to be offered about 17,000-17,500 and I thought this would be a little low, but fair enough to accept. Boy was I wrong... The appraisal was finished and they offered me $13,000.00. I was shocked and obviously did not sell to them, because I am not in a jam, and do not have to sell. I asked to speak to the appraiser (Larry W.) He arrived to meet with me and came up with a bunch of reasons why I could not sell my truck myself for more than $17,000 and the offer of $13,000 was totally in line with what I should expect to get for it. He said there was no way I could get $18,500. I was shocked beyond belief when I looked on their computer listings, and found at this same carmax, they had an identical truck to mine listed for sale for $29,500.00. This is $14,500.00 more than they offered me!!! Now my truck has 135,000 miles on it, which is not really that much for a diesel engine, but I understand it is too much for carmax to sell on the lot, and the truck they had for sale had 40,000 miles on it, but come on, the appraisal sites i looked at all took off about $3,000.00-4,000.00 for higher mileage, so carmax would list my truck at $24,000 or so.
Even if it is not worth that much, their offer was a complete ripoff, and an attempt to make AT LEAST $5,000.00 buying and reselling my truck. I just want people out there to watch out. Unless you have to sell due to finacial hardship, do not expect to get what your car is worth buy selling to them, or for that matter, not even to come close.
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