Wow, carmax gave me $28,200 for my 2006 non-nav TL! I went in just to see what they would offer and when they came back with that price, I was like...well, OK! OK! OK! The dealer only offered me $26,500 on a trade. How can cars be worth more at carmax, then from Acura dealers?! Anyway, I got rid of it just in time, the rattles were started to get crazy with on 4K miles. Luckily, when I purchased it 6 months ago I got it for $30,000 OTD (no sales/property taxes military exemption), so I haven't really lost any money. Since I put my $28,000 in the bank I am having trouble parting with it ...so I think I may spend half on another car and keep the other half in the bank. I know I haven't posted much on this site but the INFO on here is AWESOME! I have enjoyed reading/learning from all of you (the first thing I learned was "search, search search" ...that way I didn't get hammered as one of the newbies ). Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all and let you know I'll still be around here...especially if I go for a Type S


By the way, I'll be posting my 18' chrome Motegi Rims/NITTO 555 with the TPMS already installed in the black market.

 

Why did you get rid of the car so quickly? I hope that it wasn't for the rattles alone. My real question is, what's up with this military exemption thing with the sales taxes? Could you elaborate. My girl friend and I are in the Army and she wants to buy an '07 MDX (I have an '05 TL Nav). If she could get this military exemption, that would be great.

 

Go deal for you, but I don't understand why people buy cars from Carmax because they could almost get a new one for the same price.

 

I have owned a few Acuras in my years and I don't like alot of stuff that's been going on with Acura lately. Taking short cuts like not painting the underside of bumpers, mis-aligned panels, weak seat leather that leaves butt prints, seriously fading dash...and yes, the rattles really bothered me. I think a $30K vehicle should be free from rattles for at least a year. Each time I got in my car a new one would emerge and I just got tired of taking it to the dealer. I would have taken care of them myself, but I never had time and I just thought if we all just keep fixing the rattles, then Acura would never know the size/seriousness of the problem. If everyone keeps going to the dealer for every rattle, sooner or later they (Acura) will have to address this concern. As for the sales/property tax exemption, in SC if you are active duty and not a resident of SC, then when you register your vehicle, you take a copy of your LES to the tax office and you will not be charged taxes. Also if you tell the dealers in SC you are active duty, they will not collect sales tax because you are exempt from sales tax as well. It's been great being stationed in SC, because I only pay $24.00 a year for any passenger vehicle!

 

Carmax offers a no haggle price and finances people with poor credit. I have sold 3 cars to them. They can sell them high and give 16% or higher interest. You should see them bid at the car auctions. They will run up the prices on every car they are bidding. It sure is an easy way to buy or sell a car though. And if you have no idea how to buy a car it is safe and easy, like buying a tv.

 

yeah i have sold 2 cars to carmax and they easily gave me 1500-2000 more than anywhere else. i think they are a volume based dealership and though their profit margins per car may sometime be less, they make it up by selling 10 in the time a normal dealership sells 1. Sometimes I think they can make more selling a used car than a new car.

 

I actually had a great experience BUYING from Carmax. It was a very clean, one-owner, low mileage car that they had listed for $3500 under KBB. The price was the "going rate" for anything else I could find online and significantly cheaper than other local dealers.

I ended up not selling them my old car... my mother-in-law needed a cheap car that got good gas mileage so I cut her a deal.

 

So you guys that sold your cars to carmax would recommend it? Did they take your car in with all the mods or did you have to put it back to stock?

 

The nearest store is in Irvine and I'm setting up an appointment if they'll pay more than 12,500 for a diesel work truck we have, but dang Irvine?!? What if I don't like what they offer? and they don't give quotes over the phone...dang it!

 

I definitely do! My whole experience was pretty straight forward. My sales rep told me to go onto edmunds and do an appraisal for my vehicle (mileage/good condition...he said don't use excellent condition, because they don't)...and he said usually they (carmax) would offer somewhere between trade value and dealer retail....and YEP, for my car they were RIGHT in the middle and $1700 more then my Acura dealer. Plus if you purchase a car from them, they have a 5 day return policy "No questions asked"....so for me, I thought they were AWESOME!

As far as your mods...he did ask me if my whole car was stock and I said yes. He also asked if I did any engine/ECU mods and I said no. So it may be an issue, but since my car was stock I didn't ask any questions about their policy.

 

I did not say Carmax was bad. I think it is a great option. All of there cars are safe purchases. They make selling your cars to them easy.

 

I sold my Jeep Grand Cherokee to them and they gave me a fair price (slightly over KBB). They had a great selection of used cars on the lot and I bought an RSX Type-S from them. I probably could have saved $1,000 - $2,000 looking around and/or buying private party, but to me it wasn't worth the hassle and I need a car to get to work. Their extended warranty was excellent, I used it a few times and it was no hassle, especially regarding rental cars - they hooked you up when you brought yours in if they thought it would take a while. When I totalled my Type-S, I ended up buying a used TL from an Acura dealer, because the closest CarMAX TL I wanted (black on black, 6MT, no navi) was in Chicago and I wanted to test drive it. I got a better deal at the dealer than I would have at CarMAX, but the experience was terrible - very high pressure sales guy, high pressure F&I guy, etc. Also, the dealership did a horrible job detailing the car and I doubt they bothered to do the 120, or however many, point, inspection.