New Ride, and Carmax is a-ok

[AmbulanceDriver]

So the Mrs. and I have been talking 'bout upgrading her car for a while now - mostly because I don't fit in it all that well...  It was an '06 Toyota Corolla... 

We wanted to get something bigger for the growing fam as well, and so started looking around a bit...  And stumbled onto a 2011 Dodge Durango with 49k miles..

Last night we traded in her Corolla (got about $500 over what blue-book or edmunds trade in value listed) and took home this beastie....  And lemme tell ya - this thing is absolutely awesome...  It's the 3.6L V6, but it actually gets up and goes like it's got a V8...   Very smooth ride, very quiet interior, and rock solid stable - very minimal body roll when slaloming through the parking lot to test the steering and stability....  And I gotta tell ya.  this thing has more buttons and doo-dads and doohickeys and thingamajiggers than I would have ever imagined.  Lots of "behind the scenes" safety and stability features, as well as shiny "that is so cool" features. I swear this thing will do everything but tuck you in at night...


I also gotta say, I was super impressed with Carmax - probably the most low key, low pressure car dealership I've ever been in.  They were incredibly patient with us as we tried out kiddo's carseat in a huge variety of cars until we found the Durango...  And just made the experience really pleasant, really easy to deal with, and just plain nice.  Definitely a different business model than your typical used car dealer.....

[Jocassee]

From my experience with carmax, I'd say it's more like a car store than a dealership. My mom purchased two late-model Sequoia's from them several years ago and it was a great experience.

[AJ Dual]

We've had good luck with CarMax too.

And they took a PT cruiser (Mrs. Dual's idea... not mine) with a rusted cooling system (disclosed) for full blue book in trade too.

And the Honda Odyssey we got was fairly priced according to Edmunds and the other online car guides.

[Stand_watie]

Bought last two cars at CarMax. Agree it's a "store" not a dealer. Price is on the car and no shenanigans with financing and upselling. A canny, cagey, well-armed horsetrader with a lot of free time could maybe get a better price at a dealer, but I don't think it's worth it for ordinary people. I'll never buy from a dealer again unless I'm allowed to use tactics that aren't currently legal.

[Fitz]

I also like carmax. With a lot of effort, you can get a better deal elsewhere


I'm lazy. Eff Effort


Walk in , pick a car, get a fair trade value usually, walk out. I bought two cars from them over the past 10 years and each time was in and out almost as fast as the average trip to wally world