Bingo. Time is money and since I'm not in the used car business, when I need a car gone I drop it at Carmax and go on with my day. I sold three cars to them, including my 355 and have no complaints. Dealing with strangers showing up at my home to haggle with me by telling me my car is a POS simply isn't worth the few thousand extra that I'd get selling privately.
Your response, and similar, is fascinating to me coming from a website with financially astute (it's assumed) members (FerrariChat). Other than vanilla appliances, most cars are sold by dealers at msrp or greater while the trade-in value is considerably less than market. So that's more than $10k loss/out of pocket.
What is your time worth? Everyone has a different answer to this question. TO some taking a $10k hit is nothing. To some, every $500 counts. When you go to sell a car there is that line in the sand that you have as a seller, where a price is close enough to what you want, and not worth the extra effort of fighting for more.
True, and I suppose if you're looking at vehicles costing $70k or more then a $20k hit would be expected. And I'm not so pressed for time. I've sold several cars and motorcycles, met some nice people along the way. Makes you wonder why the car sales industry is in a uproar over TrueCar. In addition, my local Chevy dealer adds a $2k surcharge on any car if you have a trade-in. Crazy.
Always negotiate the car first...and trade in second. They will play those games if they know for sure you are going to trade in.
That's been my method as well, but at this dealer every car has an extra window sticker showing the markup.
Took my 2013 CLS63 AMG to Carmax today, they essentially told me to not even bother. Said they wouldn't offer me close to what it's worth and I'd better off with a dealer as they would just try make money from wholesaling it. Was in and out in about 10 minutes
My 2 Carmax experiences, negative. Last one was a few months ago. Selling a Cad SRX, they had a few same as mine, actually mine had AWD, anyhow the were selling these for 18-19k. Figured they would offer me $14K, low balled me at $10K ! No accident, new tires, brakes, detailed, ready to roll my car. Complete waste of time. The guy told me their business model needed $2500/3000 net on each they bought. ok I can see that, But $9K - no way. I sold that car on CL in 2 days for $14K, and I feel I could of got more if held out for it. Same thing selling a Vette years back, sold it for $5500 more In just a few days.
Yea I've left a bit of money on the table by selling cars to CarMax, but again, to me the time saved and hassle averted is worth much more than the money. $10k isn't going to change my life, but the stress and time involved with handling a private transaction would drive me nuts. The 355 I sold to them was considered excessively high mileage by American Ferrari owner standards, but luckily CarMax didn't think so and I got what I considered a fair price at the time. I tried my local Ferrari dealership first but they wouldn't even consign it due to the odometer reading.
How could they buy your car at retail and then resell it and make a profit. I learned a long time ago that dealers make their profit on the buy not the sell.
Trust me; I WAS a dealer for more than twenty years. Dealers make a profit anywhere they can - and often in more ways than the customer realizes. So, how did they make a profit on mine? Likely by sending it to a location where that particular car would have been in demand (it was a Subaru STi), selling it for well in excess of retail book (customer closed on payment and not price), up-selling GAP/service contract/etc, and then picking up a couple of points on the financing. What they didn't do is sell it to a discerning, cash-paying buyer.