ryan330i

Yea, I was a little disappointed the entries weren't so consistent.

Sentinel

The smoking thing sucks. Good Luck.

Im not sold on the pedal thing sounds like nonsense to me.. no offense to any one who said it. If you drive fast the car adapts and slows you down?

My car requires more pressure then my other cars to getting going though(chevy trailblazer ss and is300(turbod). Ill reset the ecu and see if there is a difference.

DDLexus

The smoke thing is a major deal breaker for me. As a non-smoker, just cannot get past it. The vibration thing sounds very simple. Just re-balance the tires. If they still have problems, you might need a closer inspection of the tires. It might have a knot or something physically wrong with it. Worst case, replace the tires (CarMax should do this before a purchase agreement).

The bumper paint... you're going to find that nearly every used car on the market will get a quick paint on the bumpers. Lexus does this on their CPOs too. So, don't worry about that. If it looks good, don't let they sway you.

The ECU does indeed adapt to your driving style. So, clear out the ECU by disconnecting the battery for 10min and you should see a difference in throttle response. Put the switch in SNOW mode and you'll see the same thing. You have to really mash down the accelerator to get he car to go.

Sentinel

On the is300 (DBW) the difference in response seemed to have been the computer adjusting the fuel/timing maps not any actual difference in throttle.. Aside from that how hard can you drive a ls430 its not an M3.

Jabberwock

If the car's interior has been detailed then they have already done what they can to remove smoker smell. You can have them try again but sometimes it is impossible to ever get it fully out if the car was driven by a heavy smoker. For the average LS430 valued at lets say 20 k or so, a "smoker" car is worth about $2000-4000 less than a non smoker car in the same condition. If you are paying average market price for a smoker car you are paying too much.

CarGuy89

Carmax doesn't seem like a great place to buy cars from to be totally honest (just google search it, you will get some very bad reviews...I've had my eye on some of their stuff in the past). I would recommend either a Lexus dealer or an OCD private owner to buy from. Make sure you run the vin through the Lexus service thing to make sure it went in every 5k, preferably no more or less.

http://www.dealerrater.com/dealer/Carmax-review-16463/

EDIT: I feel some of those overly-cheery review are written by staff that work at carmax (note how a lot of them refers to 'Susan'...who includes specific names in reviews?)

Sentinel

If its not CPO or if you are not buying a warranty I wouldnt trust lexus over any other dealer the same steps apply.

beneteau

The smell of smoke could be greatly removed by having a detailer use an ozone generator in the interior.

ryan330i

Well, I've done about every transaction possible with CarMax now. I sold my 2001 BMW 330i to them back in '06 for a very fair price. Yesterday I purchased a car, and today I returned one.

I researched CarMax quite a bit and found bad feedback as well. We also have to remember that they are a very large used car seller. The biggest used car seller in the country, over 350K per year, and over 3 million total (according to the banners in the showroom). Any big company is going to have their percentage of unhappy employees and customers, and with the Internet, it is easy to find that slice of the pie chart.

There were pluses and minuses to my experience with CarMax.

+ For a very fair cost, I had a used car from 3 states away shipped to me, without any commitment to purchase it

+ Big selection. I suddenly had access to half a dozen LS430s, whereas my local Lexus dealer has 1 and there are maybe 4 or 5 in the entire city.

+ No hassle pricing can be a positive, if you've done your homework. I've researched LS430 pricing in my geography for 4 weeks now, tracking every vehicle on cars.com, autotrader.com, large local franchised auto groups, luxury specialist dealers, craigslist, and every Lexus dealer within 150 miles. The price of this car was a little below asking prices, however I am sure I could get dealers down to, or below CarMax; HAD I found the right car (miles, features, color).

+ Their 5 day return policy is for real. I was really geared up to go toe-to-toe with a manager about returning the vehicle. he asked why we didn't want the car, asked if we wanted him to try and remove the smell, and when I declined, he walked me back to the cashier, shook my hand and thanked me for giving CarMax a try. Within 3-6 days, we will have our down payment back to us.

+ They do have a 30 day bumper-to-bumper warranty that also removes stress from a used car purchase. I cannot vouch for using this service however.

+ Sales people have no incentive to up sell you. They make the same commission whether you buy a $4000 or a $40,000 car, but since they are commissioned, they will do what it takes to move things along, like push the service manager to balance the tires, etc.

Negatives:
- Once cars are "CarMax cars", CarMax doesn't really care about the car's history, other than the CarFax (they use Autocheck). I was met with blank stares asking about the service history of the car; whether it had the 60K service, or any work on the air suspension. Once it passes their "vaunted" 125+ point inspection, it's good enough, and they don't retain any service history knowledge they might have come by. Even if they somehow ended up with a stack of paperwork on service performed, they would shred it, as it contains personal information of a previous owner, as I was told.

- They can be busy. On the first warm Saturday here, there was a 40 minute wait to talk to a sales person. Take a number --now serving 312.

- I was probably outright lied to about it being a smoker's car. The South Carolina CarMax rep probably lied to my sales person and I, and then once the car was here, my sales person had no reason to let her nose influence the sale, so she tried to make it smell as nice as possible and see what my nose thought about it. I don't blame her really, and I also appreciate that once I said I was returning it, she admitted she smelled it too.

- The sales people are not car experts and are sometimes just part time employees working twice a week. Our salesperson came in on her day off to help us, because that's when the car arrived, which was nice, except we felt she rushed us toward a purchase, as much to get home as to get the commission. When we suggested a longer interstate test drive, she demurred, saying traffic would be too bad, again referencing the 5 day return policy window as when we would really be "testing" the car.

All in all, I found CarMax easy to work with, with some unique advantages, though price is not ultimately one of them. Even though this car didn't work out, i would personally still consider CarMax, but I would just be that much more deliberate about testing and inspecting the car.

Jabberwock

Ryan - great post - very informative.

Good luck with your search.

momssc

"""My only complaint was a vibration detectable in the wheel around 60mph. Passengers didn't notice it, but since I was feeling it in the wheel, I could also feel it in the seat of my pants. Very minor though. Carmax balanced the tires, said one was off .25 ounces, and another was off 1oz. For the second test drive it was rush hour and I really couldn't get it up to 60+, but I convinced myself it felt better"""


This is my Toyota/Lexus experience with vibrating steering wheels.

2009 Toyota Tacoma, I sold this truck at 5k miles and took a BIG hit $$ because of steering and full body vibrations that would come and go for no rhyme or reason. Mostly pronounced at 60 MPH. Many trips back to dealer with no fix and I got tired of dealing with them.

2003 Toyota Echo, same issue but is son's car and doesn't bother him.(I guess not when someone else payed for it LOL)

2002 SC430, wifes car, same issue but this seems to be worse when the top is down and is cold out but after tires warm up the vibration goes away OR gets much better.

Toyota needs to get a grip on this because these are not coincidences!

momssc

I am now looking at a 2006 LS 430 with 42K miles, new tires and the front bumper has been repainted but thats not a big deal if it was done correctly. They do this because of bug damage. I HATE painted bumpers!

Asking 25K for this car. Is that a good asking price for this car?

Decius44

I agree, great post. I almost bought a car at CarMax but after reading this I will do more thinking on the subject.

Bocatrip

Good starting place to get a ball park idea of your car's worth before either trading it in or trying to sell on your own. I have seen some fairly rough cars on their lot with extremely steep prices.

ryan330i

For the miles, that seems a fair price, and if it was the right color, I would be considering it myself (um, where is it? ) I was very close to buying an 05 Nav w/ 44K for 23900 private party. I had hoped to get it for around $23000 but he decided to keep it.

This 05 UL had 61K and I was ready to pay $24,800 from CarMax.

If it is a CPO or has a warranty, it starts to look like a really good price.