I am extremely distraught right now. My husband and I bought our vehicles from Carmax 3 years ago and were told all about the company's wonderful ethics, dedication to customers, etc. and that Carmax will buy your car (that you bought from Carmax) back for a great price.

We are moving to England and have to sell our car. Trusting that Carmax would give us a fair deal, we go to them. First, my husband's car, a 2002 Ford Taurus in excellent condition. The Kelly Blue Book value is between $5000 and $7000. They offer him $5000. He is disappointed, but it was just a little under the KBB value for his particular car, so he took the offer. It really hurt because he still owed $5349 on the car, so had to pay them when selling them his car. We were consoled by the fact that my car would make some money.

My car is a 2002 black Ford Escort ZX2 premium in great condition, with 29K miles, and all the options (automatic, sunroof, automatic, leather seats, ABS, etc.). The Kelly Blue Book value is between $6000-8000 and my husband predicts we'll get $6200. They 'appraise' the car and tell us what a great car it is, how it's the perfect car for Carmax to buy, particularly with the low mileage, and then offer $4000!!! My mouth gaped open and I explained how we were expecting a lot more since the car was worth more. An 'appraiser' was brought in and eventually concurred with me that we would get 'at least $6000' for the car 'on the streets, ' but that Carmax's first offer is final and that they do not negotiate. I owe $4700 on the car.

So, we were expecting to make a few thousand dollars and ended up being screwed out of a thousand. I literally spent the day bawling because I don't want to get rid of my car and feel so incredibly helpless and taken advantage of. They know we are moving overseas tomorrow and that we don't have another choice.

As an addition, we both bought the extended warranties on the cars, but when my husband brought his car in with a simple problem, they refused to fix it and only tried to temporarily stop the problem from happening. I caution everybody to stay away from Carmax and feel stupid for having listened to their story about being fair, honest, and reasonable. Admitting the car is worth at least $6000 and then offering $4000 is a slap in the face.

I will NEVER go to Carmax again and will caution all my friends, family, acquaintances, and coworkers about their unethical predatory business practices.

Carmax is one of the worst dealerships I have ever been in. They have sales men who know nothing about car or anything that has to do with cars I would seriously rate the deal -10. They seem to want to hire sale people who know nothing about cars the company wouldn't hire me with all my expertise and know because Carmanx is a racist company. Carmax have sales people who don't even know if a car is front wheel drive or back wheel drive. I mean how could a Honda accord be a back wheel drive car, thats impossible. I have been there several times to see if another sales person knows anything but every time I am there it seem like I am going there to get all the wrong information more and more and they wouldn't hire some who know a lot about cars. And they have cars that are more that over priced. I am very happy that I did not purchase a car from them or work for them after reading all the negative reviews.

I purchased a 2001 Oldsmobile Alero from Carmax in Whitemarsh Md on June 27th, 2007. The car was in the 10k range and had apro 40k miles on it. I also purchased the extended warranty. This was the 3rd car I had purchased from there, all co-owned with my former husband. This was the first purchase on my own.

The car broke down the first time on September 3rd in Philadelphia Pa. on the way to my daughters birthday party. I called the roadside service number, and due to the fact that it was a Sunday and a holiday (Laborday weekend)I was told to start looking for myself for a rental car and towing and they would also try to find someone and call me back. They sent a tow truck to Pa from maryland to get my car(it took aprox. four hours) and could not find any rental car co open. I found one at the airport in Philly and picked it up, and drove back to Md.I had to put it on my credit card because the service dept. was closed and they couldn't assign it a service number until Tues. but they assured me I would be reimbursed. The whole birthday trip was ruined with phone calls, waiting for the tow truck and having to get a ride from family to pick up rental. The next day I got a call from Carmax telling me that the rental I got from Hertz was too expensive and to bring it to Carmax (about 1 hour from my home)and they would give me a rental from their rental car co. and return the Hertz rental to the BWI location for me. Okay. When I brought it back to them I let them know it was a little under Full on gas, and that it had to be on Full when returned, 'no problem' they said. It was returned two days later(they forgot about it and forgot to fill the tank) How did I find out that they forgot to bring the car back and fill the tank? Over $300.00 was charged to my Visa, which took weeks to get reimbursed. Then they sent the check to the wrong address!

November 23, 2007-2nd service problem- when they had the car for the 1st breakdown they somehow disabled the turning signals. This is the soonest I could get an appointment being that they are only open M-F 7am to 4pm, Saturday appointments are for oil changes etc. I live an hour away. For that month I used extreme care and hand signals to turn. They didn't have parts and gave me a rental... again.

December 17, 2007-3rd service problem/breakdown. All electrical lights going on, car wont start. Stranded at work. They pick up car and leave me rental. Bad cell in new battery. I pick up car two days later after leaving work early, and go to dinner with friends 1.6 miles from Carmax and after dinner all electrical service lights on again.

December 19, 2007-4th service problem(or same problem not fixed properly prior) I return to Carmax with car after having dinner and all electrical lights on again... finally I am angry at this point. Service department closed and I speak to sales manager, who puts me back into rental that I just returned and they keep the car for over a week... other electrical problems. Unforseen, blah, blah, blah.

Beginning of March, 2008-5th and final service problem-Stearing wheel shaking so uncontrollably car can hardly be driven. They tell me to drive it in anyway... I was very scared on 695 trying to control the car. I brought the car back at 8am. I sit down with one of the sales people and tell them I am going to go look outside for another car, that I am deeply dissatisfied with the car I purchased, that it's a lemon and we will discuss it when I find something suitable on the lot. I went out and picked a 2006 ford focus, 2k miles on it, aprox 10k. When I get back in they tell me they will only give me 7k for the Alero... they say that they will buy back the extended warranty etc. and make it close to 8k. I am outraged! I was sold a obviously defective car, then when I go to give it back to them I am supposed to take a 2k loss?? I speak to the district manager, he is rude and abrasive. All this is taking hours, waiting for this manager to call back, this person to appraise the car, etc. It is now close to 10:30pm, I have not eaten all day and am nearly in tears. A different sales person comes in and says ' We are just buying back your old car at the price we sold it to you for and you're buying the Ford, right??' I said I didn't think so... He says well that would be the fair thing to do', I said that I agreed, but I didn't think so. He said ' Wait, I'll go call the district manager' I said okay, thinking maybe they came to their senses, and have decided to play fair. The salesman comes back and say GOOD TO GO--let's go sign the papers.' We have all the papers signed for Carmax to buy back the Alero at the price that they sold it to me, and the purchase of the Ford Focus when all of a sudden the sales person comes RUNNING out of office and scoops up the papers and says he's sorry, that he only left a message for the district manager and he finally returned the call and Carmax will not buy back the car at the price they sold it to me for. I will have to 'eat the 2k' I am crying, sobbing at this point... it's 11:30 at night and they are mopping the floor and all the lights are out and I've been there for 15 1/2 hours and I haven't eaten since the night before. I agree to take the loss and tell them I want a copy of the papers that I signed previously. They gave them to me. I wrote to the company and got no response. Two days after the Alero was on Carmax's website for $9, 900.

I don't think what they did was legal or ethical. I will never do business with them again and I will make it my mission in life to make people aware of their shady business practices.

Just had my Virginia state inspection performed at Carmax last week and despite the fact that my car purchased from them one year ago had only 7K miles, with only 2K added by me this year, they found a problem that caused my vehicle to fail the state inspection. Imagine my surprise when they insisted I leave my car with them for several days until a factory part could be delivered, telling me I could not drive with an inspection rejection sticker, and then, my consternation when a local large dealership arranged to repair the supposed problem and then found nothing wrong!!! Oh, and if that's not enough: the alleged failure that cause me to fail inspection according to Carmax is apparently not a state inspection item. I plan on following up with the state. Love the car, but I'll stick with the factory dealership for all maintenance going forward.

I had been impressed with Carmax and purchased two cars from them in the past. This time I saw what life there can be like if you are one of the unlucky ones. I bough a used car for >$30k. (Turns out the price was fair enough btw). However, it was delivered to me in terrible condition. I also noticed that after I handed over my check their treatment of me degraded considerably. After driving the car for a day and speaking to their management several times I realized my business meant nothing more to them than not having it. (Such is the modern business model I guess) I returned the car and now hope to get my money back.

My suggestion to anyone is to not believe their advertising or past experiences with them. Especially in this marketplace there are better deals (and better treatment) to be had elsewhere.