My experience with Carmax. A net positive, but some bumps along the away...

I just bought my Tacoma from Carmax; well it was almost a month ago. You know what, I'll just tell the whole story.
For years I've been needing a pickup, and specifically wanting a Tacoma. It suits my needs; small, capable, I can pull a couple of tons, haul almost half a ton, reliable, easy to maintain; just an all around ideal vehicle for me and my needs.
My wife and I had been looking for months; we'd saved enough money for a decent down payment and had budgeted in some monthly payments. We looked literally from coast to coast, CL, FB (she has a FB account for the Marketplace), a few dealer posts, Edmunds, KBB, the works. Every one we found had some fatal flaw or didn't have what I wanted, v6, 6500 Towing, 4.0 Gen 2, stick shift, little to no rust, TRD, 6' bed. There were a couple of close calls, and 'one that got away', but I ended up including Carmax in my search. After about 3 months of near daily checks, it popped up. 2015, OR, Southern vehicle, stick, clean as a whistle, 89K miles.
27K. wow. That was a LOT of money for a 9 year old truck, about 10% above KBB 'value'.
My wife, out of pure love and a desire to see me happy (I hope), or out of a deep desire to get me to stop whining (more likely), told me to get it.
Now comes the Carmax adventure.
I called Carmax and asked for images of the frame, which they sent me in about 15 minutes. Basically immaculate; a minor bit of surface rust. I paid the shipping fee to have it sent north.
Carmax told me it would be ready for pickup between the 15th and 22nd of that month; less than two weeks from when I paid for the shipping. //The next day// it was enroute north. The day after that it was in Baltimore, 20 miles from my local Carmax. And there it sat... 13rd, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th.....22nd. At this point I was calling Carmax nearly every day asking what was the holdup, and given nothing but a litany of excuses. They offered to return the delivery fee, which was great, and adjusted the date for the 24th, which came and went with my Tacoma still in Baltimore. I couldn't go pick it up because it was not a dealership, it was an out of state sale, etc. All valid reasons, but I wanted my truck, damn it!
On the 24th, I got an update, it was enroue to the Carmax near me. I was told it would be ready to roll off the lot by the 26th. Not even close. I would wait another two weeks with everyone I spoke with stonewalling. Finally, on the 9th of May I called Carmax one omre time to see what, if anything, had changed with my truck. The woman I got on the phone took pity on me and explained the whole thing as she saw in her notes. The truck title had never shipped from Georgia. When it was finally shipped, Carmax submitted it to the DoT for the title change but had missed some paperwork (something to confirm the lien from the first owner had been cleared). DoT sent back the paperwork, and Carmax had to send it a second time. It had just been resubmitted that day (9th). On the 11th I received a call that the truck was ready for me to come see. FINALLY.
I went to the lot with flashlight, magnet, and OBDII reader in hand, all for naught, it was gorgeous. I spent an hour crawling around under the hood and under the truck while people walked by looking at me like I was a lunatic, but I didn't care. I would never be able to purchase a truck like this again, so it had to be *just right*.
I was focused on the mechanicals, and as it was getting dark, I missed a few things, but more on that in a bit. We ended up buying it that evening and driving it home, particularly because I had 30 days to return it for any reason.
Over the next few days I went over my truck with a fine toothed comb; I snuck into a clear-cut construction site (it was not levelled and ready for work, just rough terrain; I didn't screw anyone's work up) and tested 4H and 4L, A-Trac, locking diff, the works. It was perfect. Everything worked.
A couple of days later my wife was looking at the truck as we were getting ready to leave for work and she asked me 'is the windshield supposed to wave like that?' I followed her line of view and sure enough, the windshield was rippled. Looking more closely, I noticed the passengers side seal was incorrectly placed. The windshield name was some Chinese company I had never heard of. I paid more attention to the body. The fender flares were not right, they had been... painted over? Odd. The rear bumper was out of square as well. Hmm.. That afternoon I drove it to Carmax; by this point the truck had been in our possession for three days.
The service folks were friendly as can be. They listened, asked good questions, went out with me to look at my concerns about the body (along with a few minor mechanical bits). Without batting an eye, 'We'll get everything taken care of. Let's schedule an appointment. Closest appointment is 11 days away. Do you need another pickup as a loaner, or will a regular SUV do?' I was absolutely blown away. Hands down the best I have ever been treated at any sort of dealership. Friendly, concerned, entirely dedicated to making sure I was happy.
Over the next few days, things were insane, until the appointment arrived. I dropped it off, got my loaner and was at work 10 minutes late. A buddy suggested that the original owner, realizing that the truck was going to be repossessed, may have popped the windows and damaged the fenders out of spite. Petty, but well within the range of human behavior. The repossessor slapped in the cheapest windows they could just to get it sold, and the next owner just didn't notice or care.
When I called Carmax the next day to ask them to check the other windows, they said they would, that Safelite had replaced the windshield, and my Tacoma had been sent to the dealer to have the fenders and flares on both sides replaced because it would not have matched otherwise. Apparently someone had spray painted the flares which were aftermarket, so they were going to replace them with OEM.
Now //that// is service.
It has been another two weeks. My truck should be ready by the end of this week. I've been driving around in some GMC thing, for two weeks, while Carmax King of Prussia bends over backwards to make sure I am a satisfied customer.
Like, holy shit. Talk about a redemption arc.
Anyway, if you've managed to get this far, thanks for reading. I just had to dump all of this off of my chest because it has been quite an adventure (well, a 'first world' adventure).
All in all, I payed a 10% premium on exactly the pickup I wanted, Carmax corporate was pretty messed up, but the service department sets the absolute gold standard of client satisfaction.
If you are okay with potential weirdness in getting a vehicle shipped, absolutely go with Carmax.

 

Wow, what a story. I thought about going through Carmax for my purchase but used my Credit Union’s car buying service instead. I’m picking up my ‘11 Tacoma Prerunner AC v6TRD Sport this later this morning. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I’ve never used a service before or purchased a vehicle that had to be shipped, so I am a bit apprehensive to say the least.

 

Pics or it didn’t happen

 

No Carfax?!

 

Carfax was 'no reported incidents', so... I dunno.

 

As soon as I get it back! Friday AM, supposedly.

 

Good luck man! It all turned out well in the end; just a bit sketchy there in the middle bit.

 

My wife always wanted one of those GM H3's, well a couple years after their release I happened to see one at carmax and ended up buying it for her. Well long story short, the transmission, transfer case and rear diff all ended up going out at different times and requiring replacement over the span of the next 2 years of ownership... we didn't have any additional warranty but carmax fixed everything at no cost to us over this time, always giving us a nice loaner vehicle. We ended up selling the H3 back to them at a later time and got her a Tundra but I would not hesitate to purchase another vehicle from them after that experience, the H3 was just a shitty vehicle but the way carmax handled it was above and beyond. They even dealt with GM corporate on our behalf, the sad part is that GM was trying to deflect all blame because we drove the H3 in the dirt, they said we must've broke it. The thing is we live down a dirt road so every time it rains the undercarriage becomes covered with mud so that was the GM excuse for all the failures.