JHZR2
Staff member
In the past I've been against these no haggle places, but I've not really given them a shot at seeing what could be done. Since we're shopping minivans and a new CarMax opened up not too far away, we went there. Nice lot, nice facilities, friendly (though not knowledgable) sales people.
We wanted to see minivans, they had a few on the lot. We found an odyssey LX (low end) which we preferred over the fancy ones. We drove it. Not a bad car, but the pricing was about $2k over where it should be. I mentioned that the price was a bit high, and that the salesman should talk to his boss, but they said the prices were the prices.
I walked around and saw a Lexus rx hybrid, which is a 30MPG SUV which I've had my eye on for a while. It was really new, only 12k miles. Its price was decent.
So for kicks I made an offer on the van where I thought the price would be. Not accepted. Ok, fine. So then for kicks I made an offer on the RX and the van, at the place I thought the price should be on the van, plus the price of the other one. Keep in mind were talking over $60k of vehicle here. I didn't say anything about financing or cash or warranties, they had every chance from that point to upsell and try to finance me. No dice.
So Carmax missed out on $60k worth of sale over their minivan being $1-2k over the edmunds price?!? I guess that's working for them... They would not budge. The salesman went to the boss. No dice.
I will say that we went to another similar place, who does the same sort of business model. The no haggle pricing really just equates to a worse price for the buyer. CarMax had nicer cars than the other place, in terms of upkeep, damage, cleanliness, etc. but their business model just is poor.
Shopping autotrader later, I found vans from brand new to 15k miles (the one we liked at CarMax had 29k), for within $2k. What amazes me is that a brand new one outfit the same was less than $3500 more than one with 30k at CarMax. So why would I buy used?
They thrive off of duping people into believing that MSRP is what they will pay at the dealer. Crazy.
Not sure if I'll go back. I've never been a fan of used cars, and our pricing experience here confirms it. What is nice is that you can see and drive lots of cars on one lot.
We wanted to see minivans, they had a few on the lot. We found an odyssey LX (low end) which we preferred over the fancy ones. We drove it. Not a bad car, but the pricing was about $2k over where it should be. I mentioned that the price was a bit high, and that the salesman should talk to his boss, but they said the prices were the prices.
I walked around and saw a Lexus rx hybrid, which is a 30MPG SUV which I've had my eye on for a while. It was really new, only 12k miles. Its price was decent.
So for kicks I made an offer on the van where I thought the price would be. Not accepted. Ok, fine. So then for kicks I made an offer on the RX and the van, at the place I thought the price should be on the van, plus the price of the other one. Keep in mind were talking over $60k of vehicle here. I didn't say anything about financing or cash or warranties, they had every chance from that point to upsell and try to finance me. No dice.
So Carmax missed out on $60k worth of sale over their minivan being $1-2k over the edmunds price?!? I guess that's working for them... They would not budge. The salesman went to the boss. No dice.
I will say that we went to another similar place, who does the same sort of business model. The no haggle pricing really just equates to a worse price for the buyer. CarMax had nicer cars than the other place, in terms of upkeep, damage, cleanliness, etc. but their business model just is poor.
Shopping autotrader later, I found vans from brand new to 15k miles (the one we liked at CarMax had 29k), for within $2k. What amazes me is that a brand new one outfit the same was less than $3500 more than one with 30k at CarMax. So why would I buy used?
They thrive off of duping people into believing that MSRP is what they will pay at the dealer. Crazy.
Not sure if I'll go back. I've never been a fan of used cars, and our pricing experience here confirms it. What is nice is that you can see and drive lots of cars on one lot.