Considering selling to Carmax

[The_Epsicle]

The day has come sooner than I expected, it's time to sell my Ranger. I've known I've needed to do this for awhile but I've now lost overdrive and I refuse to mess with my A4LD. Thank you everyone for a good three years where you, along with my own hard work and research, changed me from a know-nothing teenager with his first car, into a confident mechanic.

Now that that's out of the way, I've been trying to sell my truck on CL and have gotten nothing but scams. So I'm thinking of seeing what Carmax will offer me for it. It's a bit of a drive for me to go to them, but in your experience have they been fair? I'm not expecting them to give me top dollar, but I want more than a junkyard price for it (which around here is $300 with practically everything in good working order). Lets consider the condition fair, but KBB says its poor on account that the title says "not actual milage."

 

[stmitch]

I don't know anything about your specific truck, but if it's the 94 from your sig with a less than perfect title and a transmission on it's last legs, then I'd say you'd be lucky to get $1500 for it on CL. Carmax or another dealer would probably offer less since they'll just send it to auction if they'd deal with it at all due to the title issue. Call them and see what they say before you make the special trip.

 

[97RangerXLT]

^^what Stmitch said. Any dealer will not give you anything for it (especially in a trade in) and I believe that Car Max only goes back 10 or 15 years. Keep on posting it to CL and weed through the scammers...

You might be money ahead if you can source a working A4LD from a wreck and swap out your junk transmission, especially if you have a place to work on it and access to the tools/ lifts, etc. A 23 year old truck with a blown transmission is not worth much more than scrap prices unfortunately.

AJ

 

[gw33gp]

A friend sold a vehicle to Car Max and I think he got a very good price for it. However, it is my understanding that CM will buy only vehicles that are in very good condition and not too old. I don't think your Ranger falls in that category. They do a thorough inspection before making an offer. I doubt you will get an offer from them unless it they can sell it for scrap and still make money.

 

[Slammin Sam]

I too think CL is your best bet. You might try parking next to a busy street with a for sale sign on it. A 23 year old truck with a bad transmission is worth very little. If you can find a good used trans, throw it in the bed and offer it as a package deal. That might appeal to the backyard mechanics.

 

[Mark_88]

Aside from the good advice you received you might find someone who is willing to give you somewhere near what your truck might be worth in running condition. I like the idea of tossing in a working transmission if you can afford to do that...or negotiate a price minus the cost of a working transmission if you are not in the position of spending more money on another part that may or may not get you closer to asking price.

I was pressured into selling my last project and it really pained me all around to part with it but, fortunately, I found someone who was willing to give me almost what I wanted (asking $700 -> sold for $500) even though it was probably worth closer to $1,500 because of all the work and new parts I added.

If that buyer didn't come along when he did I would have had to sell it for much less...so stay positive and amazing things will happen...maybe not miraculous things...but timely and helpful.

 

[RayInStl]

I had both good and bad experiences selling to CarMax. I sold my 2012 jeep wrangled to them for $10k more than I owed on it. That was the good.

The bad was when, on a whim, I thought I'd see what they'd give me for my 99 Dodge Ram 2500 V10. They offered me $1200. You can't buy a 3/4 ton truck for less than $5k around these parts. Even of its rusty and has big problems. Neither of which my truck had.

They will buy any car. But unless it's late model, don't expect much for it. That said, it's a hassle free experience. You can get a quote from them in less than 20 minutes and they don't push you to sell. Their offer is good for 7 days.

I wouldn't expect them to offer you more than $300 tho. They are going to send it to auction and they base their price on making money, not breaking even.