First, CarMax itself is a great company and they do good work. I'd recommend them to anyone who is either not a good negotiator or who can't afford to invest in the typical car market activities.
As other commenters have mentioned, the two major variables that matter to CarMax are the age and number of miles. CarMax will buy literally any car. For almost any vehicle, CarMax will immediately put it in the auction lane whenever it has more than 100k miles or is over 10 years old. In fact, a lot of their employees ("associates") would make a game of finding an older car with low mileage that they could snap up with CarMax's associate discount.
As the article mentions, CarMax makes on average $2k gross profit per (retail) vehicle. CarMax wants to move inventory quickly, just like any normal retail operation (including its deceased parent company Circuit City). If a vehicle is priced too high, its price will be reduced until it can sell. Thus, CarMax attempts to minimize any unforeseen problems that may occur during the reconditioning process, as these can make the cost (to CarMax) balloon out of control. I honestly wish I could say more about the strategy and analysis that CarMax puts into this. It's truly remarkable to behold.
So, yes, you can sometimes get much more for a vehicle on the open market if (1) you've got a car that's outside the parameters of what CarMax puts on the front lot and (2) you're willing and able to negotiate for a private sale.
First, CarMax itself is a great company and they do good work. I'd recommend them to anyone who is either not a good negotiator or who can't afford to invest in the typical car market activities.
As other commenters have mentioned, the two major variables that matter to CarMax are the age and number of miles. CarMax will buy literally any car. For almost any vehicle, CarMax will immediately put it in the auction lane whenever it has more than 100k miles or is over 10 years old. In fact, a lot of their employees ("associates") would make a game of finding an older car with low mileage that they could snap up with CarMax's associate discount.
As the article mentions, CarMax makes on average $2k gross profit per (retail) vehicle. CarMax wants to move inventory quickly, just like any normal retail operation (including its deceased parent company Circuit City). If a vehicle is priced too high, its price will be reduced until it can sell. Thus, CarMax attempts to minimize any unforeseen problems that may occur during the reconditioning process, as these can make the cost (to CarMax) balloon out of control. I honestly wish I could say more about the strategy and analysis that CarMax puts into this. It's truly remarkable to behold.
So, yes, you can sometimes get much more for a vehicle on the open market if (1) you've got a car that's outside the parameters of what CarMax puts on the front lot and (2) you're willing and able to negotiate for a private sale.