qUORA oPINION: Are fixed-price dealers like Carmax and Carvana really as bad as some people say for getting a good deal?

Both Carmax and Carvana are crappy con artists.

As a surprise I bought my son a 2024 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon for his high school graduation. Brand new vehicle right of the dealers lot only had 28 miles on it. He drove it for a few months before deciding to sell it and get a Chevy Silverado 2500 HD for work.

We took the vehicle down to Carmax as he had recieved a few ads from them. When we arrived at Carmax in his Jeep the mileage totaled 659 total miles since he only drove to work and back home during the week. He never offroaded with it nor did he add any modifications.

While they looked over his vehicle he looked around the lot and the ONLY chevy Silverado they had was a 2016 3500 HD with over 200,000 miles on it with scratches and dents and the drivers seat was ripped in 2 places. They wanted $45,000 dollars for it.

They came back from looking over his Jeep and sat down and then said “ the best we can offer on the jeep is $9,550 dollars “ That jeep is 6 months old has very low under a thousand miles on it is brand new and worth $46,000 with the options it has. Then he starts telling fibs and lies about the chevy claiming it is special edition as it is a GMC with chevy body panels and badging that it is a workhorse with a diesel engine and is an standard shift on the column . It was a gas engine model not a diesel. Auto trans not standard did not even have a clutch pedal. We walked out laughing at the idiot.

Carvana was the same we drove across two states to go and they looked at the jeep and again lowballed him with a $12,000 dollar offer. They did not have any trucks at that place but did at a few others and again inflated the prices on crappy old high mileage trucks that they could deliver to the local dealership if he wanted to look and test drive. we walked away. the following week I had him sign over his jeep to me and then took him to a Chevy dealer where I bought him a used 2023 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD with 23,000 miles mint interior and no scratches or dents owned by an old couple who used it to tow a camper while traveling. Paid $27,000 dollars for it.

My son used that truck for a bit for work before heading off to college where he still uses it for working. ( He runs his own business, plowing in winter lawn care and pressure washing in summer)