LandRvr Convert
New member
Although this happened to me in June, 2006 I think my experience is worth sharing with you guys. A great example of "buyer beware" no matter who you buy from.
Anyway I had done all my homework, sold my Land Rover, and was ready for a Toyo 4 Runner. One of the Carmax locations near Atlanta had a dark grey, Limited V8 4x4. It was an '04 with 38k miles on it. Well I was very interested and immediatley went out for a test drive.
Now, I had heard from many people (including my own brother) about how pleased they were with the quality of the car they purchased from Carmax, not to mention the no haggle sales and just a good all around experiece........so I expected the same.
Well, here's what happened. The 4Runner looked pretty nice at first sight in the parking lot. It was actually really beautiful, and I thought to myself "this is it, and I want to drive it home tonight!!"
Good paint good tires, the engine and engine compartment were spotless, so I thought so far so good.
However, the first problem I noticed was that the remote on the keychain didn't work, so the salesgirl I was working with promptly replaced the battery in it; but still no luck. I didn't think too much of it and was eager to get inside and drive it. As we were getting in for the test drive the salesgirl immediately pointed out a small brown stain on the carpet in the floorboard behind the front passenger's seat. She said Carmax would steam clean the carpet and re-dye it too if I bought the car. I thought, well OK that's fine, and didn't give much more thought to the stain. Well, I next looked up and noticed alot of wear on the headliner, over the front seats, back seats and the rear cargo area, so it appeared to be caused by more than just random fingernail scratches from kids in the backseat. It looked like alot of things had been loaded in and out of the car. I also noticed a burn hole made from a ciggarette in the headliner right next to the sunroof open/close switch. BTW, the truck smelled like an ashtray too, but again, I was in LUST with this car and thought, well with air freshner, carpet deoderizer, etc, etc, the smell would eventually be gone.
So, off we go on the testdrive. It handled perfectly. The 4.7 was quiet and strong, steering, alignment, braking were all flawless. Even braking really hard with my hands just off the wheel, there was no pull to the right or left. So, mechanically it seemed solid.
Then at the end of the testdrive, I thought, oh yea, I forgot to open the sunroof, so I pushed the button, and it starts to slide back, and then all of the sudden 3 or 4 really loud poping noises.
The noises were so loud, I thought the glass was going to shatter and rain down on us! It sounded like someone was hitting the glass really hard with a hammer! Well when we get back to Carmax the salesgirl takes it to the service department
where..... wouln't you know it, they can't get the sunroof to do it again even after opening and closing it multiple times. The truck had 38K miles on it so the Toyo warranty was over. I asked the girl if they could include some sort of repair stipulation that would cover the sunroof problem say just for 6 months or so. They only would give me 30 days on the sunroof.....period.
I then asked about the headliner. It showed much more than average wear for a truck only 2 years old. So I asked if they could replace it. She said they would make the ciggarette burn hole less noticeable, but that was it. No new headliner. So I asked if they could take a grand off the price, but it was a firm no, in keeping with thier no haggle sales policy. It wasn't like I was just haggling to get a better price. I thought it was a legitamate and reasonable request.
I ended up buying it anyway, and I knew I had 5 days to return it for a full refund of every penny, so I decided to take it home and "sleep on it." When I get home I do a Carfax search on it with the VIN. It came up with a clear title, BUT the report said it had been leased by a company as a fleet vehicle. Ah!!!!, that explains some of the condition problems. The next day I really started to look at the carpet stain more carefully. I failed to mention earlier that Carmax had put a brand new set of 4 grey floormats in, but they were not the original Toyota brand mats. I pulled the mats out and noticed that the "small stain" the salesgirl mentioned in the floorboard behind front passenger seat actually went all the way under the front seat and into the front passenger side floorboard!! The carpet HAD been cleaned, but I could still see the stain. It actually covered most of the floorboards in the front and rear passenger areas!! I was concerned now about how that stain got there. It looked to have been caused by alot of liquid....brown liquid. Maybe it was in a flood or a lake or some chemical spilled inside the car from a large tub. Then I thoght about the remote not working..Maybe part of the electrical system was fried??
That was enough!! I returned it after 3 days to Carmax. They were totally fine about it and didn't hound me to try and get me to buy something else.
The service at Carmax was indeed good, but i was just really surprised they would have even had a vehicle in such bad condition for sale. It went against everything I had heard about Carmax.
The next day I bought a new '06 Limited V6 4WD from Sandy Springs Toyota in Atlanta. A great sales experience and a flawless 4 Runner!!! It's so nice to know I've put every mile on that car.....well, almost all. The odometer read 14 miles when I drove it off the lot! A good peace of mind for sure.
Anyway I had done all my homework, sold my Land Rover, and was ready for a Toyo 4 Runner. One of the Carmax locations near Atlanta had a dark grey, Limited V8 4x4. It was an '04 with 38k miles on it. Well I was very interested and immediatley went out for a test drive.
Now, I had heard from many people (including my own brother) about how pleased they were with the quality of the car they purchased from Carmax, not to mention the no haggle sales and just a good all around experiece........so I expected the same.
Well, here's what happened. The 4Runner looked pretty nice at first sight in the parking lot. It was actually really beautiful, and I thought to myself "this is it, and I want to drive it home tonight!!"
Good paint good tires, the engine and engine compartment were spotless, so I thought so far so good.
However, the first problem I noticed was that the remote on the keychain didn't work, so the salesgirl I was working with promptly replaced the battery in it; but still no luck. I didn't think too much of it and was eager to get inside and drive it. As we were getting in for the test drive the salesgirl immediately pointed out a small brown stain on the carpet in the floorboard behind the front passenger's seat. She said Carmax would steam clean the carpet and re-dye it too if I bought the car. I thought, well OK that's fine, and didn't give much more thought to the stain. Well, I next looked up and noticed alot of wear on the headliner, over the front seats, back seats and the rear cargo area, so it appeared to be caused by more than just random fingernail scratches from kids in the backseat. It looked like alot of things had been loaded in and out of the car. I also noticed a burn hole made from a ciggarette in the headliner right next to the sunroof open/close switch. BTW, the truck smelled like an ashtray too, but again, I was in LUST with this car and thought, well with air freshner, carpet deoderizer, etc, etc, the smell would eventually be gone.
So, off we go on the testdrive. It handled perfectly. The 4.7 was quiet and strong, steering, alignment, braking were all flawless. Even braking really hard with my hands just off the wheel, there was no pull to the right or left. So, mechanically it seemed solid.
Then at the end of the testdrive, I thought, oh yea, I forgot to open the sunroof, so I pushed the button, and it starts to slide back, and then all of the sudden 3 or 4 really loud poping noises.
The noises were so loud, I thought the glass was going to shatter and rain down on us! It sounded like someone was hitting the glass really hard with a hammer! Well when we get back to Carmax the salesgirl takes it to the service department
where..... wouln't you know it, they can't get the sunroof to do it again even after opening and closing it multiple times. The truck had 38K miles on it so the Toyo warranty was over. I asked the girl if they could include some sort of repair stipulation that would cover the sunroof problem say just for 6 months or so. They only would give me 30 days on the sunroof.....period.
I then asked about the headliner. It showed much more than average wear for a truck only 2 years old. So I asked if they could replace it. She said they would make the ciggarette burn hole less noticeable, but that was it. No new headliner. So I asked if they could take a grand off the price, but it was a firm no, in keeping with thier no haggle sales policy. It wasn't like I was just haggling to get a better price. I thought it was a legitamate and reasonable request.
I ended up buying it anyway, and I knew I had 5 days to return it for a full refund of every penny, so I decided to take it home and "sleep on it." When I get home I do a Carfax search on it with the VIN. It came up with a clear title, BUT the report said it had been leased by a company as a fleet vehicle. Ah!!!!, that explains some of the condition problems. The next day I really started to look at the carpet stain more carefully. I failed to mention earlier that Carmax had put a brand new set of 4 grey floormats in, but they were not the original Toyota brand mats. I pulled the mats out and noticed that the "small stain" the salesgirl mentioned in the floorboard behind front passenger seat actually went all the way under the front seat and into the front passenger side floorboard!! The carpet HAD been cleaned, but I could still see the stain. It actually covered most of the floorboards in the front and rear passenger areas!! I was concerned now about how that stain got there. It looked to have been caused by alot of liquid....brown liquid. Maybe it was in a flood or a lake or some chemical spilled inside the car from a large tub. Then I thoght about the remote not working..Maybe part of the electrical system was fried??
That was enough!! I returned it after 3 days to Carmax. They were totally fine about it and didn't hound me to try and get me to buy something else.
The service at Carmax was indeed good, but i was just really surprised they would have even had a vehicle in such bad condition for sale. It went against everything I had heard about Carmax.
The next day I bought a new '06 Limited V6 4WD from Sandy Springs Toyota in Atlanta. A great sales experience and a flawless 4 Runner!!! It's so nice to know I've put every mile on that car.....well, almost all. The odometer read 14 miles when I drove it off the lot! A good peace of mind for sure.
